Headphones match, why not monitor match?

Nuendo
1

Nuendo 15 has the headphones match plugin which has a large database of headphone models to make sure that the headphones you’re using to mix sound like the mix is supposed to sound.

But what about the monitors, as in the speakers for professional audio, like for example the Adam Audio and several other brands. How comes there’s a headphone match plugin but not a speaker match plugin.

Is there a website that maybe publishes all these EQ curves so they can be maybe imported into Frequency 2 and used in the same way?

2

Doesn’t make sense without taking into account the room. Hence we use tools that look at the individual interaction between speaker(s) and the surrounding acoustics, like Trinnov, Dirac, or proprietary software of the loudspeaker manufacturers themselves.

3

Fair enough, but at least Dirac doesn’t do much in rooms that are not well prepared for sound. That’s what I have in my Onkyo TX-RZ50 receiver, and it’s great only because the software gives you kind of a parametric EQ (it really isn’t, but it seems to have as many bands as you want), so you can push it much more than what the receiver itself offers with its own EQ.

But when I took the time to run the test and measure from 9 or so different positions, what it gave me back didn’t sound that great. It was better than leaving all the audio settings at their defaults, but nothing remarkable. It was only after I took the time to properly adjust the EQ, then save it to a file, apply to the rest of the speakers and so on, that I made this receiver sound like what costs.

Now, if I had all this in one of those properly setup home theater rooms with all the panels and so on, would it give me something better? Possibly, but I simply don’t have that, and with my custom EQ it sounds great.

4

I am pretty sure that I strongly advised you to take care of your room acoustics, first. About a year ago if I’m not mistaken. Rest assured, you can’t fix a bad sounding room no matter what kind of EQ you are using. It’s as simple as that.
EQ curves for monitors alone won’t help as @Dietz rightfully pointed out. But - every little bit of acoustic treatment helps and goes a long way. Time and money well spent.

If you want to do yourself a favour start with a few simple DIY absorbers and listen how the room sounds changes for the better all of a sudden.
Anyways, you do you. I feel like I’m on repeat :wink:

5

Well, I don’t really have an obligation to follow your advice, or anyone else’s. After all, we’re talking about my master bedroom, not a studio, in which case, I’d probably have professional soundproofing done.

I don’t know about “fixing”. I just know that the two most important things in sound quality are the device amplifying the sound (amplifier, receiver, etc), and the speakers. If you have a '70s or early '80s Sansui with decent speakers, preferably with an equalizer, that will sound great no matter how bad the room is soundproofed. On the other hand, you can have the perfect room in theory for acoustics, with the best sound engineers in the world soundproofing it, and if you have a bad amplifier and speakers, they will still sound like crap.

In my case, I have a weird master bedroom that is as weird as it can be, with a ceiling in two sections angled as if it was a house, but because of the layout of the room, I can’t even center the listening area. To make matters worse, the window is in like its own area, protruding from the rest of the room. It’s as asymmetrical as it can be, and I’m sure that any soundproofing engineer would say “Dude, just get another house with a proper square or rectangular room and call me back.” Not only in its layout, but in the sense that there’s stuff in different places like my desk with my three 32" monitors, and NI S88 MKII MIDI keyboard, Mac Studio and PC, to the other side with bookshelves with vinyl records, some CDs, some Blu-rays, and several more things that make this room impossible to soundproof properly.

And yet, my Onkyo receiver with my Emotiva speakers sound far better than anything else I’ve heard when it comes to sound quality, both for music and movies. I’ve been to audiophile stores where they show you the systems in the thousands, and in some really good movie theaters. None of them come close to the sound quality I get when the movie or TV series has basic decent sound editing, from the best in 4K Blu-rays, down to CDs.

Of course this is only when editing the Dirac Live EQ curve to my preference, otherwise this Onkyo is another current mediocre receiver, like most of them, because good sound out of the box seems to have died along with Sansui back in the '80s.

6

It’s all good. Of course, you don’t have to follow anyone’s advice! Sorry if it came across that way. As I said: you do you. If you are happy with your sound then that’s that. I don’t necessarily agree with your line of arguments but that doesn’t matter.

Enjoy making music!

7

I use Avantone MixCubes in an ordinary room, up close and at low level, with a TC Electronic BMC2, that does not change the signal at Unity Gain, or 0.

AI Mastering tells me what is too loud or too soft, and then I reverse engineer back to the programming of the original MIDI, and since I use professional samples from respected developers, I don’t have to worry about Equalisation, only Dynamics, which in the end, AI tells me about in any case, or else I monitor at low level, and use my ears.