Bass/LFE too high after calibration with REW

[Buckster]

I've been finding that after calibration, even to a flat <500hz - that for many films the bass/LFE sounds over bearing and too hot

whilst it's impossible in my pretty square room with one sub to calibrate completely flat, I've removed the peaks, and am left more with troughs, and with REW I set the level to the highest points rather than a mid-point, so if anything you'd think the bass level would be too low

my question please - even if you EQ and set levels to correct value, are decay and room acoustics a major factor, as in if there is a long delay in the room for lower frequencies, that these frequencies build up as they are "lingering" longer than they should - and therefore cause the bass to sound too hot ?

my subwoofer is a SVS Ultra 13

many thanks, Mark

 

[boxerfan88]

I have the same observations.

• Initially I used the default REW room curve to EQ, with some music material, the room got overwhelmed (I get a slight headache listening).
• Next, I targeted flat to 20Hz, it got a little better, but occasionally some music material triggering the modes makes the bass muddy.
• Following that, I just manually whacked the slow decaying ridges down with high Q filters (orange circle). (You can reference REW predicted FR to see the effect of the manual PEQ.) This means the FR is no longer flat, but has some dips in the bass region. The result sounded so much better, and the clarity in the low-mid/midrange became much better.

Try it! Hope this helps...

 

[ernestcarl]

my question please - even if you EQ and set levels to correct value, are decay and room acoustics a major factor, as in if there is a long delay in the room for lower frequencies, that these frequencies build up as they are "lingering" longer than they should - and therefore cause the bass to sound too hot ?

Yep… look at the decay, spectrogram, and/or waterfall plots.

Ideally, the full frequency response decays evenly. Many times, some of the bass lingers for far too long even after EQing to a “flat” magnitude FR.

 

[raindance]

I assume you don't have LFE + Main turned on in the receiver?

Also, certain DTS content needs the LFE turned down by 10dB.

And lastly, I assume you don't have Audyssey set to automatically perform loudness equalization at lower volumes (Dynamic EQ)?

 

[ozzy9832001]

I've been finding that after calibration, even to a flat <500hz - that for many films the bass/LFE sounds over bearing and too hot

whilst it's impossible in my pretty square room with one sub to calibrate completely flat, I've removed the peaks, and am left more with troughs, and with REW I set the level to the highest points rather than a mid-point, so if anything you'd think the bass level would be too low

my question please - even if you EQ and set levels to correct value, are decay and room acoustics a major factor, as in if there is a long delay in the room for lower frequencies, that these frequencies build up as they are "lingering" longer than they should - and therefore cause the bass to sound too hot ?

my subwoofer is a SVS Ultra 13

many thanks, Mark

This is part of the problem with relying on only EQ to fix issues caused by room interaction. It fixes the initial issue with the fundamental, but does nothing to address the eventual pressure that's building up as more and more sound fills the room at the offending frequencies and it's harmonics. I'd be interested in seeing your waterfall data. Also I'd recommend trying to get up to 200-250 as flat as you can. Leave the rest alone. Bass ends at 250hz. Keep in mind 60hz @ 85dB isn't perceived the same way to our ears as say 3000hz @ 85dB. The 3000hz will be perceived louder and is more grating to most peoples ears. All the most annoying sounds in the world (police sirens, smoke detectors, etc) all fall between 3000-5000 hz.

 

[Buckster]

my apologises - realised I hadn't replied.

thanks very much for your replies - much appreciated.

I haven't had chance to re-try calibration and trying some of the above tweaks but I will give a go later thankyou and I'll see if I can get a screen shot of the current Waterfall plot

I am slightly limited by the fact I only have 3 EQ points on my SVS Ultra but I'll see what I can tweak

 

[Buckster]

I assume you don't have LFE + Main turned on in the receiver?

Also, certain DTS content needs the LFE turned down by 10dB.

And lastly, I assume you don't have Audyssey set to automatically perform loudness equalization at lower volumes (Dynamic EQ)?

Hi - thanks for reply - just to confirm no just set to LFE and Audyssey is disabled and all dynamic range compression is off

 

[raindance]

We'll, if Audyssey is turned off, then there's no equalization applied...

 

[Buckster]

We'll, if Audyssey is turned off, then there's no equalization applied...

I'm using manual 8 or 9 point EQ for each individual speaker on my Denon rather than Audyssey

mainly because I don't get on with what Audyssey does to the highs - it seems to apply lots of gain which I don't like

 

[raindance]

I'm using manual 8 or 9 point EQ for each individual speaker on my Denon rather than Audyssey

mainly because I don't get on with what Audyssey does to the highs - it seems to apply lots of gain which I don't like

When you use manual EQ you lose all the bass mode equalization that Audyssey does in automatic mode. So you'll need another solution to correct bass modes in your room.

 

[TheZebraKilledDarwin]

I'm using manual 8 or 9 point EQ for each individual speaker on my Denon rather than Audyssey

mainly because I don't get on with what Audyssey does to the highs - it seems to apply lots of gain which I don't like

Do you have Auro 2D mode available on your AVR?