KEF HTS3001SE - How would you EQ these?

[Rednaxela]

Some time ago I got myself a pair of KEF HTS3001SE satellite speakers, possibly the nicest eggs produced by KEF.

Out of curiosity I am now trying to make them sing.

Setup:

Digital source -> Behringer DEQ2496 optical in/out -> Sony STR-DB940 -> KEF HTS3001SE and a stacked pair of active bookshelves as (not so sub)woofers, crossed over at 90Hz*.

All poor man's stuff I know. It's nothing permanent. I simply like the exercise of seeing what I can achieve with it.

I have a UMIK-1 and know my way around in REW to a certain extent. I'll share some of my own measurements later, but at the moment I'm wondering: what would you do above 1kHz based on these plots?

(Source)


The reason I'm asking is because out of the box that area sounds a bit off to me. Slightly unrefined and out of balance. The wife in the kitchen (not joking) asked me to turn the music off because it was hurting her ears. Without EQ there is something thin and shouty about them indeed. Voices and strings sound a bit unnatural, and I find myself struggling to get this right by ear.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you so much in advance!






*Maybe I should set this to 120Hz. Will definitely try that out later.

 

[staticV3]

The graph shows that these have uneven directivity above 2k, so the in-room response will be largely room dependent.

As such, I'd first measure the in-room response, then decide.

Afaik, EQing based on anechoic data makes most sense when the speaker has smooth directivity, as that makes for a more stable and predictable in-room response regardless of the room specifics.

 

[Rednaxela]

Smoothing set to 1/12th and aspect ratio to 25dB/decade to match the MedleysMusings.com graph.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I own the center for these. I am just using my Dirac measurements for EQ. It pair very nicely with my LS 50 Metas in a 5.1 setup, and is low enough profile to fit under my LG C1, so it's really perfect for my setup.

 

[fpitas]

Afaik, EQing based on anechoic data makes most sense when the speaker has smooth directivity, as that makes for a more stable and predictable in-room response regardless of the room specifics.

Yes, I agree. Start by using frequency dependent time-windowing. Then look at the RTA and tweak. It's easier than it sounds.

 

[Rednaxela]

Comparing my own MMM results with the MedleysMusings data, it looks like my in-room response around the MLP is mainly informed by the speakers' on-axis behaviour. At least I seem to recognise the bump between 2 and 4kHz and the one around 11kHz in both graphs.

Knocking those down a few dB turns out to be surprisingly effective indeed.

 

[REs]

Hi!
I´ve been thinking about building a 2.1 system with the 3001SE myself. I bought the LSX earlier this fall, but sent them back, due to a hiss noise. Still intrigued by the KEF coaxial drivers, but really not to keen about the electronic side of things. There is quite a lot of complete 3005 systems for sale with a subwoofer for cheap second hand, but it might be a miss? Another route is the Q150 or some other bookshelfs. My electronics is a Rpi with DAC, and thinking about getting some tpa3255 based amp with sub-out. Room is 4m*5m concrete walls. Might do some treatment. Planning to play with camille dsp for room correction.

Any recomandations on which path to follow?

 

[Rednaxela]

When crossed relatively high to the sub, i.e. at least 120Hz, and with the right EQ I was able to make them sound very nice indeed.

Most notably I found them to have a great disappearing act up their sleeve.

 

[REs]

Sounds like a good idea then. Do you have the original KEF sub? And do you have anything else to compare it to?

 

[Rednaxela]

I can compare it to a pair of AVI ADM9.1 speakers, pretty much EQ’d this way:

What is your favorite house curve

I always end up with about 4dB droop from 100Hz to 10kHz. A little more is generally OK, but things can get kind of fuzzy. So that’s about 0.6dB/oct. I have just dialed in a straight house ‘curve’ with that slope, and first impressions are good. It’s my favourite so far in fact.

www.audiosciencereview.com

Unfortunately I don’t have the original KEF subwoofer. One could argue that these speakers need a woofer rather than a subwoofer depending on how you define sub. So for that I simply stacked the ADMs on the floor and low-passed them. Which was good enough for the experiment.

In the end it all involved too many components for the family (and frankly myself) to operate. This is basically why I returned to my original setup. But sound wise I liked the KEFs, in this particular arrangement, better.

Hope this helps.

 

[REs]

Thank you for the insight! I´ll se if I can get hold of some speakers and try it out for myself. I´m the only master here

 

[REs]

Just a quick update from me if anybody would try to pursue a similar approach to run the KEF eggs in a 2.1 configuration. As i guess many other in this forum I think that you could great sound with som good thoughts and a little work, rather than just throwing a lot of money at expensive gear. My goal was to see if I could get a really decent sound for little money and with an esthetics tha doesn´t resemble a teenagers bedroom or a geeky, single 35 y/o project managers living room (happens to be the case) .

I got a second hand 3005 SE 5.1 package with stands (200$), bought the SMSL A100 (80$) amp with sub out and hooked up the sub and speaker. Since the KEF sub doesnt have a gain controller and the amp doesnt have any kind of sub managment it prodused way to much bass,. To overcome this issue I bought the Dayton Audio DSP LF (80$) controller and configured the sub this way. I was planning to run Qobuz via a Rpi4, but never found a stable configuration, so now I´m just using the bluetooth input directly. While the DSP-LF takes care of room correction 30-120hz I dont have any correction done to the rest of the frequency, so I think there has to be done some more work here, both with the room and eq.

Subjectivily im hearing really clear vocals and "presence" on live recording and its a pleassant soundstage. Really happy overall!

 

[ZolaIII]

View attachment 294217

Smoothing set to 1/12th and aspect ratio to 25dB/decade to match the MedleysMusings.com graph.

Try to cut the 2.1 KHz deep by putting the correction level to the deep on 5~6 KHz and try to get them in line and towards prefered slope curve (use multiple EQ passes if needed). Cross them even higher at 155 Hz. Try to stay on axes and EQ if that doesn't work (they remain bright) you can try off axes but I am not sure that would work either with needed horizontal angle of about 30°.

KEF KHT 3005 Speaker System and Linn Classik Movie DVD Player HT Labs Measures: KEF

HT Labs Measures: KEF KHT 3005 Speaker System Satellite Sensitivity: 86 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity: 87 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the HTS3001 satellites (purple trace), HTB2 subwoofer...

www.soundandvision.com

Seams you have a nice room as your measurements aren't much off the quasi anechoic chamber one's for those. Best regards and have fun.

 

[dannut]

Yeah, one of the nicest, small speakers around. All it takes is a little shelving above 6-7kHz and do something with the ~150-200Hz bump. Then lowpass ~120Hz.
Paired with quality multisub system can get quite good, attractive small-room sound system. Subs need to have either correct inductance control (Peerless XLS derivates - SVS SB; RSL Speedwoofer; BKELEC XXLS10, etc) or be cheap enough, to not have any meaningful excursion (so they play high, due to lowish inductance, eg a couple of lowly Jamo sub210s. They have no sub-bass at all, but play high and have a 'phase' knob to dial in multi-subs.)

 

[snakenuts]

I own the center for these. I am just using my Dirac measurements for EQ. It pair very nicely with my LS 50 Metas in a 5.1 setup, and is low enough profile to fit under my LG C1, so it's really perfect for my setup.

Nice! I'm thinking of doing the same. I have both speakers already, just not set up in HT system yet. Can I ask how big your room is, and what kind of amp + sub (if any) you use? I also have 4 of the HTS2001 which I can use for surround when needed. I was thinking of buying another set of LS50metas to use as the front LCR, but if you think the HTS3001 centre is sufficient for a medium size room, perhaps no need to buy more?