S9 Equalizer sound issue

[PedroElgringo]

Hi all,

I'm a happy owner of a CowonS9 32gb (FW 2.41 Non-UE).

But I just discover a strange issue with the equalizer. When I try lowering the gain for the high range, the sound get really horrible and crackling, as if it were saturating.

Here is the setting I use :
Every band left to default (gain 0 dB) except the last one set to 9kHz, narrow (doesn't matter anyway, sounds horrible whatever the setting...)
And then lower this band to -5dB.
The lower the gain, the worst the sound gets...

Does anybody face the same issue ?

And by the way, does someone know how Wide, Normal and Narrow bandwidth are exactly, in kHz or Hz or % or whatever it might be ? I couldn't find the info.

Thanks !

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

You might want to post what headphones or iem's you are using, unless I missed it.

[PedroElgringo]

It was in my signature, not too obvious, but was there:
Sennheiser HD 25-1 II

I have some other phones, I will do some testing with them.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by PedroElgringo

It was in my signature, not too obvious, but was there:
Sennheiser HD 25-1 II

I have some other phones, I will do some testing with them.

Ops, missed it, tks for pointing it out as I typically don’t look at sigs unless they’re really obnoxious and need to be deleted

BTW, what format and caliber rips are you using for testing? This info should help you get better replies …

[PedroElgringo]

Ok,
did some testing:
on sennheiser PX 200, same problem.
And this happens on ogg, mp3 and FLAC (whatever the bitrate).

It is also more easily noticeable on accoustic music with large dynamics.

[The DarkSide]

Have you tried re-flashing the firmware, as this can sometime occur w/a bad upgrade.

[PedroElgringo]

Nope,
tried installing 1.41, then removed param.cfg to reset settings, but the exact same issue remains.

Did someone try this setting, am I the only one with this problem ?

[WalkGood]

Not that I had my doubts, my guess it's the same on all cowon's, but I tested a good mp3 file and a flac file as well. I came up with the same results on my iAudio 7/ue11 combo, that’s not to say that you don’t get a crackling sound below -5db, I just couldn’t hear it. But who and why would you run with this setting o_O. I didn’t have time to test the same with external amp, but if I have time later I’ll give it a try, not that I expect different results, but should be interesting and I’ll post my observation later.

I’m not a big user of equalizers because most that I’ve tried produce negative results the further you tweak them, although on cowon I do use mild settings occasionally but not very often. I prefer to run with BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance and the occasional 3D surround, all on low settings. Should be interesting to hear from others as well.

[PedroElgringo]

Ok,

You have a point, this is a strange setting.
But I was just messing around with the EQ and because the EQ on Cowon DAPs were supposed to be good, I was quite surprised to hear those crackling. Especially since I never heard any EQ deteriorate quality at all before.
And this may also happen with different setting, hence my curiosity.

This is why I would appreciate if anyone is interested in running this test :
Play this file (30 sec Lisa Ekdahl song sample, ogg format) on your DAP with this EQ setting : 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / -5, 9kHz, Narrow

This is a track on which I particularly hear a lot of crackling towards the end.

[WalkGood]

Finally had a chance to test it amped and now I hear the crackling sound starting at -3db, strange the + reverse isn't crackling. But with EQ flat, with or without some of the JetEffect settings (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP enhance...) it sounds so good, it’s hard to describe

[PedroElgringo]

Yes,
what did you test it with ? S9 latest firmware ?
I didn't have the opportunity to try it with the previous firmware. It might have something to do with the new JetEffect 3.0.

[PedroElgringo]

Ok,
just tried it with the previous firmware (2.31b) and it has the same issue. So JetEffect 3.0 has nothing to do with it.
Hope they get this fixed some day. Is there a place to report this kind of bugs ?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by PedroElgringo

Yes,
what did you test it with ? S9 latest firmware ?
I didn't have the opportunity to try it with the previous firmware. It might have something to do with the new JetEffect 3.0.

I thought I made it clear above that I do not own an s9, again I tested it on my iAudio 7/ue11 combo … I also stated “my guess it's the same on all cowon's.”

Originally Posted by PedroElgringo

… Hope they get this fixed some day. Is there a place to report this kind of bugs ?

You can report it through their website, as I said earlier the setting is so bizarre that I highly doubt they’ll do anything, there are other more important fixes. Personally I’m not wasting any more time on this.

[PedroElgringo]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

I thought I made it clear above that I do not own an s9, again I tested it on my iAudio 7/ue11 combo … I also stated “my guess it's the same on all cowon's.”

Sorry, didn't pay attention to that part.

Originally Posted by WalkGood

You can report it through their website, as I said earlier the setting is so bizarre that I highly doubt they’ll do anything, there are other more important fixes. Personally I’m not wasting any more time on this.

Thanks, i'll report it. I agree there are way more important fixes at the moment, but this is still important for me, as I often us such equalizer setting.

Bye