I'm looking for gizmo that I don't know exists or not. I would like the ability to manipulate bass / treble to my speakers. I'm running M80's through my receiver's second zone, which passes straight stereo without the ability to manipulate the sygnol. Some of my CD's just have too much treble, and I'd like to tone those down a tad. So what I'm looking for is a gizmo that I can place between the AVR and the speakers. Any idea's?
mdrew,
If it's truly line-level signals you are using (like a couple of volts, from the pre-outs), then you might find a used simple 6-band equalizer on Ebay. Get one with a bypass switch so you can switch it out of the line and compare the EQ's sound with the unequalized signal. Some of the old brands that were decent were ADC, Technics, etc.
If you are using the Zone 2 speaker outputs, then an Equalizer won't work.
Regards,
I am using the Zone 2 speaker outs, not pre-outs. Any ideas for that?
Basically, you want a speaker-level equalizer.
Here is one for a car, but I haven't been able to find one for the home just yet... I think google.com would be your friend there. If you really want to, you can always just use that car audio one in your homeby getting a 12 volt car battery charger (or any other high current 12v source) and hooking it up to the power and trigger (give trigger +12v, not ground) leads.
DJ, that EQ does not pass the amplifier power through it. It has speaker level inputs, but no outputs. You still need a separate amplifier for it to work.
Actually, I was thinking a resistor that you could take in and out of the system, maybe a variable one (varistor??) since resistors are used as high pass crossovers. But I'm just making this up...
What about them parametric EQ's that sub woofers have. I haven't a clue how they work, just guessing.
In reply to:
Actually, I was thinking a resistor that you could take in and out of the system, maybe a variable one (varistor??) since resistors are used as high pass crossovers. But I'm just making this up...
Uh, caps are high pass crossovers - resistors (like the ones Axiom grudgingly send out to people who think their speakers are too bright) just reduce the signal to those drivers.
Bren R.
Oh, shows what I know. It's been awhile since I've "built" speakers. (ie, taken Radio Shack parts and shoved them in old cabinets)
No prob... screwed around with them with a buddy after high school - when speaker engineering meant box size, port size, port depth and crossover settings only.
Used to take turns winding coils... X core size + Y wire gauge + Z windings = lowpass frequency... a steady hand and a VERY slow cordless drill. Ugh. But only the rich kids had active crossovers.
Bren R.
Methinks you did quite a bit more than I.
There was a pretty wide range of speaker building skills. I used to buy drivers, build crossovers from VERY detailed instructions, build cabinets and make a mess with veneer.
One of my more talented friends used to go "dumpster diving" at the local Philips warehouse, dig out the defective woofers and rewind the voice coils to get longer travel / better linearity. There's always one in the crowd.
So what you guys are telling me is that I'm screwed.