Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (
More info?)
Hi Cliff,
Equalisation is your problem, not your cure - let me explain...
Equalisation is obviously used for shaping sound - making certain
frequencies louder or quieter. In production, you would use it to make a
sound different. In playback, you would use it to make sounds exactly the
same accross any different set of sound setups, in any room / location -
which is what your question relates to exactly.
The idea of equalisation in playback is to setup a sound system and ensure
every audio frequency is equal in volume level. Room shape / size and
speaker grade / size influence how loud a certain audio frequency is in any
given environment. So for you to 'equalise' a room and set of speakers, you
would be trying to achieve as close as possible a sound to what they would
have heard in the control room when recording and mixing your albums - that
is to say, while playing test sound, changing your EQ until every frequency
is equal in volume level, compensating for frequency level differences in
your room and speakers using your EQ, and some rather expensive test
equipment.
Assuming your amp and speakers are half decent, you are not playing your CD
at rock concert volume levels in a huge space over a huge stereo the size of
a PA rig - changing your EQ is going to do far more harm than good. The goal
of any amp / speaker maker is to make their product as 'flat' or equal as
possible - This means, no deficiencies in them that would cause some
frequencies to be much louder / quieter than others. This is why a trend
with modern stereo makers is to actually remove the EQ altogether, because
people fiddle with it (usually over crank up the bass) and it completely
changes the sound that the artist would have wanted you to hear.
So to finish answering your question, what has actually been happening all
this time with you and your parents stereos is that they were / are not
'flat' or equal - infact so horribly un-flat that these stereos have
affected the music being played on them to the point where you thought that
the stereo in question had a certain 'sound' to it! And for better or worse,
what you have been hearing is probably far from what the artist wanted you
to hear! Sounds hard to believe? I can understand. The point is though that
you enjoyed the sound / music and thats all that matters - dont let anyone
tell you otherwise - you just may not have heard it as had been intended.
My point Cliff is that if your parents stereo was pertfectly 'flat / equal',
and yours is now, the music would sound exactly the same on them. But alas,
there are differences between the systems (and speaker placements in
different rooms), and one or likely both have their own characteristics -
finding out how to reproduce these from one system to another is far beyond
the scope of this post, and involves a high level of knowledge on the
subject, plus expensive test equipment. If you dont have the gear or
knowledge, you changing the EQ is simply changing the way it sounds, and you
have no reference as to what is correct, should or should not need changing.
Suggest: Getting a decent modern stereo system, *not touching the EQ*, and
relax knowing that it will play back your music closer to the original
intended sound than an ancient worn out stereo system. European / American
has nothing to do with it, and is purely coincidence.
Regarding your I-tunes etc - think about the varying quality of different
recordings there are on the net and different ways people record. The amount
of poor quality MP3s etc on the net is astounding. You may find dipping the
mid 3 bands together on your 10 band EQ (experiment how much) gives you a
slightly better sound.
Good luck and I hope this in some way has been helpful to you!
-Tim
"Clifford J. Nelson" <cnelson9@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:2004061123481316807%cnelson9@adelphianet...
> Equalization curves:
>
> I have a digital CD recording of a John Philip Sousa radio broadcast from
> 1929, and small changes in the equalization can make it sound like the
> worst band in the world or the best band in the world. Many songs that
> take your breath away on a European system are bland on an American system
> and I'm pretty sure that equalization is the reason (I've been thinking
> about it off and on for about thirty eight years). It would be just blind
> luck to find the proper equalization curves.
>
> Thirty five years ago my parents couldn't demonstrate to me how good their
> favorite music sounded when they were young, and I have the same problem
> now; I can't demonstrate how good the Beatles music was to my young nieces
> and nephews, because (I guess) I can't find the equalization curves that
> made it sound so great (especially on European music systems). You can
> attach a different equalization curve to each imported song with iTunes on
> a Mac; the settings of ten slider controls on the iTunes equalizer. Does
> anybody know how to get the best equalization settings for songs on
> iTunes, or software to correct things?
>
> Cliff Nelson
>
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