How to do Room EQ with Sound Blaster Z in HTPC feeding amp (not AVR)?

toniok2

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Oct 5, 2008
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I am building an HTPC with a Sound Blaster Z for audio. The Z will feed into a 5 channel amp using analog (phono) connections . (Yes I know, horrors!, no HDMI.) That is a plain amp, not an AVR, so the amp has no controls, the Z will act as the preamp, and all equalization has to happen in the HTPC.

The card has a 10 frequency band equalizer, 31Hz to 16KHz, but no specific way to EQ a room. And that frequency/band range isn't overly impressive anyway. The Z does however have a microphone input, which hopefully I can use in some way. What is the best way to EQ the room using only the HTPC (and a mic of course)?

I would of course prefer a simple automatic method, but I'll be happy with any workable solution.
 
Solution

JohnACK

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Mar 3, 2014
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The best way to do it would be the same way an Audio Engineer EQs a system. Find pink noise(freq from 10hz-25khz) and make sure that everything sounds even. Of course, this is difficult and you have to have a trained ear to do this... If you're ear isn't trained, then play a song that you know very well through it and adjust the EQ until it sounds right to you.
 
Solution

JohnACK

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Mar 3, 2014
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It's not so much that we cut(reduce gain) instead of boosting(increasing gain). What we do is we cut first and if the problem persists, then we boost. You should not cut or boost too much, cutting too much deadens the sound and boosting too much damages the speakers.