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Thread: DBR12 Sound Quality Issue, HELP NEEDED!

  1. #1
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    Question DBR12 Sound Quality Issue, HELP NEEDED!

    Heres the deal,

    I wanted a home stereo that would make the living room feel like a live rock concert, and we do a little karaoke from time to time. I also wanted to be able to open a few windows and have it fairly loud out by the pool. After doing a little research, and not wanting to spend the extra cash on QSC equiptment for home use, I narrowed it down to either EV or Yamaha. I ended up chosing Yamaha, and so far, I'm thinking I shoud have went with EV, but just maybe there is something I'm missing.

    I began by purchasing two DBR12's and a MG12XU mixer. After hooking it all up, I quickly came to the conclusion that they are loud as hell, and clear, but I hate the sound, I just don't know how to describe it, but I will try, there is something about the tone of the DBR12's that I don't care for, and there doesn't appear to be any seperation of instruments, its flat sounding, almost like, the band is playing on the other side of the bridge, and I can only hear what is bouncing off the wall. Later, I added the DXS18 subwoofer, hooked it all up as per the manuels, set the same cutoff frequency on both the sub, and the DBR's, and the DBR's still sound bad to me.

    I'm wondering if I were to purchase an equalizer and install it between the sub and the DBR's, if that will entirely change the sound of the DBR's to something much better, my mixer only has a knob for Highs and Lows, but no mids, perhaps it is the mids that I'm missing? I guess what I want to ask this group is the following, will installing an EQ solve my problem, or is there a better option that I'm overlooking?

    EDIT: Perhaps saying that I "Hate the sound" is being a little overdramatic, they do sound better than the QSC's that a DJ had setup at a friends wedding a month ago. I'm thinking a mixer might do the trick, or is there something else that people use now days instrad of a mixer? Some kind of Digital Sound Processor, or something?
    Last edited by John Hunt; 07-17-2018 at 08:16 PM.

  2. #2
    Truck Driver Dix's Avatar
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    I like mine. Obviously an equalizer will help. I cant say its going to get you the sound you want but, I'm happy with the speakers/sound for the money.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Hunt View Post
    will installing an EQ solve my problem, or is there a better option that I'm overlooking?
    Do the speakers have the same "problem" at moderate volumes? If so then no an EQ won't help.

    Have you tried using the D-Contour boost?

    PA speakers are designed to produce a flat sound, unlike home audio speakers that are voiced all kinds of different ways a PA is supposed to be a blank canvas upon which you can paint any number of different acoustic images, that means tracks produced by different people in different studios with different equipment can and will sound very different. It also means the system may require some tone shaping EQ to reproduce the smiley face EQ sound that so many people are used to hearing. But before you run out to buy more gear I think you should give it some time because I think you may come to appreciate a flatter sound, you may start to hear things in tracks that you have never heard before and begin to prefer that sound to the overly processed mess that is so common these days.
    Last edited by conanski; 07-17-2018 at 08:36 PM.
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  4. #4
    PA tops are usually very mid-rangey.. that's what they've been designed to do after all. With the sub setup correctly you'll get some definition in the low register, mainly the kick drum depending on the enclosure.

    One option would be to use a compressor and an EQ where needed like you suggested. Maybe a digital crossover/speaker processor would do the trick if you find one that's fairly cheap, like a used 2/3-way dbx Driverack (I'm assuming you're not looking to spend a fortune in the system)

  5. #5
    Deez Beats! KLH's Avatar
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    Thread moved to get a wider audience.
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  6. #6
    PA speakers are made to go loud, not to have high fidelity. High fidelity is possible, but not in that price range. You can get around that to a great extent with a good EQ,which isn't optional, it's mandatory.
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    How about we back up a step and talk about the source? Are you using the same source, or have you tried different sources?

    I know I tried to hook my tops up to my Home AV system for the Super Bowl show and it sounded like absolute crap. I didn't take the time to do any tuning, but it was very disappointing, fortunately I knew what my speakers should like from a better source.

    I'll add that a crossover made a huge difference in my system with the subs.
    Last edited by shoot summ; 07-18-2018 at 02:17 PM.

  8. #8
    The source doesn't change the frequency response of the speaker. Most PA speakers don't have frequency response anywhere near what stereo or HT speakers do. High quality EQ can compensate for that. All the OP has in his mixer is a basic 3 band EQ, which clearly isn't adequate.
    Bill Fitzmaurice
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by shoot summ View Post
    How about we back up a step and talk about the source? Are you using the same source, or have you tried different sources?

    I know I tried to hook my tops up to my Home AV system for the Super Bowl show and it sounded like absolute crap. I didn't take the time to do any tuning, but it was very disappointing, fortunately I knew what it should sound like from a typical source.
    This is a widely known issue that low-quality mp3's and some streaming sources lack high end. It's because of the compression algorithm working against the favour of highs, ie. material with 44,1kHz sample rate can in theory go as high as 22,05kHz which is just above our hearing range.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice View Post
    The source doesn't change the frequency response of the speaker. Most PA speakers don't have frequency response anywhere near what stereo or HT speakers do. High quality EQ can compensate for that. All the OP has in his mixer is a basic 3 band EQ, which clearly isn't adequate.
    It was stated in the first post that he has a 2 band EQ. It's another thing if the source player, for example a laptop/media center has equalizer options.

    Quote Originally Posted by John Hunt View Post
    my mixer only has a knob for Highs and Lows, but no mids, perhaps it is the mids that I'm missing?

  10. #10
    Basically yea I agree with what has been said. You cannot expect the same sound from a $700 pair of PA speakers that you get from a high quality pair of HiFi speakers.. first of all because they were designed with different uses in mind, different strengths.. and second because $700 is actually not a lot of money to spend on a pair of speakers plus four channels of amplification and four channels of processing.. which is what you get with the DBR. $350/each is a really low price for a PA speaker, the speakers used in concert PAs (the good ones, not the crap) cost easily 10-20 times more than you spent.

    Then there is the whole question of, when you decided you wanted concert sound in your house, what was it about the concert sound that you were looking for? I think that in many respects the concert sound is really not as good as you think it is and if you were to hear it side by side with a quality hifi you'd be very surprised at how much better the hifi sounds in many ways. But yes in a big space the concert PA shines because it's designed to solve the problems of filling a large space with sound, the hifi can't do that.

    But yea I think that with care in speaker placement, some eq work and maybe you'll get closer to what you want.

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