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Do not underestimate the importance of custom tuning to your ears

Many audiophiles will reject a high end speaker even very expensive ones all because it was too bright, too harsh, not enough bass, imaging problems etc. 

What we must remember is that many of these rejects may in actual fact be great speakers if only they were retuned to the persons ears. 

Custom tuning the crossover can change the brightness, the tweeter level, image depth, and more.

It would not be right to reject a speaker design that is fundamentally correct apart from the way its tuned. 

Some speakers are fundamentally wrong and no amount of retuning will fix them. These are the real rejects and we must not lump good speakers in with these. 

The difficulty is that its not easy to tell which speakers can be retuned and which ones cannot. 

All of this applies when buying a speaker for the first time or upgrading. Many speakers end up being sold all because of retuning issues and room acoustics. 

Custom tuning to your ears is the key. 
kenjit

Showing 4 responses by frazeur1

frazeur1
340 posts
 
The last time I was shopping for speakers, I asked the shop keep if he would mind if I took the woofers out in order to access the crossovers, as these were mounted in the bottom of the cabinet. He looked at me quite oddly, and I told him that I needed to proceed to “tuning” said crossovers to rid the speaker of an annoying peak in the upper treble region.


Needless to say, this did not sit well with him, as he thought they were quite good as they came from the factory. Needless to say, a sale was not made, and I went away empty handed. 


Salesman. What are they good for? 
frazeur1
340 posts
 
larryi, now come on, let’s be realistic here, drilling more port holes? I just enlarge the one in the cabinet. One big one is sufficient, and then I use foam, socks, or whatever else might be handy to tune the port to my liking. 

As to the first part, one must do, what one must for the sake of fidelity. I had thought that my outer ear “flaps” were much too large, and creating an imbalance of staging whilst listening to my tuned speakers. Nothing that a sharp set of tin snips couldn’t cure. It only hurt for awhile, but man, the sound I am getting now, unbelievable! 



frazeur1
340 posts
 
I use a bent wire coat hangar religiously on both of my ears. I am sure that they are properly tuned at least once a week, whether they need it or not. 
By the way, I have been pondering this, just how many uses could one expect to get before a drier sheet loses its effectiveness? 
frazeur1
340 posts
 
Good one! 😃
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