How to compensate for suboptimal frequency response of your speaker using EQ
One of the most important quality aspects in speakers is frequency response. Suboptimal
frequency response of speakers can be compensated for by an equalizer (henceforth referred
to as EQ). In this document, a method of compensation for suboptimal frequency response,
using my EQ plugin, is described(and this means that this method may works only if you are
using speakers with bad frequency response).
You need a good pair of headphones as a reference. For this, I recommend Sennheiser HD-580.
You also have to use Winamp when you playback a piece of music. Lastly, you had better use
a sound card which is not affected by the Windows kernel sampling rate converter. Most
sound cards including Sound Blaster Live are affected. I recommend the M-AUDIO
Audiophile 2496 sound card.
First of all, you have to get .wav files of sine waves of various frequencies. Download from
here < eqtestset.zip >, or make them yourself. Connect your headphones and speakers to your PC;
it is better if volumes can be set independently. Of course, Winamp and my EQ plugin have to
be installed in your PC. Play the 880Hz sin wave on speakers and headphones in turn, and set
volumes so that they are heard in same loudness. Don't forget to turn off your speaker when
you listen using headphones. Turn on my EQ and load < flat.eq >. Next, turn off my EQ, play
880Hz and 55Hz successively on headphones, and remember their loudness. Turn on the EQ, play
the 880Hz and the 55Hz successively on speakers and set 55Hz slider so that 55Hz sounds as
loud as headphones. Don't forget to press the Preview button after you tweak slider. Repeat
the same thing to 7040Hz. As for frequencies higher than 7040Hz, use the parametric EQ, and
do the same thing. Always specify negative gain on the parametric equalizer since positive
gain may introduce clipping. After all EQ parameters are set, your speaker should sound a
lot better than previously. If not, maybe there remains a very narrow frequency unflatness.
You may use a cheap condenser microphone and spectrum analyzer to detect these narrow areas
of unflatness, and use my EQ to compensate for them.
Thanks to JohnMK for correcting my bad English sentences.
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