I have had my MiniDSP 2x4 and UMIK-1 and used REW now for about a year and a half. Over that time I have tried 3 different ways of apply sub PEQ via MiniDSP 2x4 and REW. My AVR does no sub EQ and I don't use its auto PEQ for the speakers, so this discussion is solely about EQ'ing the LFE channel via REW and MiniDSP 2x4 unbalanced.
Here is method 1 (target level is set by REW and all boost filters are disabled completely):
This method sounds best to my ears (no ringing, distortion, or irritation to ears).
Method 2 adds one overall boost filter (5dB max overall boost) to fill in the big, wide dip around 45Hz:
This method sounds great for the most part but I do get significant irritation in my ears after a bit, especially at higher volumes. I suspect added ringing from the boost filter is the problem.
Method 3 sets the target level much lower, at the bottom of the dip around 45Hz and uses one individual (zero overall) boost filter:
This method causes no irritation to my ears, just like method 1, but SQ seems to suffer in terms of clarity, punchiness, and probably signal to noise ratio because of cutting too much via EQ and boosting sub gain knob a lot to compensate.
Here is method 1 (target level is set by REW and all boost filters are disabled completely):
This method sounds best to my ears (no ringing, distortion, or irritation to ears).
Method 2 adds one overall boost filter (5dB max overall boost) to fill in the big, wide dip around 45Hz:
This method sounds great for the most part but I do get significant irritation in my ears after a bit, especially at higher volumes. I suspect added ringing from the boost filter is the problem.
Method 3 sets the target level much lower, at the bottom of the dip around 45Hz and uses one individual (zero overall) boost filter:
This method causes no irritation to my ears, just like method 1, but SQ seems to suffer in terms of clarity, punchiness, and probably signal to noise ratio because of cutting too much via EQ and boosting sub gain knob a lot to compensate.