[planemad]

Hi all

is there a recommended setup for the HK system.

Cheers all

[BimmerF32_430i]

Originally Posted by planemad

Hi all

is there a recommended setup for the HK system.

Cheers all

Try to find GlennQNyc (I think that's it). I use his settings and tweaked it a bit to my personal taste but his settings helped wake up the HK system

[Nobby Clark]

Originally Posted by chaudhrysn

Try to find GlennQNyc (I think that's it). I use his settings and tweaked it a bit to my personal taste but his settings helped wake up the HK system

Please don't take this advice.

Your sound preferences are personal to your music tastes and your unique ears.
Use the EQ to find what you feel sounds best.

[AlanYoro35i]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Please don't take this advice.

Your sound preferences are personal to your music tastes and your unique ears.
Use the EQ to find what you feel sounds best.

There isn't a pre-set on these cars and we (average joe's) doesn't know what those mhz means. So if some members here found a good setting to start off with and tweak as they go . I don't find anything wrong it and i actually would be positive to tell members to do or else we have no idea where to start, any members who know music settings is better than factory setting.

[JohnRob2016]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Please don't take this advice.

Your sound preferences are personal to your music tastes and your unique ears.
Use the EQ to find what you feel sounds best.

Erm, all the music we listen to has been tweaked and eq'd by someone else, professionals to sound just right. I.e. The artists, producers and engineers.

Really the system should be flat to hear what the artists intended. However, in the case of the advice give re glenQnyc, I understand he is a professional sound engineer and spent a long time adjusting his hk and has offered his professional advice. So I'd say it's worth checking it out.

[InquisitiveA]

Originally Posted by chaudhrysn

Try to find GlennQNyc (I think that's it). I use his settings and tweaked it a bit to my personal taste but his settings helped wake up the HK system

This seems to be the post in question.

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=94

I might try those settings tomorrow. I think mine sounds OK though, can't remember how it is set up but I do remember that giving the front/rear bias a click or two towards the rear made a large improvement for me.

[Nickc1982]

I think these were the final settings which I am using:

Bass & Treble = Flat
Balance & Fader = Centered
L7 active
(Speed Volume = Center)
100Hz +4 (sometimes +5)
200Hz -5
500Hz +2
1kHz +1
2kHz Flat
5kHz -1
10kHz Flat

Nick

[Nobby Clark]

Originally Posted by JohnRob2016

Erm, all the music we listen to has been tweaked and eq'd by someone else, professionals to sound just right. I.e. The artists, producers and engineers.

Really the system should be flat to hear what the artists intended. However, in the case of the advice give re glenQnyc, I understand he is a professional sound engineer and spent a long time adjusting his hk and has offered his professional advice. So I'd say it's worth checking it out.

So if the music has been tweaked by a professional to sound right and therefore the system should be flat, why do people feel it's not right? Partly because we all hear and like different sounds.

No disrespect to glenQNyc, but he has tweaked a professionally mixed sound to his ears not yours.

There are many albums that are poorly mixed, by professionals. I'm a Maiden fan and their first album was quickly mixed and poorly done. It's also 36 years old so recorded on, let's just say, not the most cutting edge of equipment. Does that mean we should listen to it as it was produced, as it should have been produced or how we like it?
DAB radio is also arguably poorer quality sound than FM so should the system be flat or adjusted for each?

I think better advice it to start flat and adjust for elements you feel are lacking or to pronounce. E.g if you feel vocals aren't clear, knock up (or down) the mid ranges a notch or two. Small adjustment at a time for each range.

[teaston]

More bass, more bass & more bass! Oh and more bass!

[subsy]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

So if the music has been tweaked by a professional to sound right and therefore the system should be flat, why do people feel it's not right? Partly because we all hear and like different sounds.

No disrespect to glenQNyc, but he has tweaked a professionally mixed sound to his ears not yours.

There are many albums that are poorly mixed, by professionals. I'm a Maiden fan and their first album was quickly mixed and poorly done. It's also 36 years old so recorded on, let's just say, not the most cutting edge of equipment. Does that mean we should listen to it as it was produced, as it should have been produced or how we like it?
DAB radio is also arguably poorer quality sound than FM so should the system be flat or adjusted for each?

