If you are able to boost a boomboxes midrange you will get a brighter sound.It also seems to bring the music forward.With an equalizer this is possible by simply boosting the midrange slider.However,boxes with only bass and treble pots cannot adjust the sound for a brighter midrange.In this case you have to be happy with the amount of midrange engineered into a box.I really like the bright sounding older boxes having only bass and treble pots.I am always happy to find a box sounding like this.

One benefit of having lots of midrange is that your music will sound louder even when it is not actually louder.This may be due to the fact that the human ear is most sensitive to the middle range frequencies where the human voice is located.Depending on the music,this effect can be either good or bad.A very forward "in your face" sound works well for me when listening to some types of rock.This brings the guitars and atmosphere surrounding them to the front giving the music a more aggressive feel.Alternately,if you are able to back off the midrange it gives the music a more distanced and relaxed sound.This tends to work well with electronic music because much of it has deeper lows and more extended highs.Unless you have equipment able to put out enormous amounts of bass and highs,it's necessary to have a more distant midrange to maintain a proper balance for music with such a wide dynamic range.Of course a side effect is a more distant and darker sound overall.

Equalizers give you much more flexibility to tailor your boombox to different styles of music.Unfortunately,These weren't very commonplace on boomboxes until the years after the Golden era.The cheaper construction during the declining years and resulting worse sound quality were not ideal to take full advantage of an equalizers potential.I suppose it's also possible that manufacturers eagerly adopted equalizers during this period to try to compensate for the newer boxes lack of performance.

Even though an equalizer is preferred for flexibility,I still tend to like simple bass and treble pots on a box.For me I will tolerate having to choose a different box depending on the type of music I am listening to at the time.My most fond memories are of boxes with bright mids hardwired into them.This may be because I was more of a rock box type in my youth.Would anyone else care to weigh in on this subject?Comments on how I totally misunderstand how sound works would be appreciated also.These are just my uneducated observations and I may be full of faulty preconceived notions.This happens all the time with me

I always like the bass right up, mids down & the high treble up.

However, when giving the 3D7 the caning of a lifetime (which did happen quite a bit to be honest) I'd push up the mids & push down the bass, to spare the woofer any audible distortion. It shouted very loud like that, for sure - 3Ds don't exactly have a laid-back sound anyway

On the hifi I tend to apply a slight boost at 31hz (my speakers respond well to that) plus another lift at 16khz, apart from that I leave it pretty much flat as the system doesn't have any real deficiencies or exagerrations. On a box I tend to boost the treble quite a bit but leave the bass alone and let the speakers do their thing without extra bass being shoved through them (which I find gets most boombox woofers in a right farting flap). Also, boosting the bass can use a great of valuable amp power for little real audible gain, just makes things sound messy at even lower volume levels. I really can't stand suppressed mids though, a lot of important detail and warmth is lost.

quote:

Originally posted by Jovie:
pots vs. an equalizer

Why choose when you can have both?







Yes, they both work. Talk about your "double bass"!

quote:

pot vs. an equalizer

one you smoke or cook with one is on a stereo?

Is that the correct answer?

Isolator42-I can understand your backing off the bass when you really push a box.However it would seem to me that moving the mid slider from minimum to maximum when you do that would cause the box to sound vastly different when playing the same music.Do you also tailor the EQ to suit the type of music you are listening to at a given time?

2steppa-it seems as though we are pretty close in our EQ preferences.What kind of music do you like for the most part?

babyboomer-On the KTO do the pots affect the EQ sliders starting points or the other way around?How do redundant controls like that work together in practical usage?

erniejade-Yes it can be but thats a different forum
Your knowledge of all things audio has always really impressed me and I tend to learn a lot from your posts.Would you say I am tracking correctly?

@Jovie

Mainly 80's/90's soul/funk/electro, Reggae, UK Garage and House. With the kind of beats and basslines on some of these tracks it pays to go easy on the old bass boosting!

quote:

babyboomer-On the KTO do the pots affect the EQ sliders starting points or the other way around?How do redundant controls like that work together in practical usage?

