Why the need for expensive speakers when we got Equalizers?

C

chingon

Well-Known Member
The question is merely to elicit some responses and not a bickering match. Educate me if you will:

Say you got a speaker that fluctuates kind of bad from an 'ideal' flat frequency response between 20 and 20khz; if an equalizer allows us to adjust the gain (if that's what is adjusted) at certain frequencies, then why do we even bother in getting speakers to get close to this response in the 1st place?

I could understand staying away from analog equalizers which are supposed to interfere w/the 'purity' of the signal, but what about software or digital equalizers?

Now I'm not saying that a tweeter will somehow be able to reproduce low frequencies by messing w/an EQ since that would be physically impossible; is that in a way why EQ's are frowned upon? The fact that the speaker was not made to play certain frequencies at certain levels? In other words, is there some 'artificial' sound to eq's? I'm kind of scratching my head as to why we can't make the perfect speaker out of an imperfect one using some db meter and an equalizer
 
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I'm not going to pretend to have a complete answer, but there are many aspects of speaker performance that are not addressed by tone controls. These include driver cone material (stiffness, resonant characteristics), driver position on the cabinets' face and the way the radiating sound waves interact, cabinet material, bracing and design and I'm sure a dozen other factors.

The job of a speaker to disappear and project an image into the room (a very important one IMO) is affected mostly by these factors and less by tone controls. (Actually, tone controls can sometimes destroy a good soundstage)
 
Here are a few of the reasons:

- If you need to raise the level of any frequency relative to the overall response, you are lowering the sensitivity of the speaker, meaning it requires more power to get to the same volume. Thus, it will run into distortion/compression/etc. issues at lower volumes than without EQ. This problem can be dramatic with even small amounts of EQ.

- EQ does not directly affect the dispersion characteristics of the speaker, which are very important unless you listen in an anechoic chamber.

- A speaker driver working well tends to have a pretty flat response up/down to the frequency ranges where it no longer produces good sound. Blending that with another driver in such a way as to keep everything time aligned and playing in the range where it works well also results in pretty flat response. In other words, flat response comes fairly naturally from well designed speakers - it isn't some sort of nuisance we'd be better off not worrying about.

- Some common causes of non-flat response are resonances in the drivers, refractions from inside & outside the enclosures, and poor time-alignment. EQing can mask these kinds of problems, but can't actually fix them.
 
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Tone/EQ controls cannot make a bad loudspeaker sound good. They just might make an awful speaker a bit more listenable perhaps, but that's about it.

Simply put it's something no EQ has the ability nor is it anything for which an EQ was designed to do.
 
The equalizer needs to have enough bands to be able to "flatten" any peaks and dips in the response... so you could use a pink noise source and a calibrated microphone to produce a flat amplitude response at the microphone position. With 30 or more bands, they may be narrow enough to correct for any bumps or dips, or you could use a parametric equalizer with each band adjustable for frequency level, and bandwidth. But you'd likely be left with a ragged PHASE response, even though amplitude is flat. And if you move away from the microphone position, both phase and amplitude are likely to change... back to the knobs...

One of the biggest problem areas is the transition frequency range between drivers - a "hole" where nether does well or they cancel, or a peak where both add... And these are ESPECIALLY sensitive to listening position (unless it's a coaxial driver...).
 
chingon said:
The question is merely to elicit some responses and not a bickering match. Educate me if you will:

Say you got a speaker that fluctuates kind of bad from an 'ideal' flat frequency response between 20 and 20khz; if an equalizer allows us to adjust the gain (if that's what is adjusted) at certain frequencies, then why do we even bother in getting speakers to get close to this response in the 1st place?

I could understand staying away from analog equalizers which are supposed to interfere w/the 'purity' of the signal, but what about software or digital equalizers?

Now I'm not saying that a tweeter will somehow be able to reproduce low frequencies by messing w/an EQ since that would be physically impossible; is that in a way why EQ's are frowned upon? The fact that the speaker was not made to play certain frequencies at certain levels? In other words, is there some 'artificial' sound to eq's? I'm kind of scratching my head as to why we can't make the perfect speaker out of an imperfect one using some db meter and an equalizer
Click to expand...
Equalizers affect frequencies, but speakers are more than just frequencies.
Speakers also involve imaging, soundstage and depth and spaciousness.

Also because different media can require different settings to be "perfect," you may find adjusting more trouble than it is worth.

I have two equalizers, an dynamic range expander, and a couple ambient processors sitting in the closet.
 
Good point about the amplitude response.
Speakers have lot's of issues.

Eq's can't negate distortions, or dispersion characteristics.
Graphic eq's generally have fixed center frequencies and fixed bandwidths. These usually don't line up exactly where a peak or dip would exist on a speaker.
Parametric eq's are a better choice for that.

You can, and many have, tweaked their speakers with EQ's. See Genelec, Meyer Sound, Mackie and a host of other powered speakers where eq is part of the package.
 
Things an EQ doesn't address..

Distortion
Cabinet tuned incorrectly
Poorly designed crossover
Bad crossover points or overlapping too far
Weak voice coils.
Weak surrounds
Stiff spiders

It's a long list.. .
 
they are useful for room correction or if you cant hear the words in a song ..mind you that's not with crappy speakers .
 
I don't use tone controls or an eq on my good stereo system for many of the reasons stated by other post's. However with my midrange HT system I find them to be quite effective at reducing the blotted bass from the speakers, and to boost the treble in my dead room. Listen to the Imaging/soundstage and for the seperation of insturments when comparing. IMO there is really no wrong answer. even if those thing's are effected the flatter freq. responce may be preferable. Only you can decide.
 
Equalizers will even fix standing waves from room modes. All you have to do is hang a bunch of them randomly on the walls and ceiling.
 
They can only correct problems with speakers only just so far. The worst kind of speakers like Thrusters, no EQ can correct them.
 
I don't have a fraction of the technical knowledge that a lot of these guys have. But I echo what is said about imaging and sound stage.

I've used an eq successfully to accentuate or de-emphasize the frequencies in speakers with great success. Frankly they sounded better when I was done tweaking. But, IMO, there is no substitute for having a speaker that can create the illusion of space. EQ's won't give this to you even if it can improve the listening experience.

They also won't make a speaker create frequencies they are incapable of producing - like getting big low end out of small speakers.

I have to say though, most people I come across with eq's have NO idea how to adjust them. They seem to just guess or do the Tom Cruise "Risky Business" slide-them-all-the-way-up mode. This may be the biggest argument I can make for people getting good speakers. They can't as easily screw things up...
 
AnalogDigit said:
They can only correct problems with speakers only just so far. The worst kind of speakers like Thrusters, no EQ can correct them.
Click to expand...

That's sort of what I'm wondering, all these other descriptions I'm unfamiliar with sound a bit alien to me. I understand frequency and air pressure levels, heck maybe even projection (if what is meant is the way things sound off axis to the speaker); so basically if one is able to correct the graph w/say a parametric eq at listening position which allows for amplitude/bandwidth correction wouldn't it in theory sound just as the buku bucks speakers out there?

Or as it's been hinted, if the physical characteristics are the major player of how this graph is produced and not the signal that is being fed, which limits then what an EQ can do, can we not make a fairly decent speaker (which may need only marginal correction) sound like the best out there?
 
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