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~misfit~[_3_] ~misfit~[_3_] is offline
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Default Attenuate highest highs?

On 15/02/2020 7:32 am, Peter Wieck wrote:
I think you are missing the point. If too much energy is being dissipated by the speakers in the high range, then too much energy is being dissipated in the high range. And, the brute fact of the matter is that there is not a whole lot going on above 15 kHz anyway. So if the OP perceives that his speakers are overly bright, we should start there.


A lot of the material I listen to is 'full range' and does have a reasonable amount of high
frequency content.

(I was listening to the Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie album the other day and there were
'tinkling' noises in one track that I could hear but not clearly. It made me wonder why two 70 y/o
plus musicians were using sounds that they likely couldn't hear!)

I agree that attenuating the high range is not the answer. But neither is tweaking room acoustics. We need to work with the Human Ear and how we perceive sound at various volumes.

Which is why balancing the speaker output does seem to be an answer, especially given that one does not normally blast music in an office. At low volumes, in general, not enough energy gets to the bass driver(s) to balance the treble, especially as speaker efficiency drops. These are 88 dB speakers, not horrible, but not great either.


I do generally listen to music with a wide dynamic range so the volume is set higher than it would
be if I were listening to compressed pop or rock music. I sometimes listen to music while computer
gaming and it can be louder than you'd expect in an 'office'.

I use the term 'office' loosely to mean the area of the house where my computer and desk are. It's
a habit I picked up when I owned a small business and did my stocktaking and accounts etc. from a
home office.

Eschew needless complexity. If the electronics have a "Loudness" function, start there. If they have tone-controls try *BOOSTING* the bass - again that nasty issue of low-volume weak bass is more at-issue than excess treble (at low volume). Failing both these things, is it possible to relocate the speakers, moving them more towards room corners, or closer to the floor, or similar so as to help 'boost' the bass response. However, this might sacrifice sound-stage.


The bass is good. I'm using a small kitset pre-amp with no tone controls which goes through a
crossover in a second-hand kitset subwoofer amplifier. (Playmaster 300W Subwoofer Amplifier.) The
crossover takes away all of signal below a certain point, sums it and feeds it to the 300W MOSFET
amp. It has three selectable crossover points and a level control.

I've got it set to the lowest of the crossover points (which are 70, 90 and 120Hz) as I want to
preserve as much directional information from low frequencies as possible. The Sony SS-K30EDs seem
to handle frequencies down to 70Hz just fine with minimal drop-off.

The subwoofer is a very inefficient thing that I built braced 25mm MDF a couple of decades ago.
It's a 10" driver in a ~40l internally-braced sealed box and as such is very 'musical' when
compared to ported subwoofers that I've heard. It's response tails off below about 26Hz but I'm
fine with that.

Only after the obvious fixes have failed should we push towards more heroic measures.


Cheers,
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

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