High pass filter/hearing problem

[CMessi]

Hello HiFI friends,

I have a hearing problem. A very oversensitive left ear, for bass and treble. I finally found speakers with non-fatiguing treble: Dynaudio Evoke 10 and 20. But they have a lot of bass, warm and wooly too.

Suppose I buy a streamer and roll the bass of at 65 Hz (not using subwoofer of course), is that an idea? Or will it ruin the nice warm tonal balance of the speaker? Will it pronounce the midrange and treble?

Anyone tried this once?

Thx

 

[Elkerton]

It sounds as if you are older because the sensitivities you experience are common amongst older folk and some women, who prefer reduced highs and bass a little (Sean Olive gave a presentation recently, and this was one of the findings mentioned). Have you tried using simple tone controls? They are useful given the varied quality of recordings.

 

[Vincent Kars]

What you need is some decent EQ. Very common in the headphone world, a bit rare in the speaker world as speakers don't have that substantial difference in frequency response as common in the headphone world.
Use any source you have, PC, mobile and try some EQ: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ows-linux-macos-ios-ipados-and-android.18450/
See if you can tune the system to your likening.

 

[CMessi]

It sounds as if you are older because the sensitivities you experience are common amongst older folk and some women, who prefer reduced highs and bass a little (Sean Olive gave a presentation recently, and this was one of the findings mentioned). Have you tried using simple tone controls? They are useful given the varied quality of recordings.

Thanks. Amps with tone control have only bass and treble. I asked Cambridge Audio how that looks like. And you see it takes away a lot of the midrange too. So I think (don't know) that it takes away some fullnes and warmth of voices and midrange. I added the graph.

 

[CMessi]

What you need is some decent EQ. Very common in the headphone world, a bit rare in the speaker world as speakers don't have that substantial difference in frequency response as common in the headphone world.
Use any source you have, PC, mobile and try some EQ: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ows-linux-macos-ios-ipados-and-android.18450/
See if you can tune the system to your likening.

Yes. It looks like the HiFI speaker world is very conservative. I probably will buy a Bluesound Node and will listen via streaming with my phone and Spotify. So I don't know if there is an android EQ app that I can insert in the Bluesound app or the other way around..

 

[gwing]

I don't know about Bluesound but if instead you go for a Wim streamer you get a rather nice EQ built in with that. It has proper parametric EQ so you should be able to adjust it exactly to your hearing requirements rather than using pre-set bands.

 

[Golf]

A very oversensitive left ear, for bass and treble.

With the help of MathAudio Room EQ for instance you could tune your speakers like this:

 

[CMessi]

With the help of MathAudio Room EQ for instance you could tune your speakers like this:

View attachment 360327

Thank you. And suppose I want to simulate an LS3/5a? It has a frequency response of 75Hz - 20 kHz. Do I have to set a high pas at 75 Hz? Or does it not work likte that?

 

[ZolaIII]

Evoke 10 already rool off at 65 Hz I don't see why wouldn't you roll them off more if you need to it will actually improve distortion under & at port/box tuning and lower woofer excursion. Guess standard WiiM would be enough with 4 PEQ's it has for that and basic room mode.

 

[Golf]

And suppose I want to simulate an LS3/5a?

I don’t know. It seems to me that you have to »simulate« your left ear sensitivity according to the frequency response of your loudspeakers.

Did any ear specialist ever measure your hearing ability? If so, you could take the results into account tuning your audio set.

 

[CMessi]

Evoke 10 already rool off at 65 Hz I don't see why wouldn't you roll them off more if you need to it will actually improve distortion under & at port/box tuning and lower woofer excursion. Guess standard WiiM would be enough with 4 PEQ's it has for that and basic room mode.

Hi,

Where do you find this data?

 

[ZolaIII]

Hi,

Where do you find this data?

Dynaudio Evoke 10 & 30 Review

Straightforwardness and professionalism without fuss have always been the hallmarks of Dynaudio loudspeakers. What about the new „Evoke“ series? We have tested the small compact as well as floorstanding models.

stereo-magazine.com

Go to menu - technical details. The peek is about 85 hz and partly because woffer Fs just above it (90 Hz). When you high pass them second impedance hump (32 Hz) gets down and so does THD because they don't try to output that low of course. Quite nice for relatively small two way ported bookshelf's tho they are pricey.
Where first order bass peak room mode will be is primarily determined by room length (everything over 4 m ideally 5 will be fine for most folks who wish to extend bass). WiiM is not expensive and for high pass and first three peeks 4 PEQ's should be fine (if first peek is not higher than 12 dB) and preferably soon you will have more of them.

