Can you draw frequency response charts in your head from listening?

[Lindsayt]

Do you have the ability to draw frequency response charts in your head when you listen to a system or a component?
And have these charts turned out to be reasonably representative when you've seen charts of the same equipment produced by testing equipment?


There are times when I've been able to draw such a chart in my head which has then be confirmed when I've looked at the measurement pages on the Stereophile website.
There have also been a few times when I've got it wrong. And plenty of times when I would have had no confidence in my ability to chart something.

A memorable time was when I bought a Linn Klyde cartridge. It sounded bass heavy and treble light. And when I saw a magazine review, it confirmed a quite large, for a cartridge, downward slope from the bass to the treble.

Another was Kef LS50's. Listened to 3 tracks against different B&W speakers. Decided that the Kefs sounded like they had a double camel hump frequency response curve. Here's the Stereophile, in room, frequency response in red for the LS50's:


I think that it's quite possible to design a competent pair of speakers by just using your ears and using no laboratory equipment whatsoever. Especially for someone with more experience and better trained ears than mine.

Where I struggle most to gauge the tonal balance / frequency response, is when I'm listening to an unfamiliar recording in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar system.
Where I'm most likely to gauge it reasonably well is when I'm listening to a very familiar recording, at home, where I've swapped 1 component in my system.

[savvypaul]

I don't know if I could draw an FR plot from listening but, all other things being equal, I can usually detect if something is wrong.

Experience with partnering equipment and the room definitely helps, although Richard seemed to be able to hear through those layers of complexity, within seconds.

The NVA circuit is very even handed, to my ears, which makes it easier to detect anomalies in speakers / sources.

Ultimately, FR is not always a deal breaker for me. For example, Klipsch Heresy have an obvious peak in the presence region and little bass below about 55hz but they still boogie at relatively low volumes on the end of an SET or even an AP10P. In my smallish room, with a bit of toe-in, they work well. Ultimately, I want more bass, but they are still way preferable to 99% of what they were priced at when I bought them

[CN211276]

I can detect frequency anomalies in my listening room playing familiar music. They have sometimes been pronounced when new equipment is running in, notably bass with Sboosters. Don't know about measurements, but to my ears the FR is flat with the incisive neutral filter activated on the Chord Qutest with the room furnished as it is now. I can detect the slight well documented HF roll off on my Chord Mojo, but this is compensated for bythe Grado headphones. My wife says I have exceptional ears.
;

[Geoff.R.G]

Personally I think it more important to be able to detect room effects but generally that is a greater problem in large halls than domestic environments.

[karatestu]

I think that it's quite possible to design a competent pair of speakers by just using your ears and using no laboratory equipment whatsoever. Especially for someone with more experience and better trained ears than mine.

Where I struggle most to gauge the tonal balance / frequency response, is when I'm listening to an unfamiliar recording in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar system.
Where I'm most likely to gauge it reasonably well is when I'm listening to a very familiar recording, at home, where I've swapped 1 component in my system.

I agree very strongly that you can design speakers for yourself by ear. Just don't own up to that on other forums. You don't have to have trained ears just the desire to find the sound you prefer and an inkling of how it happened. I would argue that designing your own speakers for your own room can't be beaten - your ears, your music, your room, your preferences.

I think I can detect a FR anomaly pretty well now after nearly five years of messing about with diy speakers and trying loads of different things many of which were interesting but obviously wrong.

[Lindsayt]

I have generally found that room acoustics affect the bass. How much bass and how clean the bass is. With this depending on where the listener is as well as where the speakers are, for a given room.
Whilst different speakers can have different frequency responses in the bass, midrange and treble.

Also, coming back to the Kef LS50's I'd draw a different frequency response chart for them depending on the volume they were played at, in the scenario I heard them. At lower volumes I'd draw the bass as rolling off sooner than at higher volumes.

I have also found frequency sweeps, such as this one:

to be useless when it comes to discerning the shape of the frequency response. Probably because it's too artificial a noise. And because it's easier to, for example hear how forward in the mix the lead guitar is relative to the bass guitar that it is to track the volume of a sine wave over time.

[karatestu]

Rooms can be a real pain in the ass can't they. I have had my fair share of bass issues in my small almost square room. I must say that the best result i have had was with bipolar up and down firing bass with speakers almost in the centre of the room and me sat near field away from the wall.

Sadly that is not practical in my living room so back to monopole up firing and as close to the wall as possible.

I don't bother with sine sweeps either. Playing a broad range of my own familiar music does the job well enough. Portishead Dummy always gets played after a change as it can show up any shortcomings especially in the bass.

As for the LS50's I have never heard them. There must be something going on with voice coil temperature or xover components changing with temperature.

[Docfoster]

The less one can do this, the easier music listening is.

[Lindsayt]

I don't agree. Listening to music is easy. And evaluating equipment is easier if you relax and get out of the way of yourself and allow the system and the music speak for itself.

[Docfoster]

I was probably unclear.
My wife loves music. Absolutely loves it. At least as much as I do.
And, she says she can’t tell the difference between the sound direct from the tiny speakers in her iPhone and my system.
She loves music equally, through whichever it’s replayed.
I guarantee the frequency response charts for each would be different.
I envy her inability to hear that.

Edit…obviously she’d be worse than useless as a speaker designer.