Anyone know how to set Equalizers?

[eselocoss]

I am looking for some help on setting the equalizer on my Panasonic head unit. Just wondering how i should set it because i really have no idea.

[nineteen88ga]

Generally they are set in a "smiley" face or a "U" shape, but that will depend on what the speakers can take.

[MantaGreen97]

In most cases, you set them by personal preference really. Most people set it like Steve said above but it all depends on the speakers, install, and what you want it to sound like.

[iceman]

correct way? pink noise, calibrated mic, spectrum analyzer :)

untrained ear.. what Steve said, will looke like a U, generally want to take out some mids to avoid everything sounding like it's in a styrofoam cup, boost the highs a bit. start there and adjust as you go, whatever sounds good to you.

dunno how many band EQ you have but to hear how it'll affect the sound, put in something which you are familiar with how it should sound, and start playing w/ the sliders

[04alyGT]

Well i don't know a ton about equalizer's BUT i did just do the smiley thing like they said on my X-fi and it sounds about 10 million times better, so thats definitely some good advice

[eselocoss]

alright sounds good guys. Thanks for the help and i'll try that out

[area3]

DONT DO THE SMILEY FACE

:(

That is the NUMBER one Mistake Consumer Audio People MAKE!!

Take Each Frequency and turn it up or down to your prefrence.

When I go to EQ I take All the faders and turn them ALL the way down I start At the Bass and Work My way down the row until my ears are happy.


I am a Certified Acoustic Audio Engineer So if there is any more questions ask and I will answer! :cool:

[04alyGT]

Originally posted by area3
DONT DO THE SMILEY FACE

:(

That is the NUMBER one Mistake Consumer Audio People MAKE!!

Take Each Frequency and turn it up or down to your prefrence.

When I go to EQ I take All the faders and turn them ALL the way down I start At the Bass and Work My way down the row until my ears are happy.


I am a Certified Acoustic Audio Engineer So if there is any more questions ask and I will answer! :cool:
Really, is it bad for speakers or what?
Oh i've got questions alright, probably stupid ones, but i'll ask them in another thread.

[area3]

well when u do the :D face depending on your speakers you are taking frequencies out that it needs and you are putting frequencies that it doesnt need in it.

Make sense?

ok lets for example take the Kenwood KGC-4042a

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/grafika/products/car/velike/kgc-4042a-x.jpg

It has 5 Diffrent Frequencies

50hz 200hz 800hz 3.2khz 12,8khz

Now

If you bump the 50 and 12.8 to the top to start your smiley face you are sending WAY to much bass and High end to your speakers giving them the chance to overload and crap out.

Next is 200 and 3.2 well if you turn up the 200 you Should be ok but if you turn up the 3.2 it is gonna sound like white trash brittany spears in a trash can.

and now 800 wont do much but will effect your mid range alot.

It is better to tweak with your ears now this EQ doesnt compare to my dual 31 band EQ but it has the Same Principal

[gandolf77]

this is how i set my eq. first thing is i don't care if it sounds good to a spectrum analyzer, i care if it sounds good to me lol. different people's ears hear a little bit different and i'm betting nobody's hearing coincides with a spectrum analyzer. with that said, i burned a cd with pink noise & a lot of test tones all at 0db. i used pink noise and a voltmeter to set the gains to the correct wattage for the amp (not for the speaker, just get the right size amp for cryin out loud). this way, i didnt have to have speakers blarin in my ears while i got it to the correct wattage. i can't remember the formula off-hand, but if anybody asks i'll try & find it & post it. next, i used test tones as i set my crossovers so i'd have no distortion comin thru to my speakers, last i took a good 5-10 minutes with a few random songs to tweak my eq to where i can hear all the voices & instruments & stuff clearly...and just speaking for myself, i had my hearing tested a while ago and i had a little hearing loss at about 2khz (AKA - untrained ear lol) ...easy enough, i slid 2khz up a bit, problem solved. that's why i believe tweaking by ear is best, even if the eq ends up lookin like the smiley face :) ...& right now my system sounds crystal clear...

[car audio dave]

ive got three letters for you, RTA. Real Time Analyzer. thats the only way to get a true flat response from a sound system, but chances are you wont find a system that can get even close to a flat response on this site.

i start from the left, i go all the way up, all the way down, and slowly go back and forth until it sounds best, then move onto the next frequency. this works for a typical 5 band EQ, but was a pain in the arse on my 30 band EQ.

[Nighthawk243]

I just set it to whatever sounds good to me.

[Wallflower]

It took a couple hours to set up my Sony ES XDP210 before it got stolen. Listening to the noise disc over and over got old quick .. lol. Came away surprisingly flat from what my friend had seen in other systems.

[gandolf77]

ok here's that formula for anybody that cares. the square of the AC voltage (at the speaker terminals of the amp) divided by the ohms of the speakers = wattage. u take a voltmeter and a cd with pink noise. turn the head unit all the way up & gains all the way down (with the speakers not connected so it won't be all loud while you're doing this.) slowly turn up the gains until it reads the voltage that you need to have for the amp. for example u want 100 watts going to your 4 ohm speaker. u would want your voltmeter to read 20volts AC with the pink noise turned up all the way---{(20^2) / 4}
on a side note, as for the comment about just setting it to whatever sounds good - with due respect, if it were that simple then i don't believe this thread would have even been posted. we're all just lookin for an extra tip to help if we can't get it to exactly how we'd like it to sound. fair enough?

