REW measurement results from an ESL

[ddude003]

It might be interesting to try a loopback of your sound card... This gets the mic out of the loop...

 

[kmartinka]

I have sampled many soundtracks with various types of musical instruments and yes, that includes "more cowbell". The treble as a whole is dark on my system and certainly needs some boost. Unfortunately I do not have a quality pair of headphones to compare with.

I have unplugged the ESL and it did not make much of a difference on a measurement test. Same results as posted from earlier in this thread.

I've got another UMIK-1 coming for test. It should be arriving tomorrow and will post results. I am also curious if miniDSP has come out with new firmware that is unintentionally filtering the signal on the mic. I am still waiting for a response from them on the support ticket that I opened.

Attached is a image of my center channel plot from 800 Hz to 3kHz.

 

[kmartinka]

I am also curious of the loopback result on the EVGA sound card and may attempt this.

 

[kmartinka]

The issue has been resolved and the problem was a defective miniDSP UMIK-1. Attached is a measurement of the left front ML EM ESL with the new UMIK-1.

 

[kmartinka]

Thanks to all who have assisted me with troubleshooting.

 

[ddude003]

Nice to see the issue found and resolved... Good for you!!!

And that frequency response does not look too bad... ± 4 db across the specs of the speaker being 42 to 22,000 Hz ± 3db...

 

[audiomaster66]

I am newer to the forum and attempting my first calibration with my home theater system. Below is my 5.1 setup.

Sound Card - EVGA NU Audio Pro 7.1 (running on a windows 10 HTPC)
Amp - Emotiva XPA-5 Gen2
Front - Martin Logan EM ESLs
Center - ML EM C2
Surround - ML EM FX2
sub - (2x) ML Dynamo 1000x
Room size 24'x28"x18'(sloped ceiling)

• Front mains are calibrated(using flashlight technique), 9' apart and 15' from listening position
• All speakers are calibrated to 75dBC(at an offset of 33dBFS from 0dB)
• Using EQ APO in Windows 10 (64-bit) (no filters applied)
• miniDSP UMIK-1 for measurement
• REW 5.20 RC5

I took 9 measurements of the left front speaker in a parallel pipe type array from the listening position(the couch). I was very surprised of the REW results with a roll-off starting at 2kHz. I am wondering what I can do to improve this. I have read and understand how difficult it can be to use dipole ESLs. The only "remedy" I can do was use multiple HS 6dB filters to boost the upper frequencies to match Harman house curve. This obviously made a major improvement but seems extreme to have use these cascaded filters like this. Below is the uncorrected graph.

View attachment 39013

I have attached the .mdat file for further review. There was no rhyme to the reason for anything that I did, as this is all experimental and I'm still learning the tools, software, and techniques. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

As an owner of ML Aeon speakers, it occurs to me that if your highs are rolling off, it is because the angle of the speakers is too high. You can change the amount of highs by changing the angle. If you put them perfectly vertical you will have so much high end you can't stand it. So what I would do is turn off the EQ, then change the angle and measure. Keep repeating the process until you achieve the desired response. After that then apply corrective EQ.

I also agree with one of the other posters that generally the ideal listening position and speaker distances should be an equilateral triangle. I say generally because every room is different including the furnishings. With ML speakers, the distance from the speakers to the front wall is critical. They need a minimum of 2 ft or more to sound reasonably correct.

Good luck.

 

[pratul]

What is your pre processor/receiver set to (mode wise)? It 1. shouldn't be in any kind of surround or other modes and there shouldn't be any EQ enabled unless you are measuring for EQ'd results. I had a similar issue some time back when the EQ was left on by mistake and I was scratching my head trying to explain the drop in the higher freq.

 

[Sonnie]

I had a similar issue with one of the first UMIK-1 mics I purchased many years ago, when they were first released. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and then learned it was the mic. Probably a very rare occurrence unless mics are known to have a lifespan.

So after reading Toole's book... and being thrashed fifty-eleven times about EQ'ing above about 500Hz (depending on your room's transition frequency), I have started forcing myself to listen to EQ up to about 600Hz (4x transition frequency). This will definitely cause you to get the toe-in and vertical angle correct, or possibly have either too bright or too much roll-off. There is that magic spot for me. And my listening position is a bit closer to the plane of the speakers... so not quite the equilateral triangle. As the Gawja fella says... YMMV based on your room and furnishing... and your ears of course.

 

[skid00]

So after reading Toole's book... and being thrashed fifty-eleven times about EQ'ing above about 500Hz (depending on your room's transition frequency), I have started forcing myself to listen to EQ up to about 600Hz (4x transition frequency).

I EQ my Carver Amazings from 15 Hz to 19000 Hz. (These are full-range dipoles, with 4 woofers, and a 5 foot tall ribbon, arrayed vertically. That affects how they interact with the room). They sound way better to me. I am EQing them at a 4 foot distance, not at the listening position, and using a narrow IR window AND frequency dependent window.

I believe our brains adjust for deviations at the listening position (my couch had nasty reflection issues), so if we get the speaker 'harman flat' in the nearfield, it will sound good. After all, if we had a person standing at the speaker position, singing, we wouldn't feel the need to EQ their voice...

 

[AJ Soundfield]

There's hope for humanity