How to adjust the graphic equalizer

[revvedup]

After I buy my set of speakers be it car,home or computer I always try to optimize them to my kind of music by adjusting the graphic equalizer.
But this is all just estimation like I do not move the extreme counters much because they cause distortion as they I suppose corespond to the high and low frequencies.Now if someone could could guide me as to how to adjust the geq.
I mainly listen to rock,some punjabi numbers and some hindi stuff which have good bass and quality(not the reshmiya types though).My priorities are good bass and clarity in a way that you can feel the sound.Presently I have set the frequencies in ascending order from 31hz to 16 khz. I feel adjusting one's geq can make a whole lot of difference to the
sound system.Can we have a tutorial on this.

[esteem_lover]

after fiddling around a lot, i have just switched off the equaliser and believe me, the music sounds so natural now & not at all tiring. . of course, it wont be loud either, which is what i want.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

after fiddling around a lot, i have just switched off the equaliser and believe me, the music sounds so natural now & not at all tiring. . of course, it wont be loud either, which is what i want.

Attaboy!

Also, it's not true that using the equalizer makes a system 'loud'. Loud can be defined as an overall increase in the output level. Equalizing makes sure that more power is devoted to a smaller band of frequencies, and can often lead to others getting starved of it, since the total power available to the system remains the same.

No system sounds absolutely ruler flat, but by using good equipment and installing properly, the need for equalization can be minimized.

[vid6639]

So effectively there is no need to equalize? when should we change these settngs. I too was fiddling with my HU settings and settled on 0 for all after advice from navinji and all here.
How about the frequency settings B&T these are confusing for many to get the right sound.

Also HU's come with the LOUD option. what exactly does this do. Some of them have only on or off other have off, low, mid and high for the loud settings.

[rsjaurr]

Cant agree with EL & B&T more.I also listen my music with all EQ settings at flat.Occasinally i may shift some band [never done that on my ICE though] but more than 99%,i like to have it flat.

@Vid--It all depends on ur personel taste.If someone is feeling that some particular song/album is lacking some band of frequecy he can alter it acc. to his own taste but other may like to have it just opposite and 3rd one may prefer it flat.
e.g.Right sound settings for you may not be right settings for me and vice-versa.

[vid6639]

Rsjaurr that's true i was wondering if theres any particular view of tuning to get the perfect balance. Once you get to that point then it depends on your personal preference to tune it.
Say there are filter settings for low, mid and high frequencies. Generally what is the bass frequency tuned to as there are options from 40Hz to 200Hz. should it be ideally in the centre or as low as possible but knowing the limits of the speakers. similar for midband and high frequency.
Basically if theres a hard and fast thumb rule while tuning.
A good tuner will tune the system after the installation. What exactly does he look for while tuning the system?

[rsjaurr]

that's true i was wondering if theres any particular view of tuning to get the perfect balance. Once you get to that point then it depends on your personal preference to tune it.
that point should ideally be flat setings.lol

Say there are filter settings for low, mid and high frequencies. Generally what is the bass frequency tuned to as there are options from 40Hz to 200Hz. should it be ideally in the centre or as low as possible but knowing the limits of the speakers. similar for midband and high frequency.
again depends on individual's choice.e.g.LBM would like to go as low as possible but i prefer a 50-100Hz spectrum of low freq sounds.It gives very tight punchy kind of bass.O/W i like mid frq more than bass.

Basically if theres a hard and fast thumb rule while tuning.I dont think so

A good tuner will tune the system after the installation. What exactly does he look for while tuning the system?
Not just all spectrum of sound but to me the most imp tuning part a good installer will look is front sound staging.Basically one should feel that sound is coming from front stage and he can pin-ponit the location of each instruments being played as we can do if its being played live from a real stage.There r few other things like TA which have been discussed many time before here.
Few days back i checked the ICE of my BIL,sony HU with sony front 4" and rear 6x9".Nothing special to talk about SQ but one striking feature was its front sound staging coz of presence of front spk in dashboard which is probably the best loaction for mid-freq sounds.
Now i know why navin choses his car keeping ICE and not FE/performance in his mind.

Disclaimer--I am no audio expert.Consult one for better understanding of tuning..

[vid6639]

Oki rsjaurr looks like i have been doing something right after all. I managed to get my soundstage to the front as much as possible in my alto.
I have low at 80Hz, mid at 1K and highs at 10K. sounds pretty good now.

thanks RSJ.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by vid6639

So effectively there is no need to equalize? when should we change these settngs. I too was fiddling with my HU settings and settled on 0 for all after advice from navinji and all here.
How about the frequency settings B&T these are confusing for many to get the right sound.

