- Thread Author
- #1
roon DSP: bass boost w/ low-shelf parametric eq filter...
sometimes when listening to specific recordings i wish there was a little more deep-end bass. a good example of recordings i find to be bass-lite are 1950s - 60s jazz. while my amp + speaker pairing is more than able to deliver punchy / impactful bass that makes the entire recording rich and full, that information is just not in the signal for some material.
for a variety of reasons i do not want to add subs to my system, including that my listening room is the living room which would bump up against some WAF constraints. at some point it occurred to me that i could use the DSP functionality in roon to accomplish pretty much the same thing. by using roon's parametric eq filter and creating a low-shelf filter, it is possible to boost the low frequency part of the audio signal.
here is a screenshot of the filter in roon -- there are three parameters one can adjust to fine tune the filter and, thereby, tailor the sound to one's system and preferences.
- frequency controls where along the frequency spectrum the adjustment is applied
- gain sets the amount of adjustment appled in dBs
- Q is a parameter that adjusts the frequency range over which the gain is fully applied
in my system i had to set the frequency pretty low at 75Hz and the Q pretty short at 0.875, otherwise the filter overly affected the adjacent higher frequencies in a negative way. i started out with a gain of 6 dB which was way too much and settled on a gain of 2 or 3 dBs which resulted in a nice bump to the bass and overall richness of the sound.
one detail to be aware of is that DSP can result in roon clipping the signal if it is out of the allowed range. it is easy to control for this by simply enabling headroom management in roon DSP and setting the dB adjustment such that clipping is avoided.
this method of adding bass to enhance the SQ has the non-trivial benefit of avoiding all the matching, positioning, etc issues that go along with adding subwoofers to a system -- here, the added bass is coming directly from one's main speakers and is, therefore, perfectly matched and integrated. another great benefit is that it is free for users of roon and, i would think this is also possible with HPQ.
anyway, nothing new here just something I have been experimenting with for a few days and thought i would share here... for those with amp + speaker combinations capable of digging deep in the lower frequencies and who want a little more bass in the mix then this is certainly something to try out for a digital source!
more info here: https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Parametric_Equalizer
sometimes when listening to specific recordings i wish there was a little more deep-end bass. a good example of recordings i find to be bass-lite are 1950s - 60s jazz. while my amp + speaker pairing is more than able to deliver punchy / impactful bass that makes the entire recording rich and full, that information is just not in the signal for some material.
for a variety of reasons i do not want to add subs to my system, including that my listening room is the living room which would bump up against some WAF constraints. at some point it occurred to me that i could use the DSP functionality in roon to accomplish pretty much the same thing. by using roon's parametric eq filter and creating a low-shelf filter, it is possible to boost the low frequency part of the audio signal.
here is a screenshot of the filter in roon -- there are three parameters one can adjust to fine tune the filter and, thereby, tailor the sound to one's system and preferences.
- frequency controls where along the frequency spectrum the adjustment is applied
- gain sets the amount of adjustment appled in dBs
- Q is a parameter that adjusts the frequency range over which the gain is fully applied
in my system i had to set the frequency pretty low at 75Hz and the Q pretty short at 0.875, otherwise the filter overly affected the adjacent higher frequencies in a negative way. i started out with a gain of 6 dB which was way too much and settled on a gain of 2 or 3 dBs which resulted in a nice bump to the bass and overall richness of the sound.
one detail to be aware of is that DSP can result in roon clipping the signal if it is out of the allowed range. it is easy to control for this by simply enabling headroom management in roon DSP and setting the dB adjustment such that clipping is avoided.
this method of adding bass to enhance the SQ has the non-trivial benefit of avoiding all the matching, positioning, etc issues that go along with adding subwoofers to a system -- here, the added bass is coming directly from one's main speakers and is, therefore, perfectly matched and integrated. another great benefit is that it is free for users of roon and, i would think this is also possible with HPQ.
anyway, nothing new here just something I have been experimenting with for a few days and thought i would share here... for those with amp + speaker combinations capable of digging deep in the lower frequencies and who want a little more bass in the mix then this is certainly something to try out for a digital source!
more info here: https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Parametric_Equalizer
