Need help with EQ

[belushka]

I have Cowon JetAudio media player on my PC, and I compared it with my Rockboxed Fuze and they sound the same when EQ is off.

But when I put Rock EQ setting in JetAudio it sounds much better. So I tried to find the same setting on Rockbox... Unfortunately I couldn't match the sound quality with the PC. Can someone tell what do I need to put in the EQ to make it sound the same as JetAudio on ROCK setting? I tried everything but I can't make it sound as good.

Here's the pic of what that setting looks like:


you can see that it's a V shape and has elevation at 200Hz and 8Khz, and it goes down at 1.2 Khz. I tried to put this in Rockbox:

eq enabled: on
eq precut: 0
eq band 0 cutoff: 60
eq band 1 cutoff: 180
eq band 2 cutoff: 1000
eq band 3 cutoff: 4000
eq band 4 cutoff: 8000
eq band 0 q: 7
eq band 1 q: 10
eq band 2 q: 10
eq band 3 q: 10
eq band 4 q: 7
eq band 0 gain: 0
eq band 1 gain: 50
eq band 2 gain: -50
eq band 3 gain: 0
eq band 4 gain: 50

but it still didn't sound as good as JetAudio. I don't know, maybe the EQ in JetAudio is better... I know they sound the same on Flat.
And BTW, there was no sound effects on in JA.

[saratoga]

You're boosting frequencies without precut.  That is not going to work.  Either make all gains negative (so that you don't saturate), or apply as much precut as you apply gain. 

[belushka]

Why does it work in JetAudio? I didn't use precut in JA and I used gain in JA. I mean it sounded great.
Do I need to use precut if I don't increase gain but I boost the Bass from the menu?

[saratoga]

Why does it work in JetAudio? I didn't use precut in JA and I used gain in JA.

Its probably looking at what you're trying to do and just giving you precut. 

Do I need to use precut if I don't increase gain but I boost the Bass from the menu?

No, that filter can't be customized, so the precut is built in.

[sockbox]

I have no idea what the EQ settings and number means so I played it by ear.

Here's what I'd did in the graphical EQ. For each EQ setting I familiarized myself with the maximum & minimum value and how it affects the sound. For each setting I moved the slider far enough to the left and right for the Gain, Cutoff, and Q values to get an idea of what each direction does to the sound. When I got an idea of where to place the slider then I started to fine tune the settings to the way I thought sounded best. I'd try the settings on a few different songs, making compromises in the values because some settings didn't work for different songs.  I'd save the configuration file when I thought I had it set perfectly. The next day I'd revisit my settings and start fine tuning all over again.

It takes a few passes to get the settings just right. Just don't try to do it in one day because your ears will fatigue. What might sound right one day might sound off the next day.

[soap]

The biggest problem most people have is grasping how the Q factor works.

http://howtoeq.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/q-factor-and-bandwidth-in-eq-what-it-all-means/

[belushka]

it's just a little hard to get used to non-graphic EQ. But I think I made it. Pretty good EQ.