I am not saying there is no need to equalize. Selecting good components and good installation minimizes the need is what I meant.

I AM NOT a golden eared geek, but I believe I can judge what bands to look at (to a certain extent), and how much boost/ attenuation to provide in that band, when I listen to a compromised sound system. For this, I have a mental picture of what the track playing would ideally sound like, a benchmark, usually based on some other top notch home or car hi-fi installation.

I prefer parametric eqs best. All Pioneers have a three band one usually. Helpful for minor tweaks. Only these will alow you 'frequency settings' unlike graphic eqs that have fixed center frequencies.

It is also common to have pink noise playing and analysing the response with an RTA. Note the frequencies which are irregular, the degree of irregularity, and based on the scope of your equalizer, try and fix it. Even if the speaker measures flat in the lab, your car will be sure to mess it. So equalization does help.

Originally Posted by vid6639

Also HU's come with the LOUD option. what exactly does this do. Some of them have only on or off other have off, low, mid and high for the loud settings.

'Loud' is an equalizer with preset center frequencies and boost level. Typically when you switch on loud, bass is boosted by 3 to 6 dB at 100Hz, and treble at 10kHz. The values of these presets would depend on what the manufacturer would choose to have them at.

[Shan2nu]

From what i've experienced, it's almost impossible to have a universal equalizer setting.

I guess things like dimessions of the room/car, acoustics, CD/MP3 quality, genre etc would affect audio quality.

Funny thing is, when i set the equalizer in the Innova when it's empty, sounds completely diff when it's loaded with people.

So i prefer listening to music when i'm alone in the car.

Shan2nu

[Vivekphadnis]

It's simple really. Equaliser setting is a matter of personal choice. One may like it flat, while another might want screechy treble. Adjust the equaliser the way you like the music to sound. Period.

[Mugen_Power]

Equalizer settings is a personal choice depending uopn which song you listening.

Right now in Innova i am using Flat equlizer but when i play some hip hop then i just increase 50 and 80 to +2 from 0 to get more punch.

Cheers,
Mugen_Power.

[navin]

Most equallisers are not adequate. Not adequate in th level of control they offer and even less so in the quality of their processing. Hence in most cases a NO EQ setting will sound nicer than a EQed setting.

A system (HU, Amp, Speaker, Envrioment/Install) has huge peaks and valleys in the freq and phase resppone not to mention time alignment, attack and decay. No EQ is going to cover all this, you'll need a host of very expensive processors and analysers to dothis right. In some cases (usually in the case of really poor recordings, or very poor components, or a really uncooperative envrioment a EQ can make music a little more listenable or tolerable but given that we ICEers have graduated from the levels I dont think most of you will need a EQ at all and the EQ you will have access to wont be adequate.

I have seen some digital processors in Studios which also cover attack decay (via noise gates) and include parametric (Q, F, L) settings that can offer some solution but even here the use of these processors is limited.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

Attaboy!

Also, it's not true that using the equalizer makes a system 'loud'. Loud can be defined as an overall increase in the output level. Equalizing makes sure that more power is devoted to a smaller band of frequencies, and can often lead to others getting starved of it, since the total power available to the system remains the same.

No system sounds absolutely ruler flat, but by using good equipment and installing properly, the need for equalization can be minimized.

yep, B&T, i have changed my system a bit since the last time you saw it, at least the settings. when you saw my car, the amp & SW were newly installed. I have practically tried various settings & one day when i was shifting through the presets, i had to change gears & that left the EQ in off mode which i realised sounded so much better. Also i do not use MP3 or any other form of compression, i have a 10 CD changer which plays the music for me, which sounds a lot better than the MP3. i am quite satisfied with the CD changer. dont really feel the need to carry 30gb or 60 gb ipods for that, but i do think they are cute, though.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

....carry 30gb or 60 gb ipods for that, but i do think they are cute, though.

Yeah, it's a pity all cute things have to come with a hefty price tag.

The other problem is that I have so much music, it's impossible for any of the existing iPods to help me lug it around. In fact, I have to distribute my mp3 files over 2 comps. (Both have nearly 240 GB in hard drives.) Plus, about 300 CDs of good original music copied onto CD-R Digital Audio discs using a NAD 660 CD recorder. I would never rip those.