Need help understanding room interaction with upper mids/high frequencies

Bill Hart

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2012
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I've kinda softened on my 'purist' (and I put that in quotes deliberately) no digital approach. As Carl rightly pointed out in one of his reviews of Allnic gear, everything is processed. So, if it works, go for it. I'd still like some knobs, rather than LEDs, though. :)
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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MadFOlyd

The product you have will certainly educate you about the benefits of Digital EQ it is however not the most transparent DEQ around above say 100 Hz and I am being polite. I had its brother and tried it on the upper Frequencies, let continue to be polite, it wasn't neutral ... In the bass however it did wonders... It remains a must have for bass EQ another necessity in most if not all rooms. Although, we, audiophiles cringe at the notion of EQ ... Oh well ...!!
 

aljordan

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2012
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Southern Maine, USA
www.alanjordan.org
MadFOlyd

The product you have will certainly educate you about the benefits of Digital EQ it is however not the most transparent DEQ around above say 100 Hz and I am being polite. I had its brother and tried it on the upper Frequencies, let continue to be polite, it wasn't neutral ... In the bass however it did wonders... It remains a must have for bass EQ another necessity in most if not all rooms. Although, we, audiophiles cringe at the notion of EQ ... Oh well ...!!

I am not sure which product you are referring to as its brother. The previous version of this product was not transparent, and the DCX crossover is not particularly transparent. The DEQ 2496 is not transparent either if you have to use the ADC or the DAC. However, if you have the opportunity to keep everything in the digital domain, feed it with a solidly clocked device, and send it off to a good DAC, you may find it transparent when testing via a bypass test.

I don't regularly use it because I deal with my system issues via DRC, but when I experiment with it and forgo the ADC and DAC and make sure all the other settings are correct (as there are many ways to go wrong with the device), I do find it does not add anything harmful. I do suppose that there may be quality control issues on such an inexpensive device though, and one might vary from another a bit.
 

aljordan

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2012
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Southern Maine, USA
www.alanjordan.org
If you want to dump those records, I call your attention to the various vinyl VST plugins that are available when you feel the need to mask your music with some additional mechanical noise, turntable motor rumble, worn record surface, 60 Hz grounding hum, dust noise and scratches, warping, second harmonic distortion, moving coil cartridges with high frequencies that take off like an airplane, etc... all of these things can be effectively modeled digitally.

I wrote it, and please note that, as Madfloyd mentioned, it was indeed a tongue in cheek reply, strictly for the benefit of one of our good friends involved in the e-mail thread, who has a great sounding purely analog system. In no manner was I being serious.
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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aljordan

Welcome to he WBF. I have used the DCX-2496 in the usual way i-e having it performed the Analog to Digital function and back to analog ... I have not tried it keeping everything digital .. you may have a point. I suppose the product you are talking about is the software DRC product referred by madFolyd in his post .I downloaded it and will put it to its pace..A project in itself :) Thanks
 

aljordan

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2012
20
1
908
Southern Maine, USA
www.alanjordan.org
aljordan

Welcome to he WBF. I have used the DCX-2496 in the usual way i-e having it performed the Analog to Digital function and back to analog ... I have not tried it keeping everything digital .. you may have a point. I suppose the product you are talking about is the software DRC product referred by madFolyd in his post .I downloaded it and will put it to its pace..A project in itself :) Thanks

Hi Frantz,

Thank you for the welcome :)

The product I was referring to is the DEQ 2496, which is not a crossover like the DCX 2496. I don't believe you can keep everything digital with the DCX crossover.

I wrote the software product Madfloyd referred to in his post. It is basically a graphical user interface around Denis Sbragion's open-source DRC software. I wrote it because I think it is difficult to understand the DRC software configuration process, and it is somewhat of a pain to use. I thought more people might try DRC if it were easier to use.

If you do wind up trying it, I would be happy to give some pointers on the settings which I think sound good. I don't think the DRC software sounds particularly good without setting a target curve. Otherwise, in my experience, DRC can be very effective if you don't need too much processing. A little bit goes a long way, but too much sounds lifeless.

Alan
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
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(...) I can say in all honesty I was never a believer in DRC and as a typical audiophile said I would never consider DRC but I am a firm believer. I have spent the past 3 days and the next two listening to what I feel is the best sound system I have ever heard. Any audiophile who feels they would never consider it need to take a trip to Dallas for a listen to what I heard

Steve,

Just to remember that two and an half years ago we had a great thread on Marty use of DRC and system at WBF:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?520-DSP-one-person-s-experience

People should not forget that the keyword in high-end is compatibility (or synergy as I like to call it ;)) and a solution that is very successful in one system can be a failure in another different one.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
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Manila, Philippines
Steve,

Just to remember that two and an half years ago we had a great thread on Marty use of DRC and system at WBF:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?520-DSP-one-person-s-experience

People should not forget that the keyword in high-end is compatibility (or synergy as I like to call it ;)) and a solution that is very successful in one system can be a failure in another different one.

All DRC's and DEQs convert to analog so they are prone to the same mismatch possibilities as any and all analog devices. So while I agree to an extent, my experience is that this is a minor issue compared to the quality of the unit itself (design and construction) and more importantly its proper use by the user. The number of adjustable parameters and ranges will give you settings that work you can count on one hand and thousands if not millions of disastrous ones. Thats a lot of factorials!
 

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