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RE: Ideal frequency response curve

The frequency response you hear is a combination of the frequency response of the recording and the frequency response of the playback. In addition, for various physical and psycho-acoustic reasons, there is no consistent way of measuring frequency response from the perspective of how it is perceived by people (musicians, recording engineers, producers and audiophiles). One of the problems is that the acoustics of recording venues and llistening rooms vary all over the map. If a system is set up to a listener's taste while playing one recording it may not sound so great on a different recording. If the system setup is changed to make the second recording sound better, the first recording may sound worse. (Example: a bright system may make a dull recording sound good, but it will make a bright recording sound harsh, even unlistenable.)

There are no sound standards for how recordings are made. Unless you want to be continually changing or tweaking your system you will have to compromise. Find two dozen recordings that you know are good. These should include a variety of musical genres that interest you and a variety of recording styles and record labels. Tweak your system so that these all sound good or at least represent a suitable compromise. Some outliers may be a bit dull, while other outliers may be a bit bright, but all should be musically enjoyable if you don't have any poor recordings in your sample and if you've done a good job selecting and setting up your system.

I achieved a house curve that is flat from below 30 Hz up to about 1 kHz and then rolls off gradually from 1 kHz to about 10 kHz, after which it stops rolling off. Response is down about 3.5 dB at 10 kHz at my listening position. This works well with acoustic music, including classical music and jazz. Of course it is still necessary to make volume control adjustments for each recording and sometimes I move closer or further back from my speakers to adjust the sound stage. I listen at natural concert volumes. Were I to listen at lower volume then perhaps I would have preferred some bass boost.




Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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  • RE: Ideal frequency response curve - Tony Lauck 06/16/1507:47:58 06/16/15 (0)

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