Did PWK Intend For Klipsch Speakers To Be Equalized ?

[T.H.E. Droid]

I don't use EQ. I might tweak a crossover, or work with room treatment or speaker placement, but I kind of see EQ as giving up on fixing something the right way.

In one of his papers, Loudspeakers and Acoustics, IIRC, Floyd OToole states that EQing a boundary reinforcement issue may be preferable to room treatments because you are lowering the amplifier output to the speaker, thus lowering distortion.

That effectively compresses the sound, reduces the dynamics by cutting both the attack and decay of the original sound and substituting slow rising energy from resonance in the room reinforcing only the decay not the attack. I can see needing to do it in a commercial venue where other options aren't practical, but audiophile sound is all about not limiting ourselves to the practical.

Can you explain that concept further to me? You seem to be describing dynamic compression, which is reducing the difference between loud passages and quiet passages. Unless your amp is clipping, simply changing volume doesn't change the relationship between loud and quiet, it changes both equally. Because our ears are non-linear transducers, the effect of changing volume (especially up) might seem like compression, but it only seems that way.

[Don Richard]

That effectively compresses the sound, reduces the dynamics by cutting both the attack and decay of the original sound and substituting slow rising energy from resonance in the room reinforcing only the decay not the attack. I can see needing to do it in a commercial venue where other options aren't practical, but audiophile sound is all about not limiting ourselves to the practical.

I got the reference wrong, the correct title is Loudspeakers and Rooms - Working Together by Floyd E. Toole. Here is a link:

http://www.harmanaudio.com/all_about_audio/loudspeakers_rooms.pdf

You will want to look at pages 9 and 10 where the use of an EQ to control a medium Q low frequency standing wave is described. The waterfall plots clearly show an improvement in frequency response and decay. This was not in a commercial venue, and other options were available and are described, along with the rationale as to why the EQ was the preferred solution.

[DrWho]

That effectively compresses the sound, reduces the dynamics by cutting both the attack and decay of the original sound and substituting slow rising energy from resonance in the room reinforcing only the decay not the attack.

"Boundary effects" should be separated from "room effects" because boundary effects are not reactive when coupled to correctly (the khorn couples very well).

There is no reduction in compression, and if anything, there is probably less compression because now the drivers don't have to move as much to create the same SPL.

The wonderful world of minimum phase...

[6l6gc]

Its all about Linear Distortion

suppose you have a perfect mono recording taken by a perfect microphone on a perfect recording device.

and you play it back on a perfect player\amp using a perfect speaker in an unechoic room,

Did you remember to match playback volume IOW spl levels?

if not, then you need to apply EQ right there and then to compensate for the ear\brain

loudness perception.

Now Add multi channel mixing at different levels to stereo that occurs at a miss spl levels vs the original channels.

add room acoustics,

add Non linear distortion in the chain (non linear distortion adds harmonics thus changes energy spread throughout the frequency spectra

thus changes ear\brain FR PERCEPTION), and finally add the mixing engineer with his own idea of sound, he too touched the tone control.

I firstly EQ to a flat response at the listening position, and then deviate to my ears content, mainly bass and 12khz boost,

and not intimidated going 20db boost or cut if it sounds good to me.

some recordings were mixed down to fit dynamics of LP's and AM radios, my K's deserve a better signal.

[garyrc]

I firstly EQ to a flat response at the listening position, and then deviate to my ears content, mainly bass and 12khz boost

Your usual EQ (after coming close to a flat room curve) is a lot like that of a certain recording engineer (forgot the name) who wrote in the '90s that, while he was dissatisfied with most CD sound, he could make most CDs that he had done the engineering on sound equal or superior to the vinyl versions (on the studio's super expensive turntable) by using an EQ somewhat similar to yours when playing the finished CDs.. He used moderate bass boost, then a gradual slope up from somewhere below 10K up to 20K. At the time, I thought the treble boost may have done two things: 1) Provide a little "air" to fool the brain into accepting the lack of micro detail CDs were acused of having, and 2) simulating the treblle rise of some of my favorite moving coil phono cartridges, including one of the Klipsch models, back when Klipsch sold cartridges. A Klipsch rep at the time recommended their "zingiest" cartridge to Pro Audio in Oakland, CA, saying "This model sounds really good with our speakers." Hey, was that some kind of EQ? Back then most, or perhaps all, of the Klipsch speaker line was what we now call Heritage ... or, perhaps the Kgs and the Forte (I) might have come out by then.

[ClaudeJ1]

Think aboout it Guys, Klipschorns are stuck in a corner, they aint Magnepans you can simply move for best tonal balance., Of course PWK would alllow EQ, or tone correction! What IS the difference between EQ, and tone correction ? It all alters sound, right ?

PWK's own speakers were totally out of corners in his home. He built false corners out of 2x4's and drywall...4x4 feet. His living room was large and accomodated Valerie's Steinway and Bosendorfer Grand Pianos to the right of his 3 channel array, which was about 20 feet wide as I recall. That was a great, great room and sounded very good. I'm sure he wasn't against anything that improved sound without introducing distortion. I'm sure he was well aware of PEQ since his commercial divison embraced active crossovers and his own Jubilee speakers used steeper slopes, larger throat driver in the mid, and way more components in the passive network to EQ the sound flatter.