Nezil
Member
I've posted in some other sections of this site about how after tidying my home office desk I decided to set up a small desktop audio setup with both speakers and headphones. The setup has gone through a few iterations, but I'm currently using:
So the obvious next thing to do would be to experiment with EQ for both the speakers and the headphones. I don't have a head shaped setup for measuring the headphones and so searched around for EQ values to try with the PM-3s, but EQing the speaker setup using REW was something that should be pretty straightforward.
I followed a tutorial by Julian Kraus that was mentioned in another thread on here, and was able to generate corrections for my Klipsch setup that did get me to a frequency response that's pretty close to the Harman curve, but also highlighted the steep bass falloff that these speakers have. Without EQ, there is a big peak at 108 Hz which frankly, gives the impression that the speaker is producing more bass than it really is. This may have been the intent from Klipsch, but the dip at 196 Hz probably wasn't!
The result of EQing the speakers is dramatic, and toggling between EQ on and off, aside from the drop in volume, with EQ enabled, the sound can be slightly 'dull', which I'm thinking is likely due to the reduced bass. It's cleaner and less boomy though, so it does feel like it's doing the right thing, and measurements with REW with EQ active do show a good improvement in response.
So now I'm thinking that it might be time to consider a subwoofer. I'm not looking for something super loud, and I can use EQ again to help tune this in to the system. My question here is if anyone has any recommendations, and the best way to connect a sub up with the equipment I have.
I'm not especially a fan of Klipsch, but the R-100SW is compact and has a built in amplifier and crossover. I could connect the SE RCA outputs of my RAW-MDA 1 DAC to the sub, and continue to use the Balanced outputs to the PA5 II.
A more expensive option might be to get some form of DSP box and connect the computer to this and add the EQ and sub cross-over to this, but wouldn't this make the DAC redundant?
This then gets me to the next question... My initial intention with Hi-Res audio, was to stream (up to) 192 kHz and then pass this un-touched to the DAC and output to speakers. When EQ is engaged, what sample rate does this operate at, and what's the best way to preserve quality? I'd have thought that a higher bandwidth output than input was beneficial, assuming the processing is able to use the full bandwidth of that output. Would it then make sense to keep my computer to DAC interface set to max, and then set the input of BlackHole to match the source?
- Apple M3 Max MacBook Pro running Apple Music as the (primary) source
- SMSL RAW-MDA 1 DAC
- Topping PA5 II Amplifier
- Klipsch RB-41 II Bookshelf speakers
- Kanto SP9 Speaker Stands
- Oppo PM-3 Headphones
So the obvious next thing to do would be to experiment with EQ for both the speakers and the headphones. I don't have a head shaped setup for measuring the headphones and so searched around for EQ values to try with the PM-3s, but EQing the speaker setup using REW was something that should be pretty straightforward.
I followed a tutorial by Julian Kraus that was mentioned in another thread on here, and was able to generate corrections for my Klipsch setup that did get me to a frequency response that's pretty close to the Harman curve, but also highlighted the steep bass falloff that these speakers have. Without EQ, there is a big peak at 108 Hz which frankly, gives the impression that the speaker is producing more bass than it really is. This may have been the intent from Klipsch, but the dip at 196 Hz probably wasn't!
The result of EQing the speakers is dramatic, and toggling between EQ on and off, aside from the drop in volume, with EQ enabled, the sound can be slightly 'dull', which I'm thinking is likely due to the reduced bass. It's cleaner and less boomy though, so it does feel like it's doing the right thing, and measurements with REW with EQ active do show a good improvement in response.
So now I'm thinking that it might be time to consider a subwoofer. I'm not looking for something super loud, and I can use EQ again to help tune this in to the system. My question here is if anyone has any recommendations, and the best way to connect a sub up with the equipment I have.
I'm not especially a fan of Klipsch, but the R-100SW is compact and has a built in amplifier and crossover. I could connect the SE RCA outputs of my RAW-MDA 1 DAC to the sub, and continue to use the Balanced outputs to the PA5 II.
A more expensive option might be to get some form of DSP box and connect the computer to this and add the EQ and sub cross-over to this, but wouldn't this make the DAC redundant?
This then gets me to the next question... My initial intention with Hi-Res audio, was to stream (up to) 192 kHz and then pass this un-touched to the DAC and output to speakers. When EQ is engaged, what sample rate does this operate at, and what's the best way to preserve quality? I'd have thought that a higher bandwidth output than input was beneficial, assuming the processing is able to use the full bandwidth of that output. Would it then make sense to keep my computer to DAC interface set to max, and then set the input of BlackHole to match the source?