I think better advice it to start flat and adjust for elements you feel are lacking or to pronounce. E.g if you feel vocals aren't clear, knock up (or down) the mid ranges a notch or two. Small adjustment at a time for each range.

Mastering engineer by trade here - it's my job to fix poorly recorded and mixed tracks, to make records sound consistent even when they've not been recorded or mixed in the same studios, to prepare music optimally for its final destination medium, and ultimately to make it sound as the artist intended on as wide a range of playback systems as is inherently possible.
I do so in a room with 10k speakers and 30k of acoustic treatment to provide a measured flat frequency response +- 2dB from 20Hz-20KHz.

Part of your post I agree with - tweak the settings to how you like it. Simples really.

Most listening environments are nothing near the optimal space I have the good fortune to work in. A car is one of the worst environments you can imagine in this regard. Speakers in close proximity to hard boundaries causing terrible SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response), Lots of corners and crevices for build up of low frequencies, many complex room modes causing peaks and troughs and even complete cancellation of various frequencies at specific positions. Measure the response (sine wave sweep) at the 5 different seating positions in a typical car and you will get very different results. Even moving your head a few inches and you can hear the change in response. This includes moving as you might normally whilst driving, and also implies significant differences when people are of different height, and move their seat forwards or backwards, or prefer a high or low seating position. There's also lots of glass meaning many early reflections causing time domain issues, which can't be fixed by EQ anyway. And so on.
Plus typically average audio components at best.

So the idea that flat settings on the equaliser = flat frequency response in any of the main seating positions is unfortunately wishful thinking. The reality is very different.

Since most people don't have measuring equipment, and since adjusting EQ for a single static measured position is not much use, given some of the reasons I've explained earlier, all you can really do is adjust the settings so that for you - across a wide range of source material that you typically listen to, and across a good variety of different head positions that you'll typically use during normal driving - you enjoy the sound and don't get too fatigued from listening.

Hope that helps explain.

[DazC]

Originally Posted by subsy

Mastering engineer by trade here - it's my job to fix poorly recorded and mixed tracks, to make records sound consistent even when they've not been recorded or mixed in the same studios, to prepare music optimally for its final destination medium, and ultimately to make it sound as the artist intended on as wide a range of playback systems as is inherently possible.
I do so in a room with 10k speakers and 30k of acoustic treatment to provide a measured flat frequency response +- 2dB from 20Hz-20KHz.

Part of your post I agree with - tweak the settings to how you like it. Simples really.

Most listening environments are nothing near the optimal space I have the good fortune to work in. A car is one of the worst environments you can imagine in this regard. Speakers in close proximity to hard boundaries causing terrible SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response), Lots of corners and crevices for build up of low frequencies, many complex room modes causing peaks and troughs and even complete cancellation of various frequencies at specific positions. Measure the response (sine wave sweep) at the 5 different seating positions in a typical car and you will get very different results. Even moving your head a few inches and you can hear the change in response. This means moving as you might normally whilst driving, and also implies significant differences when people are of different height, and move their seat forwards or backwards, or order a high or low seating position. There's also lots of glass meaning many early reflections causing time domain issues, which can't be fixed by EQ anyway. And so on.
Plus typically average audio components at best.

So the idea that flat settings on the equaliser = flat frequency response in any of the main seating positions is unfortunately wishful thinking. The reality is very different.

Since most people don't have measuring equipment, and since adjusting EQ for a single static measured position is not much use, given some of the reasons I've explained earlier, all you can really do is adjust the settings so that for you - across a wide range of source material that you typically listen to, and across a good variety of different head positions that you'll typically use during normal driving - you enjoy the sound and don't get too fatigued from listening.

Hope that helps explain.

Excellent post subsy

[BimmerF32_430i]

Originally Posted by Nobby Clark

Please don't take this advice.

Your sound preferences are personal to your music tastes and your unique ears.
Use the EQ to find what you feel sounds best.

Lmao you contradict yourself in that statement. I used someone else's settings (someone who is a professional) and then tweaked it to my own taste.

[InquisitiveA]

Originally Posted by subsy

Mastering engineer by trade here...

Excellent post indeed.

What I took from that is adjusting using one seating position listening to one track with the car invariably stopped and silent is a pretty pointless exercise. And anyone claiming to have the "best" settings it talking nonsense. So play with the settings if you want but don't get too stressed or anal about it.

