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Noobie EQ bands question

loafeye

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It's taken me quite some time to get up the nerve to bother you people with such an elementary question, but...

I have AR-18b speakers; they need a little push on the low end.
I've used the equalizer in Foobar 2000 sporadically; I messed with a zillion combinations of from one to four bands between 55Hz and 156Hz.
I wasn't thrilled with the results, and just went with what the speakers would give me out of my 60Wpc integrated Jolida tube amp.
I've been playing this particular setup through my PC with an ASUS Xonar Essence XT sound card for years.
The sound card comes with a graphic equalizer available in the card's software control center popup, but I'd never messed with the EQ function in it.
Finally, not long ago, I gave the ASUS eq a try.
I was surprised to see a 30Hz band there. I bumped up the (single) 30Hz "band" a whisker and voila, bass perfect (relatively speaking, of course). I was happily stunned.

So my question is, when I look at a slider labeled 55 and the next one is labeled 77, what am I supposed to translate these numbers into, in my head?
In other words, does 55 Hz cover the FR from 20 Hz through 76 Hz, or is it some other answer that you'll hopefully apprise me of?

As an aside, why would the 30 Hz ASUS eq band fix the sound immediately to my taste, where the Foobar EQ wouldn't do it- at all?

These question are a prelude to the day in the not too distant future when my PC needs replaced, at which time I'll go to an outboard DAC, signal splitters, and wonder where the best EQ for my budget going forward might come from.

Thanks for any responses :).
 

staticV3

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So my question is, when I look at a slider labeled 55 and the next one is labeled 77, what am I supposed to translate these numbers into, in my head?
The numbers represent the center frequency of a parametric peaking filter whose Q value is fixed.
FilterBandwidth09B.gif
As an aside, why would the 30 Hz ASUS eq band fix the sound immediately to my taste, where the Foobar EQ wouldn't do it- at all?
Maybe because the frequency band in need of correction was closer to 30Hz than it was to 55Hz, and so the 30Hz GEQ did what the 55Hz one could not.
Only measurements would tell.
wonder where the best EQ for my budget going forward might come from.
The best EQ for your budget will always be software EQ running on your PC.
Examples are Equalizer APO, which will apply systemwide EQ to whatever is playing on your PC, or the Mathaudio Room EQ plug-in for foobar.
Both are free of charge!

If instead you need something that runs standalone in a box, then the best value would probably be a Raspberry Pi with digital I/O running CamillaDSP.
Relevant threads are here and here.
 

kemmler3D

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why would the 30 Hz ASUS eq band fix the sound immediately to my taste, where the Foobar EQ wouldn't do it- at all?
@staticV3 has told it all, but in even plainer terms, you wanted lower bass than the Foobar EQ was set up for.

So, as he said, the numbers are frequencies, the lowest frequency anyone really cares about is 20hz, and proper bass mostly happens between 20 and ~100hz depending on who you ask. Audio in general goes up to 20,000khz, beyond that people can't hear much or anything. In various situations you might want to EQ things as high as 10,000hz or beyond.

When it comes to EQs, you have your 3-band tone controls (bass, mid, treble) which affect broad ranges of frequencies. You still see some gear with this feature.

Then you have your graphic equalizers, which affect pre-set frequencies as StaticV3 explained. Usually they come in 7, 15, or 31 bands. Foobar didn't have a 'band' set up for the 30hz you wanted, Asus did.

Then you have your parametric equalizers, which is where the real action is. These let you choose the frequency, how broad a range of frequencies will be affected (Q), as well as the gain. Graphic EQs only let you mess with gain.

This is good because when you EQ something, you are usually trying to fix a specific problem, and leave everything else alone. However, problems rarely pop up at the pre-chosen frequencies on a graphic EQ. With a parametric EQ, if you can find the problem, you can zero in on it, fix it, and leave the rest of your audio intact.

A graphic EQ is like a mandoline with pre-set thicknesses. If it happens to match what you want, it's quick and easy. If not, you are forced to compromise with a result that is close, but not quite right. A parametric EQ is like a chef's knife. You are in full control of what's EQ'd or not.

Equalizer APO is the best one available if you want to EQ all of your audio in Windows, and the other options he mentions are also probably good, I haven't used them.

Anyway, welcome to ASR! There is plenty of content here to get you well on your way down the rabbit hole. The fact that you are using EQ on your speakers is a good sign, that's a very popular technique here. :)
 
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loafeye

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Thanks to both of you for your replies.
To cement what I hope to be my (limited) understanding:
It looks like, from the graph @staticV3 provided, that each band overlaps with the next band up or down, so as not to leave any frequencies not susceptible to being EQ'd? So f2 of the 55 Hz band is overlapped by f1 of the 77 Hz band, but in my case, there is no band provided by Foobar's EQ lower than the 55 Hz band, which is why I wasn't getting the additional punch I was after, because 30 Hz + is too far down the f1 slope of the 55Hz band- ? But ASUS has a f0 slider right on the 30 Hz frequency, so it works?
If this is how it works, then the parametric EQ you mentioned, and @amirm having used it with his Audioengine A5+ review is quite the tool, as it avoids a graphic equalizer's limited more-shotgun approach.

Also, thanks for your EQ tool recommendations!
 

kemmler3D

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Thanks to both of you for your replies.
To cement what I hope to be my (limited) understanding:
It looks like, from the graph @staticV3 provided, that each band overlaps with the next band up or down, so as not to leave any frequencies not susceptible to being EQ'd? So f2 of the 55 Hz band is overlapped by f1 of the 77 Hz band, but in my case, there is no band provided by Foobar's EQ lower than the 55 Hz band, which is why I wasn't getting the additional punch I was after, because 30 Hz + is too far down the f1 slope of the 55Hz band- ? But ASUS has a f0 slider right on the 30 Hz frequency, so it works?
If this is how it works, then the parametric EQ you mentioned, and @amirm having used it with his Audioengine A5+ review is quite the tool, as it avoids a graphic equalizer's limited more-shotgun approach.

Also, thanks for your EQ tool recommendations!

Pretty much yes, all frequencies are covered within the boundaries of a graphic EQ, (usually, more or less) but in the case of the 55 and 77hz band, say you wanted to raise 66hz. You raise 55 and 77 both a bit, probably. But now you've boosted from about 45-95hz, a little, when really you only wanted to boost maybe from 55-75. That will actually sound pretty different.

Parametric EQ is really the way to go. If you are interested, my advice is to load one up in Foobar, play some music, and just mess with the controls for a while until it starts to seem intuitive. You'll quickly grasp why these tools are so popular here.
 
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loafeye

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This is wonderful; thank you, both.
Responses tailored just for me, I feel special :) .
The links and suggestions are real time-savers.
It's hard to know the value of additional information until I try it, it's great to know, 'OK, it's likely NOT this, so, something else, then'.
Way more fun than just shooting in the dark, and calling it good.
This is how I get sucked into stuff. Nice work :) .
 
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