 

[Elkerton]

Thanks. Amps with tone control have only bass and treble. I asked Cambridge Audio how that looks like. And you see it takes away a lot of the midrange too. So I think (don't know) that it takes away some fullnes and warmth of voices and midrange. I added the graph.View attachment 360248

I think you are misinterpreting the curves. The mid range is not being taken away. Tone controls add or reduce bass and treble. While it is very nice to consider the recording you are listening to sacrosanct, many can use a little adjustment, and tone controls work well for this purpose. They can also be of use if you want to listen at a lower volume level than the recording was made because our ears are not as sensitive in the bass and treble at lower levels. As mentioned, an equalizer could do as you wish too, or a steep bass filter as you suggest. Tone controls, if you have them, are the simplest solution IMHO.

 

[Willem]

As has already been suggested, make sure you get an audiologist to do some proper tests first. Next, have a look at the RME ADI-2 DAC/preamp. It has extensive tone controls/equalization options, plus filters, and separately for left and right.

 

[Verig]

Evokes are worth it, really clean output. I don't have any serious problems with hearing but I'm quite sensitive to tweeter quality. Dynaudios have always been one of best somewhat affordable speakers to deliver.

Have you considered room correction software (or an amp with software)? That way you could do any kind of filtering with high quality with the bonus that you see how much is coming from the speaker and how much from the room / speaker placement. You might get surprised how much of distortion that may be perceived as high comes from much lower. Also, the only way to tame that bass is room correction or improving the acoustics. I mean, Evokes don't have a woolly bass, that's your room there. You may have to eq it down for 16dB to even reach zero in different points (or high pass it all out). Proper room correction software could let you keep the correct sound balance but just tone it down nicely.

But as always, keep it simple. If a simple eq hits the spot then that's good. If not, there are options.

 

[CMessi]

I think you are misinterpreting the curves. The mid range is not being taken away. Tone controls add or reduce bass and treble. While it is very nice to consider the recording you are listening to sacrosanct, many can use a little adjustment, and tone controls work well for this purpose. They can also be of use if you want to listen at a lower volume level than the recording was made because our ears are not as sensitive in the bass and treble at lower levels. As mentioned, an equalizer could do as you wish too, or a steep bass filter as you suggest. Tone controls, if you have them, are the simplest solution IMHO.

I am not very technical. But what I see: suppose I tone the bass minus 6 dB, then in the graph I see it is also taking away dB in 100 to 400 Hz. Am I right? I am concerned that it will take away some lower midrange warmth and fullnes. It is the bass below lets say 60hz that my ear is sensitive for.

 

[CMessi]

Evokes are worth it, really clean output. I don't have any serious problems with hearing but I'm quite sensitive to tweeter quality. Dynaudios have always been one of best somewhat affordable speakers to deliver.

Have you considered room correction software (or an amp with software)? That way you could do any kind of filtering with high quality with the bonus that you see how much is coming from the speaker and how much from the room / speaker placement. You might get surprised how much of distortion that may be perceived as high comes from much lower. Also, the only way to tame that bass is room correction or improving the acoustics. I mean, Evokes don't have a woolly bass, that's your room there. You may have to eq it down for 16dB to even reach zero in different points (or high pass it all out). Proper room correction software could let you keep the correct sound balance but just tone it down nicely.

But as always, keep it simple. If a simple eq hits the spot then that's good. If not, there are options.

Yes, I found the Primare SC15 mk2, but it is 2200 euro's! Too expensive. Buchardt has a all in one amp/streamer with correction, but I dont want class D amp.

About bass/treble control, I said this:

'What I see: suppose I tone the bass minus 6 dB, then in the graph I see it is also taking away dB in 100 to 400 Hz. Am I right? I am concerned that it will take away some lower midrange warmth and fullnes. It is the bass below lets say 60hz that my ear is sensitive for.'

 

[CMessi]

As has already been suggested, make sure you get an audiologist to do some proper tests first. Next, have a look at the RME ADI-2 DAC/preamp. It has extensive tone controls/equalization options, plus filters, and separately for left and right.

Thank you, The RMe looks quite complicated. I am not so technical.

 

[Verig]

Buchard, NAD etc. are not that expensive as complete solution. Very good amp, streamer and room correction. For example used NAD M10 v1 should be about $1000 I think?

Modern class D works extremely well. Not sure you feel you don't want that. If anything it will be enough power which translates to less distortion and more clarity. I admit I don't quite feel at home with last gen efforts, especially the low power ones like Hypex ucd180. I know it measures well but in practise all amps have felt glassy and wrong in the upper-mid/highs. It sounds like distortion and lean. It's quite minor but enough to be annoying for me. But nCore and everything after that is absolutely great. (Yes, I've compared UcD and nCore side by side.)