[JohnRob2016]

Originally Posted by subsy

Mastering engineer by trade here - it's my job to fix poorly recorded and mixed tracks, to make records sound consistent even when they've not been recorded or mixed in the same studios, to prepare music optimally for its final destination medium, and ultimately to make it sound as the artist intended on as wide a range of playback systems as is inherently possible.
I do so in a room with 10k speakers and 30k of acoustic treatment to provide a measured flat frequency response +- 2dB from 20Hz-20KHz.

Part of your post I agree with - tweak the settings to how you like it. Simples really.

Most listening environments are nothing near the optimal space I have the good fortune to work in. A car is one of the worst environments you can imagine in this regard. Speakers in close proximity to hard boundaries causing terrible SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response), Lots of corners and crevices for build up of low frequencies, many complex room modes causing peaks and troughs and even complete cancellation of various frequencies at specific positions. Measure the response (sine wave sweep) at the 5 different seating positions in a typical car and you will get very different results. Even moving your head a few inches and you can hear the change in response. This includes moving as you might normally whilst driving, and also implies significant differences when people are of different height, and move their seat forwards or backwards, or prefer a high or low seating position. There's also lots of glass meaning many early reflections causing time domain issues, which can't be fixed by EQ anyway. And so on.
Plus typically average audio components at best.

So the idea that flat settings on the equaliser = flat frequency response in any of the main seating positions is unfortunately wishful thinking. The reality is very different.

Since most people don't have measuring equipment, and since adjusting EQ for a single static measured position is not much use, given some of the reasons I've explained earlier, all you can really do is adjust the settings so that for you - across a wide range of source material that you typically listen to, and across a good variety of different head positions that you'll typically use during normal driving - you enjoy the sound and don't get too fatigued from listening.

Hope that helps explain.

That's what I like to read, a professional view that I can learn from. Thanks subsy!

[willjames]

Originally Posted by subsy

Mastering engineer by trade here - it's my job to fix poorly recorded and mixed tracks, to make records sound consistent even when they've not been recorded or mixed in the same studios, to prepare music optimally for its final destination medium, and ultimately to make it sound as the artist intended on as wide a range of playback systems as is inherently possible.
I do so in a room with 10k speakers and 30k of acoustic treatment to provide a measured flat frequency response +- 2dB from 20Hz-20KHz.

Part of your post I agree with - tweak the settings to how you like it. Simples really.

Most listening environments are nothing near the optimal space I have the good fortune to work in. A car is one of the worst environments you can imagine in this regard. Speakers in close proximity to hard boundaries causing terrible SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response), Lots of corners and crevices for build up of low frequencies, many complex room modes causing peaks and troughs and even complete cancellation of various frequencies at specific positions. Measure the response (sine wave sweep) at the 5 different seating positions in a typical car and you will get very different results. Even moving your head a few inches and you can hear the change in response. This includes moving as you might normally whilst driving, and also implies significant differences when people are of different height, and move their seat forwards or backwards, or prefer a high or low seating position. There's also lots of glass meaning many early reflections causing time domain issues, which can't be fixed by EQ anyway. And so on.
Plus typically average audio components at best.

So the idea that flat settings on the equaliser = flat frequency response in any of the main seating positions is unfortunately wishful thinking. The reality is very different.

Since most people don't have measuring equipment, and since adjusting EQ for a single static measured position is not much use, given some of the reasons I've explained earlier, all you can really do is adjust the settings so that for you - across a wide range of source material that you typically listen to, and across a good variety of different head positions that you'll typically use during normal driving - you enjoy the sound and don't get too fatigued from listening.

Hope that helps explain.

That lad knows his onions!

[330Stevie]

Top post subsy!
Knocked it out the park!!!
For me there's only one setting......
Play it loud!!!!!!

[sensible]

I started a similar thread a while ago and was directed to a thread where a sound engineer had done a load of testing and came up with the below settings. I set mine like this and it seems a good starting point.

Bass & Treble = Flat
Balance & Fader = Centered
L7 active
(Speed Volume = Center)

100Hz +4 (sometimes +5)
200Hz -5
500Hz +2
1kHz +1
2kHz Flat
5kHz -1
10kHz Flat