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JDS Labs Element III Review (DAC & Amp)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
If one is at FW 2.2, and has little interest in EQ - do you still recommend the update? Thx!
Not critical by any means. There are only minor bug fixes since v2.2.0.
Several months ago, a customer in Germany found that playing ASIO audio via USB resulted in momentary disruptions upon sampling rate changes while listening via S/PDIF (despite sampling rate changes occurring on the inactive audio stream). This was corrected in v2.3.2.
That looks loads better! I reckon it could be used quite effectively as a tone control "across the whole frequency range" whereas before it was mainly bass boost and high treble influence, but now you've got influence across the whole spectrum by choosing 170Hz and 3kHz as a combination to be used together to tilt the frequency response up or down. That's a good change I think!
EDIT: changing the Q to 0.5 from the current 0.707 gives even better results though in terms of Tone Control:
But I appreciate that you said earlier that Users can request custom Q's.
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(Amir actually but in another Low Shelf at 40Hz too, so he had around 6dB overall boost to some parts of the bass. Whenever I've done EQ for HD600 I like it with just +3dB Low Shelf at 75Hz (Q0.707), no other changes.)
Yeah, I noticed that too, but if we’re getting technical, I think it’s 8dB overall boost down low. (3dB@75Hz+ 5dB@40Hz).
These messages all make sense, and I am not objecting - other than to note that, if you must EQ a device by 8dB, you probably made the wrong choice for your listening preferences, IMHO.
Fair enough. Although I really appreciate the jdslabs approach to EQ, where it’s implemented as subtractive adjustments only, introducing no additional risk of clipping. This is great when one does want to experiment with absurdly high boosts
Just for a follow up, +12dB@100Hz sounds kinda nuts to me (no offense @jseaber lol). Even +8dB@80Hz is a bit much.
Ended up finding @oratory1990 6-band PEQ settings (harman target) and applying just the low shelf and high shelf: +8dB@60Hz and +3dB@3kHz**. Glad the Q-factors match up.
Might be a little bright/fatiguing for me, but will see if I end up getting used to it or if prefer the OG veil
See spec: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3hcne1z7n965sx/Sennheiser HD650 (6 Band EQ).pdf?dl=0
This isn't meant to be an HD650 evaluation, but more to say I am enjoying messing with these tone controls.
**EDIT: oops, in my excitement, I didn't not see that the high shelf was countered by aggressive peaking cuts at 2k, 3k, and 16k, no wonder it sounded way too bright. I'm trying +2dB @6kHz now.
Ended up finding @oratory1990 6-band PEQ settings (harman target) and applying just the low shelf and high shelf: +8dB@60Hz and +3dB@3kHz**. Glad the Q-factors match up.
Might be a little bright/fatiguing for me, but will see if I end up getting used to it or if prefer the OG veil
See spec: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3hcne1z7n965sx/Sennheiser HD650 (6 Band EQ).pdf?dl=0
This isn't meant to be an HD650 evaluation, but more to say I am enjoying messing with these tone controls.
**EDIT: oops, in my excitement, I didn't not see that the high shelf was countered by aggressive peaking cuts at 2k, 3k, and 16k, no wonder it sounded way too bright. I'm trying +2dB @6kHz now.
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Just because you *can* do something, doesn't mean you *should*.
The feature envelope is designed to let people go crazy - why build a feature with limits that just reflect the designer's preference? It limits its appeal. Let customers do crazy things - it widens your customer base. Like I mentioned above, I recently escaped from the the "any/all EQ is blasphemy" mindset and allowed myself the freedom to explore the wonders of modern DSP. I also have much less time now to be super critical and just want to listen to music that "sounds good." (Unfortunately, my gear now easily exposes poorly-mixed/recorded music so it's become harder and harder to do... lol)Just because you *can* do something, doesn't mean you *should*.
I completely understand where you come from and I hope I made it clear this was no criticism of what you said, I was just sharing my opinion.
I am not an EQ guy, even though I can fully understand where the benefits clearly can lie (the ideal linear or Harman response etc etc), but I'd rather go for simplicity and combine things I enjoy, and then over time one adjusts to it anyhow. Because otherwise, I might start thinking about different EQs for different albums and what not. And it is very seldom that recordings with some flaws (and ultimately, they all have some, come on) can stop me from enjoying music I love. Several much-hallowed "reference" jazz recordings from the early 60s are very flawed, yet reviewers continue to claim they hear more detail and definition through the latest and most revealing gear, for example. I shall always pick a great performance I love over a boring-sterile yet sublimely recorded one.
MRC01
Major Contributor
The bass shelf (or cut) is a great feature because it's so commonly needed. A high shelf (or cut), not so much. What may be more useful is a notch filter to compensate for a treble resonance that many headphones have. To keep it simple, you can fix it at -6 dB with Q between 2.0 and 3.0, and make the center freq adjustable from 5 kHz to 10 kHz. For example with the HD800 you'd set it 6 kHz.
This is something that Meier Audio does with their DSP and I find it useful. His selectable curves look like this:
This is something that Meier Audio does with their DSP and I find it useful. His selectable curves look like this:
MRC01
Major Contributor
BTW, while you're adding DSP to the amp, consider a crossfeed implementation. Many listeners will use it all the time, others only for recordings having extreme L-R channel separation which sounds wonky on headphones.
This could potentially be accomplished by changing one of the biquad filters to serve as a notch filter (i.e., repurpose the core currently assigned to treble boost). If there are enough requests, it's something we could explore.
I vaguely recall that you are accommodating custom FW with custom DSP filters. Did I mis-remember?
Yes, to clarify, we can quickly compile custom builds which alter predefined variables such as Q or available cutoff frequencies (8 options per filter).
Changing the filter type is more involved, but possible.
Got it, thanks for clarifying.
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