How Many Here Season to Taste?

[Anton S]

How many of us here have used every adjustment available in our systems to produce the most accurate response and left it at that vs. those who have later added some personal seasoning of one type or another?

I must confess that I am firmly in the second camp. However, I have always ensured that I could easily disengage all the aural “secret sauce” with the press of a button or two for quick comparison, so I can answer a question that invariably comes to mind: “What would this piece sound like if I weren’t screwing with it?”

 

[respice finem]

I have adjusted my system for most accurate response and left it at that, generally - but, if some recording sounds "off", I won't hesitate to "tame" it, using simply bass/treble shelf filters. And, I use loudness, and for headphones, crossfeed.

 

[TurtlePaul]

What do you consider accurate/neutral for bass? The harman preference curve which has a little bass boost? Flat on-axis response? An extension of linear in-room response even below where the speakers become omni?

I listen to a system that is tuned to flat on-axis, so it is flat below 200 hz and has a normal harman curve fall-off above this where my speakers have directivity. Part of this is preference, most is reality of living in an apartment where every dB of bass boost would limit my listening level by a dB.

 

[respice finem]

I prefer almost flat (old B&K), but then with loudness correction. "Fat" bass is masking the midrange too much for my taste.
But this is subjective / individual, of course.

 

[JeffS7444]

I treat these as two different sets of adjustments: I determine basic room correction via instruments, then sometimes make changes by ear (and RTA!) when playing specific recordings.

 

[Multicore]

I use loudness normalization in EQ APO.

 

[OldTimer]

I always use flat/ no EQ and direct sound settings. Let the music play naturally as original as it can. Of course no subs, high pass, low pass, mumbo jumbo etc. If you don’t like the music play then just tell: ‘hey siri, next track!”

 

[sigbergaudio]

There seem to be an implied assumption here that accurate response and personal taste has to differ?

 

[antcollinet]

I always use flat/ no EQ and direct sound settings. Let the music play naturally as original as it can. Of course no subs, high pass, low pass, mumbo jumbo etc. If you don’t like the music play then just tell: ‘hey siri, next track!”

My view is that EQ is about getting the music closer to "as natural is it can be" by correcting the room/speaker interaction which essentially distorts it.


But then - either as part of the EQ process (by selection of target curve) or by adding further filters/tone controls, I will also season to taste as I feel is necessary.


Though I often find that after a time period of listening, the seasoning sounds off, and the system sounds better with it removed - or reduced.

 

[Anton S]

There seem to be an implied assumption here that accurate response and personal taste has to differ?

Incorrect inference. Those people may simply fall into the first group.

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

Seasoning? What kind of seasoning? Are we talking Peter Belt stuff here?

I set everything to flat and leave it at that, although I have to admit that one of my regular listening areas is on the "live" side and I've deployed a "vintage" pair of speakers that have slightly attenuated high frequencies. Don't know if that counts as "seasoning".

 

[DWPress]

For most people "flat" doesn't sound good. An elevated bass like in the Harman room curve is usually preferable, I use a +3dB Harman curve and for my room and system it sounds correct and very much preferred. Otherwise the system is tuned +/- 3dB from 25Hz to 20kHz with a gradual -6dB taper from 1kHz to 20k.

I don't consider this to be altering the program material in any way - it's making it sound appropriate in my room.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Incorrect inference. Those people may simply fall into the first group.

Then, as an alternative, the questions lack nuance. Are people choosing that option because it's "the right thing", or because it adheres to their personal taste?

 

[sigbergaudio]

For most people "flat" doesn't sound good. An elevated bass like in the Harman room curve is usually preferable, I use a +3dB Harman curve and for my room and system it sounds correct and very much preferred. Otherwise the system is tuned +/- 3dB from 25Hz to 20kHz with a gradual -6dB taper from 1kHz to 20k.

I don't consider this to be altering the program material in any way - it's making it sound appropriate in my room.

None of the options necessarily implies flat? But I can agree that "accurate response" is imprecise / unclear.

 

[Anton S]

Then, as an alternative, the questions lack nuance. Are people choosing that option because it's "the right thing", or because it adheres to their personal taste?

Everyone's a critic, especially you, it seems. That bin accommodates both. Happy now?

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

For most people "flat" doesn't sound good.

I know. Give most people a graphic EQ and they'll make a smiley face. And it almost always sounds better if you hit the bypass button on the EQ.

 

[Anton S]

Seasoning? What kind of seasoning? Are we talking Peter Belt stuff here?

I set everything to flat and leave it at that, although I have to admit that one of my regular listening areas is on the "live" side and I've deployed a "vintage" pair of speakers that have slightly attenuated high frequencies. Don't know if that counts as "seasoning".

Since you are using your speaker choice for tone control, I'd say that counts as seasoning, wouldn't you?

 

[Jim Taylor]

There seem to be an implied assumption here that accurate response and personal taste has to differ?

It is not at all necessary, but it is certainly common.

Personal taste has to have a reference from which it can consistently differ. I want to know what is on the recording, so I listen to every new purchase as flat as I can. If my equipment were not flat, I could never have that point of reference.
However ... I find that some recordings can be lousy. Perhaps the recording engineer was not up to the job that day, or possibly his value system is different than mine. IN SOME CASES, I will therefore apply some judicious adjustments.
Admittedly, this involves some educated but subjective assessment on my part. It usually satisfies me, but I don't go online and tell other people to do the same thing that I have done. I recognize that my value system is not the same as other people's.

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

Since you are using your speaker choice for tone control, I'd say that counts as seasoning, wouldn't you?

Well, the way I got there is we added a room on to the house, and once done I installed a pair of bookshelf speakers that I had lying around - Bose 301s. They sounded awful, and I tried "seasoning" them in various ways including stuffing socks into the tweeters, but nothing I could do helped.

So, I replaced them with a pair of EV Five-C speakers, which sounded good right away. I only recently looked up their specs, and while I thought they were fairly flat they roll off above 3k by a few db. So, the "seasoning" was unintentional.

The AI blurb from Google is priceless:

"EV Five C" most commonly refers to vintage Electro-Voice (E-V) Five-C speakers, compact bookshelf loudspeakers known for accurate sound, often with walnut veneer and 8-ohm impedance. However, it could also be confused with the Kia EV5, a modern electric SUV, or Wharfedale's EVO 5.C (with an 'O') center speaker for home theaters, featuring Kevlar drivers and an AMT tweeter, highlighting the diverse meanings of "EV" and "Five C" in tech/audio

 

[sigbergaudio]

Everyone's a critic, especially you, it seems. That bin accommodates both. Happy now?

You don't have to worry about my happiness. I am not sure what you are after with your poll, but if you're not worried about these nuances, that's up to you of course.