My eq.2 experience (wow!)
May 30, 2009 21:51:17 GMT -7
Post by frodaddy on May 30, 2009 21:51:17 GMT -7
For me, this is a magical $100 bass in a box. It all started when my friend bought one, and playing around with it some he suggested I buy one too. I have an IB with 8 Dayton IB15's, an EP1500 running in 2ohm stereo, a BFD, the eq.2, and Butt Kickers on a custom platform for the really low stuff.
Just a bit more background my system+room doesn't have much sound at all below 15Hz; that's where the Buttkickers come in. (The cones move alot, but you can't really hear it. My ears can hear lower than 15Hz though.) Regardless, I could never really do much below 23Hz before having the eq.2. The BFD's filters stop at 20Hz, and boosting that frequency also resonated down to the lower frequencies and ate up my excursion to dangerous levels.
I modeled the fiCarAudio IB15's in WinISD and REALLY liked what I was seeing. But it would cost me around $2000 to upgrade to them, including new amps. All I was really after was freq. below 25-30Hz, and I modeled my current system with the eq.2 and figured it was economical to try it. WinISD was telling me I could gain up to 3dB around 20hz. Today I spent all day EQ'ing my sub with the eq.2.
I gained so much more than I ever thought: around 10dB at 21Hz and 16dB at 16Hz! To get enough signal, and for some extra oomph I turned my EP1500 up all the way; before it was on 28 out of 32. I also had to turn my AVR up 2dB on the subwoofer. This allowed me to gain more in certain areas, and cut in others. Luckily a LOT of it was under 30Hz. Again, WOW:
Before:
After:
(For the detail oriented types, the numbers on the graphs don't line up with the gridlines because I used a laptop to EQ this time and had a different measurement level. I matched up 30Hz and above in a graphic program since that part of the graph didn't change.)
Some of the 16Hz spike are different things in the room changing the room gain some, and plus that's around where my boost is on the eq2
The two other noteworthy boosts on the BFD are:
+2dB at #11 (21Hz)
+3dB notch boost at #3 (55Hz)
...everything else are cuts. Notice the subsonic filter doing it's thing around 13-14Hz or so; the dB output is actually less than the original EQ in that area and below. As stated previously, this works out because my room+sub doesn't do much below 15hz; the Buttkickers take over in that area. I have a gripe about the eq2's controls, they don't respond as advertised on the dials. But if you're taking measurements you can see what it's really doing by taking before/after measurements. I attached a picture of my eq2's settings for reference, but again the settings don't really reflect what my measurements were seeing during the course of the EQ session. I'd say I ended up with a 14-16Hz highpass filter, a 4-5dB 14-15Hz boost, and probably a 3-5 width. If I moved the boost dial slightly higher from it's current position, it would boost 1-1.5dB. Slightly lower, the same result in the opposite direction. Same with the bandwidth, and frequency setting.
As far as movies go, I was safe for all of the scenes on War of the Worlds but one scene jumped out and surprised me. The sound effect is in chapter 14 from about 1:07:50 to 1:08:14; each of the tank's cannon fire effect gets progressively louder until the 3rd one sounds off. I actually had MORE boost than in the @after_eq2 until I stumbled on this scene! Yes, that means the @after_eq2 is actually TURNED DOWN from where I had it! But I'm safe now and can play movies with confidence that no surprises will do any damage.
Other big test scenes that stand out (aside from War of the Worlds and the Lord of the Rings movies) are the Machine Speaks scene in the Matrix Revolutions, and the Ice scene in Titan AE. It's a night and day difference with the eq.2!
Remember my Dayton's only have 14mm of excursion. I'd guess that if someone could perhaps even see bigger gains with the newer IB subwoofers with more excursion! But for me, this little black box is probably THE BEST bang for my buck product I've ever purchased. $100 for +10dB at 21Hz, and +16dB at 16Hz? Wow
Just a bit more background my system+room doesn't have much sound at all below 15Hz; that's where the Buttkickers come in. (The cones move alot, but you can't really hear it. My ears can hear lower than 15Hz though.) Regardless, I could never really do much below 23Hz before having the eq.2. The BFD's filters stop at 20Hz, and boosting that frequency also resonated down to the lower frequencies and ate up my excursion to dangerous levels.
I modeled the fiCarAudio IB15's in WinISD and REALLY liked what I was seeing. But it would cost me around $2000 to upgrade to them, including new amps. All I was really after was freq. below 25-30Hz, and I modeled my current system with the eq.2 and figured it was economical to try it. WinISD was telling me I could gain up to 3dB around 20hz. Today I spent all day EQ'ing my sub with the eq.2.
I gained so much more than I ever thought: around 10dB at 21Hz and 16dB at 16Hz! To get enough signal, and for some extra oomph I turned my EP1500 up all the way; before it was on 28 out of 32. I also had to turn my AVR up 2dB on the subwoofer. This allowed me to gain more in certain areas, and cut in others. Luckily a LOT of it was under 30Hz. Again, WOW:
Before:
After:
(For the detail oriented types, the numbers on the graphs don't line up with the gridlines because I used a laptop to EQ this time and had a different measurement level. I matched up 30Hz and above in a graphic program since that part of the graph didn't change.)
Some of the 16Hz spike are different things in the room changing the room gain some, and plus that's around where my boost is on the eq2
The two other noteworthy boosts on the BFD are:+2dB at #11 (21Hz)
+3dB notch boost at #3 (55Hz)
...everything else are cuts. Notice the subsonic filter doing it's thing around 13-14Hz or so; the dB output is actually less than the original EQ in that area and below. As stated previously, this works out because my room+sub doesn't do much below 15hz; the Buttkickers take over in that area. I have a gripe about the eq2's controls, they don't respond as advertised on the dials. But if you're taking measurements you can see what it's really doing by taking before/after measurements. I attached a picture of my eq2's settings for reference, but again the settings don't really reflect what my measurements were seeing during the course of the EQ session. I'd say I ended up with a 14-16Hz highpass filter, a 4-5dB 14-15Hz boost, and probably a 3-5 width. If I moved the boost dial slightly higher from it's current position, it would boost 1-1.5dB. Slightly lower, the same result in the opposite direction. Same with the bandwidth, and frequency setting.
As far as movies go, I was safe for all of the scenes on War of the Worlds but one scene jumped out and surprised me. The sound effect is in chapter 14 from about 1:07:50 to 1:08:14; each of the tank's cannon fire effect gets progressively louder until the 3rd one sounds off. I actually had MORE boost than in the @after_eq2 until I stumbled on this scene! Yes, that means the @after_eq2 is actually TURNED DOWN from where I had it! But I'm safe now and can play movies with confidence that no surprises will do any damage.
Other big test scenes that stand out (aside from War of the Worlds and the Lord of the Rings movies) are the Machine Speaks scene in the Matrix Revolutions, and the Ice scene in Titan AE. It's a night and day difference with the eq.2!
Remember my Dayton's only have 14mm of excursion. I'd guess that if someone could perhaps even see bigger gains with the newer IB subwoofers with more excursion! But for me, this little black box is probably THE BEST bang for my buck product I've ever purchased. $100 for +10dB at 21Hz, and +16dB at 16Hz? Wow