11 replies to this topic

[Arnold Swollenmember]

a few weeks ago i installed my dva 7996 into my car, thus upgrading from rca output from a 9835 to optical output running into a h701.

Now when i did this i noticed the difference straight away, the sound was slightly clear and was much more warm and detailed compared to how it was with the old deck.

Last week i decided out of curiosity to run the system through an RTA and to my surprise there were a few dips and peaks in the output so i corrected them, now it sounds ultimately worse than the previous settings, being less focused and sharp while losing sparkle from the higher frequencies.

the question im wanting to know is what happned here? and how has upgrading to an optical output affected other people???? id love to know what others think about it

[Pulse-R]

if you adjust the RTA for a 'flat' output then you will most certainly be disappointed with the sound.

I've never heard an AutoEQ/TA that worked properly.

after you RTA to 'smooth' the response, then adjust band groups by ear to improve the 'sound' of the system.

[~Spyne~]

having a flat frequency response doesnt mean it will sound good.
quite a few people utterly hate the sound of a flat f/r - bass can sound too heavy, with no 'shine' on the higher frequencies, and no ambience or 'life' to the sound.

others like how flat f/r's sound.

[Shreknos]

i am pondering the same thing... how much of a difference is there going from ai net, to optic???


i am currnetly using a 9853 too...


charlie

[PHD]

i have played my 30 bands EQ a while and i found that you need to spend time to play this toys. not a day, a month. it may take u a years. RTA only show u what your system freqs is. tune by your ears in freq between 800 to 8k. you will see the difference.

PHD

[Arnold Swollenmember]

it wasnt going for a flatline, more of a slope from highest at the lower end going down ant the treble

[Pulse-R]

that slope may be fine, but using continuous pink noise to do it isn't really the best way.
you may get reflections in the car interfering with the measurement.

as for going AiNet to optical in a H701 is quite improved for noise and dynamics.

[Arnold Swollenmember]

so the best method for retuning it now that rta isnt always the best???

[NUTTTR]

antisven, on Sep 26 2006, 12:39 AM, said:

so the best method for retuning it now that rta isnt always the best???

That's not what they said, they said tune it with an RTA... make it flat, get rid of the peaks and troughs, but you then have to make it sound 'right'. I have a peak (slight) at my low end and a slight peak at the high end, sounds brilliant... it is sometimes a little flat/dry, but i prefer that tuning because of the music i listen to.... It's all about playing with it till it sounds right. It shouldn't have troughs and peaks... so you get rid of those, then fix it to sound right. depends on how you actually tuned it too, if you used a parametric EQ you may not have the 'bands' wide enough to properly fix the problems you are having...

[Pulse-R]

also, I now use a sweep tone and average/hold function for RTA, to help reduce reflections/resonance... seems to work well.

but really you want to adjust the levels first (get it sort of nice), second is Time alignment (get the stage good and integrated), then RTA to 'clean up' the reponse(sweetens the sound). finally, listen to it and adjust little bits to make perfect (fix up little things that the RTA can't 'hear').

Edited by Pulse-R, 28 September 2006 - 08:33 PM.

[the_iano]

Ahhh yep that'll do it.... I didnt know you'd thrown it on an RTA before the last comp, so no wonder it sounded a bit dry.

The way I did mine was firstly to get an almost dead linear response out of it, close to straight line as possible. It sounded horrid, but almost every band on the RTA lined up to within 1-2 dB of the next. From there, space things out a bit. A really schmick sounding RTA graph should look quite curvy rather than a line (from my experience anyway). Keep all bands within 3dB of each other. Feed the system different music that highlights each frequency band and tune with your own 2 ears. Tis what I did.

Dont be surprised if it takes you at least 2 weeks of full tweaking to really make it shine. But once you have it set, then NO MORE FIDDLING WITH SETTINGS you hear me?

I've noticed its really been your achilles heel in comps. As soon as you make an improvement, you continue to fiddle with it and all that does is send you backwards. Live and learn I suppose

Edited by ikerr, 30 September 2006 - 07:52 PM.

[Arnold Swollenmember]

yeah tell me about it, i plugged the ainet input to the h701 in the wrong slot too on that saturday, lost radio for a week b4 i worked out wht happened, ah well, looks like i got a bit of time b4 the next comp anyways, Ian can you recommend some good tuning tacks??? and what to look for as i havnt attended a listening night as yet
???