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Need DCX2496 Presets for Emerald Physics CS2

I bought a pair of Emerald Physics CS2 speakers with the DCX2496 DSP on the used market not too long ago. This is my first step into finally investing in better hi-fi gear. I finally got the DCX to work after some tinkering and have been really enjoying CS2s for a number of months now.

This past weekend we had a power outage in our neighborhood and the DCX was powered on at the time. I sat down to listen the next day and discovered that two output channels for the low range stopped working. I’m not sure if the power outage is the cause, but it’s a suspect. I have learned after some searching online that these DCX2496 units don’t rank high for reliability.

Anyway, in the process of trying to troubleshoot what is wrong I decided to factory reset the DCX.  For some reason I thought the Emerald Physics presets for the CS2 would not be affected by this.  Alas — I was wrong! Shoot. Now I have a DCX with a couple bad outputs AND missing presets. 
I’m fairly comfortable with troubleshooting and repairing electronics, but I have no idea how to recover the presets which were custom designed for the CS2s.  Is there any resource out there where I can find these presets in order to manually reload them into my DCX2496?  (Any CS2 owners out there who would be willing to write down the settings for the presets?). Did I just unintentionally render my speakers useless?

I would appreciate any help.
128x128lsoasey
lsoasey's avatar
lsoasey OP
6 posts
 
@rodman99999 - Thanks for the pointers. This really helps. I'll start exploring these LSP options.

In the meantime, I've been reading up on what it means to properly EQ the CS2s. This is looking a bit more involved than I originally realized, but I'm up for the challenge. Beyond the crossover settings, it looks like I'll need to deal with individual driver EQ, driver timing, and overall room EQ. I'm a newbie when it comes to REW.  I've downloaded the REW SW and have started experimenting with a Dayton Audio EMM-6 calibrated microphone. I found a couple of tutorials (via Google search) geared towards folks who are doing speaker design and setup. I'm clearly not designing the CS2s, but the EQ/tuning phase of the work appears to be relevant.

My first attempt at trying to EQ a pair of bookshelf speaks in my office ended up sounding worse than no EQ.  :-)  I suppose I have a lot to learn on EQ technique.

Did your friend with the CS2s and miniDSP go through the same process?
rodman99999
5,981 posts
 
@lsoasey-     Yes: the friend found there to be a learning curve.     No big hurdles, though.     He's a High School Teacher and Professional Photographer, so: lots of savvy, far as the computer.                                                                                                                                    The mid/high drivers are already concentric and crossed over.      Once you've dialed in the HI/LO slopes and frequency, in the crossover program; running it should adjust the timing/phase of the two amps/drivers, in each channel.       Then: running the Room Correction program will curve the room and balance the channels.                                                                                   Have fun!
rodman99999
5,981 posts
 
I could/should have mentioned: some Room Correction programs offer preset response curves, from which to choose, to suit individual tastes, rooms, and systems.         It's VERY seldom, that a flat room response sounds right, when trying to reproduce a recorded event, in the home.                                                                                                      With some of these digital crossovers; it's necessary to buy extra programs, to get that kind of feature.    Don't remember if the buddy's miniDSP has those curves, as standard.          I've been actively crossing over my home systems, with a TacT RCS 2.2X, since 2002:         All-In-One makes everything so much easier!           Well: still need the laptop, to run the programs, I guess.
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lsoasey's avatar
lsoasey OP
6 posts
 
I've got a miniDSP 2x4 HD now and have been playing with a little for the CS2s.  I've managed to correct the mid/high from about 200 Hz up. (Dipole peak and some other minor issues...)  The low end (200 Hz and down) looks crazy to me. I assume there are room effects in my measurements (big peaks and valleys), but the roll-off also appears too early from what I would have expected. I understand that subwoofer EQ boost might be necessary since this is an open baffle design, but I'm really not sure how to tackle this. 

Can anyone say if the forum community here on Audiogon is open to helping me through the process?  I could start a new discussion, for example, and post my measurements as I go.   
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