I’m convinced that as I age (61), my ability to decided between what should sound better interferes with what sounds better to my hears. I’ve EQ my setup with a MiniDSP. The frequency response is shown in Green and roughly +/- 3 dB. The response without EQ is shown in RED. The miniDSP is obviously doing its job in flatting out the response. However, the EQed response sounds dull and lifeless and I much prefer the sound of response through the MiniDSP without any filtering applied. Has anyone had the same experience with EQing to a flat response.
Depends at what SPL you listen to.
The red curve may better align with your hearing at lower SPLs, and thus sound more flat. There should be some point as the SPLs rise that the red curve sounds like the picture shows, a little bright and a little bottom heavy.
The green curve will sound flat once the SPLs climb into the area where our hearing is flat. But this may sound foreign or ‘un-fun’ as we probably didn’t grow up hearing a flat sound system, either at home or at live events. We typically get ‘trained’ on very not-flat systems and I’ve found it rather difficult to retrain my hearing to appreciate a flat system.
In the end, it is your system, there for your listening pleasure. Live your best life is my best advice.
Unfortunately, I was hoping for an absolute ideal response. But realizing that it’s a matter of perception.
Isn’t that what Yamaha tried to do with their loudness knob solution in the 80s and 90s? You set the max volume you wanted with the traditional volume knob and then turned down the volume with the loudness knob. This circuit would massage the frequency response to match the loudness curves associated with our ears’ variables.
Yeah, I too didn’t find it that useful as it never really matched my ears. It seems the market said, thanks, no thanks and Yamaha killed off this feature.