[car audio dave]

ok here's that formula for anybody that cares. the square of the AC voltage (at the speaker terminals of the amp) divided by the ohms of the speakers = wattage. u take a voltmeter and a cd with pink noise. turn the head unit all the way up & gains all the way down (with the speakers not connected so it won't be all loud while you're doing this.) slowly turn up the gains until it reads the voltage that you need to have for the amp. for example u want 100 watts going to your 4 ohm speaker. u would want your voltmeter to read 20volts AC with the pink noise turned up all the way---{(20^2) / 4}
on a side note, as for the comment about just setting it to whatever sounds good - with due respect, if it were that simple then i don't believe this thread would have even been posted. we're all just lookin for an extra tip to help if we can't get it to exactly how we'd like it to sound. fair enough?

what you dont recognize is that most (read ALL) head units distort when turned all the way up, so you need to set the gains using a oscilloscope if you want to be maximize your volume and gains to be below clipping level. also, most decent speakers can take more than their rated power if the signal is not distorted, so setting them to max watts might be the ideal way in an ideal world, its still better to use an oscilloscope.

that still doesnt answer the question which which was how to set an EQ. the answer to that is through an RTA, then adjust by ear.

[gandolf77]

what you dont recognize is that most (read ALL) head units distort when turned all the way up, so you need to set the gains using a oscilloscope if you want to be maximize your volume and gains to be below clipping level. also, most decent speakers can take more than their rated power if the signal is not distorted, so setting them to max watts might be the ideal way in an ideal world, its still better to use an oscilloscope.

that still doesnt answer the question which which was how to set an EQ. the answer to that is through an RTA, then adjust by ear.

there's some good points there, i like this discussion. what i'm suggesting though, is that using a RTA/spectrum analyzer is a pointless step because 1. who's ears match up with an RTA anyway? there's no need to make it sound good to an RTA, it should sound good to the person who's listening to it...and 2. you'd be changing the eq to individual taste immediately afterward anyway...might as well set the eq using a vacuum cleaner, because that would be useless as well if you're just going to change it right away anyway. Am i understanding it right?
ok now for the head unit distortion part. Is it the preamp signal from the HU that distorts? Or is it the HU's internal amplifier (which is usually just a mosfet)? Either way, it only happpens if it's turned up close to all the way. So if it's the internal amplifier then there's no need to worry cuz it wont be used. If it's the preamp signal then there's going to be a problem no matter what when it's cranked all the way up so we'd all be screw*d anyway. this goes especially if the gains are set to where the HU volume is below the distortion level because it would introduce clipping sooner if the volume is going to get cranked. Does this make sense? or if it's incorrect then please explain what's right.

[Jordon'sGrandAm]

I though Panasonic had a cd you put in and it sets up your system. buddys of mine have that cd.

[car audio dave]

there's some good points there, i like this discussion. what i'm suggesting though, is that using a RTA/spectrum analyzer is a pointless step because 1. who's ears match up with an RTA anyway? there's no need to make it sound good to an RTA, it should sound good to the person who's listening to it...and 2. you'd be changing the eq to individual taste immediately afterward anyway...might as well set the eq using a vacuum cleaner, because that would be useless as well if you're just going to change it right away anyway. Am i understanding it right?
ok now for the head unit distortion part. Is it the preamp signal from the HU that distorts? Or is it the HU's internal amplifier (which is usually just a mosfet)? Either way, it only happpens if it's turned up close to all the way. So if it's the internal amplifier then there's no need to worry cuz it wont be used. If it's the preamp signal then there's going to be a problem no matter what when it's cranked all the way up so we'd all be screw*d anyway. this goes especially if the gains are set to where the HU volume is below the distortion level because it would introduce clipping sooner if the volume is going to get cranked. Does this make sense? or if it's incorrect then please explain what's right.

well as you said good points but lemme clarify...

setting the EQ: i have always used the RTA to get a ballpark and then fine tune by ear. have you ever tired setting a 30-band EQ? i had a 2 channel 30-band eq, you wont get anything done if you do it all by ear. if you get an RTA and set it by that then youre starting with a clean flat response, you can then adjust certain frequencies that you know you like or dont like.

head unit volume: I am speaking of the output from the head unit. the output from the D/A converter has an amp, it either goes straight to your RCA outs or to another amp that is meant to power the speakers. either way, the gains for that amp is controlled by the volume of the deck, so if you watch a SINE signal on the CD player through an oscilloscope you will see that the wave clips at a certain level. my alpine went up to 35, it clipped at about 32, so i set my amps with the radio turned to 32, the last level before it clipped. at this level i had the highest voltage output from the head unit (so stronger signal = less gain on the external amps) but the signal was clean. i could then do the same with the amps, keep that SINE wave playing, hook the o-scope up to the speaker outputs of the anmp and turn the gain up until it clips, then back it off bit.

i would then mark where the gains were, and then tune by ear, knowing i cant go OVER that level. often times i wouldnt come close to that level, but thats where high end stuff is different than low end stuff.