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How much speaker equalization is possible and reasonable?

anphex

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Good evening from Berlin,

I recently switched to Kali IN-5 V2 speakers for my secondary workstation to have decent speakers with good price value. It's a three way speaker, I think the IN-8 V1 was already tested by Amir but didn't receive stellar verdicts. I grabbed the IN-5 because it's the second iteraton of the IN speakers and, well, where else do you get a full fledged three way speaker for 350 € a piece?

Anyway, what I was going to ask: what's a good rule of thumb for equalization?
Unfortunately, the IN-5 have a nasty dip as 12khz of about 9dB. See the attached image. The measurement was made with one sweep at 4M which took about 90 seconds, so I am pretty confident it's precise.

Now most of you know REW and APO and their nifty FIR filters. I used those to mitigate the horrible 120 Hz boost.
While I was at it, I even boosted the dip in the highs.

It sounds pretty good! But should it? This made me think: where is the limit to equalization?
Is max volume and distortion the limit? The highs shouldn't be a problem since the usually have the least distortion compared to all other membrane types.
What do you think?
 

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dc655321

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This made me think: where is the limit to equalization?
Is max volume and distortion the limit?

Yes, amplifier and driver (speaker) are the limiting factors.
Push them beyond capabilities and boom...

Do you have pseudo-anechoic measurements of your speakers?
It may be useful a useful exercise to decouple speaker issues from room issues (if you have not already done so).
 

Rednaxela

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Are you sure you got your model numbers right?
 
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anphex

anphex

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Are you sure you got your model numbers right?
There is the IN-8 V1 that amirm tested. After a few years the IN-8 V2 was released, along with the IN-5 V1 that had the improvements of the IN-8 V2 but was smaller in general.

Oh, and I noticed what I did with the highs wasn't room but speaker correction already. Any know it's not really supposed to be done, but if the result is fine, the amp and speaker can handle it and phase issues are avoided (thus FIR), why not?
 

DVDdoug

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This a bigger deal at low frequencies where there is more energy and more required-power, but +9dB is about 8 times the power. (i.e. You're going from 1 Watt to 8W or from 20W to 160W, etc.)

I might not try the full 9dB correction, and in any case make sure whatever you do actually sounds better. (Although it might just "sound better" with a boost in the highs...)

And try moving the mic a little and/or moving/angling the speakers a little differently. I was doing some experiments once (in my untreated home office) with high frequencies and an SPL meter and just turning my head or moving my head a little made a HUGE difference in what I was hearing. Also, just walking around behind the SPL meter on a mic stand I was seeing some big variations. You don't really notice that with music but you'll notice it (and measure it) with a constant tone. At 12khz the wavelength is a little more than 1-inch so just a little change in position changes what's happening with the reflected-recombined waves.
 

617

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A few comments:
  • First, the irregularity in the top octave is a result of the coaxial driver. I would not equalize that, because it normally disappears off-axis.
  • Second, you need to use gated measurements if you want to equalize above the transition frequency, to see what the speaker is actually radiating rather than seeing a bunch of reflections and interference.
  • The IN-8 v1 measured quite well, the initial measurements were from a broken sample
  • I would equalize the bass first by selecting the most logical dip-switch setting on the back of the monitor
    • Then, take a bunch of ungated measurements and average them. Do you see any common dip or peak? Equalize those but only use a small number of filters.
    • Finally, add a shelving filter to the bass region to boost or cut it until the overall tonal balance is to your taste.
Good luck! Erin's Audio Corner gave a very good review of the IN-5, and it seems like a wonderful speaker.
 
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anphex

anphex

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Thank you all! Now that you mentioned it, Kali even made a statement on the on axis dip, claiming the same as @617 did.
Also I will try to do another "moving" measurement as @DVDdoug mentioned.
Thank you guys so far!
 

Rednaxela

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This is Erin’s review.


The dip you measured seems to be in there too but not as severe.
 

Rednaxela

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There’s a great tutorial on gated measurements somewhere here at ASR. Happy to look it up if you can’t find it.
 

Rednaxela

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Also Kali’s Charles Sprinkle has a couple of excellent videos on how to do these moving microphone measurements. Really worth checking out!
 
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