My unfortunately simplistic answer is that both highs and lows are more prominent when the tone controls and equalizer are raised together than when either is used alone. Of course, only the equalizer boosts the mids. I'm not able to hear which set of controls is the starting point and which adds the boost. As redundant as the system is, the two sets of controls seem to boost each other mutually. I wish I had a more insightful response.

Having said that, the sound from the KTO is decidedly unsatisfying, considering the box's large size. It's one of those later, lighter, black boxes, full of graphics and controls that look complex, but don't deliver the goods. I was listening to it alongside my Prosonic 9962 the other day, and the Prosonic absolutely blew it away in clarity, resonance of the bass, and fullness (whatever that is) of the sound. By comparison, even with the tone controls and equalizer optimally (in my opinion) adjusted, the KTO sounds thin, flat and uninspiring. The "tone" may be there, but the overtones that make music come alive aren't.

I've often thought boxes with 'just' separate bass and treble controls have less midrange than ones with equalizers. I set up an equalizer just as Iso42 does. Bass up high, mids low-mid position, and treble right up. Boomboxes can produce a very full sound like this. I tend to be constantly adjusting the equalizer to wherever it sounds 'right', for whatever song happens to be playing.

That KTO is a cool looking box, with a design similar to the Sharp GF-9494. The speakers look crap though!

Again I've found some boxes with only bass and treble controls to have a brighter sound than others.This effect I feel must be due to more mids being designed into the box.Simple bass and treble controls will modify the deep lows and extreme highs.They have little effect on midrange from what I can tell.All of my boxes that naturally sound really bright are really old ones (late'70s to mid '80s).Examples would be my KTO,bolt box,Mc Donald Instruments,Goldstar TSR-581.As some of these boxes don't have the cleanest sound they can sound quite shrill/shouty at higher volume.This effect I actually like for some reason.

Personally I think even older name branded boxes from the classic era had more pronounced mids.This seems to be permanently designed into the area between which their bass and treble pots have the most influence on the sound.However,they had cleaner sound than the offbrands and AKA types.Aiwa,Sonys,G.E.s before about 1985 just really sounded brighter and more lifelike to me than the offerings from those same companies ten years later.Everything I own from the '90s just has a darker sound to my ears than many of the ones from the Golden Era.Of course boxes with equalizers can serve to compensate for this somewhat.

I've posted numerous times referring to this sonic characteristic but have gotten little response.Keep in mind it's not like I am schooled in sound and acoustics.Maybe this brightness is caused by something else completely and I don't realize it.It remains my hope that someone really knowledgeable will eventually be able to either agree with my thoughts or set me straight on the cause of this.Of course Someone first must recognize what I am even talking about.This sound to me is the most highly prized characteristics of Golden Era boomers.I cannot be the only person who has observed this distinct difference.

quote:

Originally posted by Jovie:
Isolator42-I can understand your backing off the bass when you really push a box. However it would seem to me that moving the mid slider from minimum to maximum when you do that would cause the box to sound vastly different when playing the same music.

Remember I said that the mids were originally set to minimum, so when I push them up, it's only back to flat, or maybe slightly above, if I'm trying to wring the last possible decibel out of a b-box. You're right, cranking them all the way up wouldn't be a good move.
At the highest volumes it's all about managing the bass, as there's usually not enough power in a b-box to support it. Apart from the Kaboom of course, but that thing is just bonkers.

quote:

Originally posted by Jovie:
Do you also tailor the EQ to suit the type of music you are listening to at a given time?

Well, I default to the usual lopsided smile shape (in favour of the bass), but tailor it a bit depending on the type of music. Often the mid-bass needs attention. I listen to a wide range of music (for example, recent listens: Iron Maiden, Run DMC, Portishead, Soft Cell, Sisters Of Mercy, Kraftwerk, dance, pop... all sorts)