JP2002171589A - Audio unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an audio unit that passes an audio signal outputted from a sound source device through filters whose frequency characteristics differ from each other and whose characteristics can be individually adjusted such as a bass filter 3, a treble filter 4 and a loudness filter 6 or a low sound emphasis exclusive filter 14, and reproduces the filtered signal, is provided with a low sound emphasis switch 12b that emphasizes a low frequency sound, and furthermore enhances the effect of low frequency sound emphasis by the operation of the low sound emphasis switch 12b. SOLUTION: When the low sound emphasis switch 12b is operated to emphasize a low frequency sound, the switch 12b changes the frequency characteristics of the filters 3, 4 and 5 or 14 to provide a low frequency sound emphasis effect. Concretely the low sound emphasis switch 12b activates the loudness filter 6 or the low frequency sound emphasis exclusive filter 14, enhances a low frequency bass characteristic of the bass filter 3 and improves a high frequency pass characteristic of the treble filter 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an audio device,
In particular, a bass sound that is output from a sound source device through a plurality of filters having different frequency characteristics from each other and whose characteristics can be individually adjusted to reproduce the sound, and further operated to emphasize bass. The present invention relates to an audio device having an emphasis switch.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An audio device, for example, a car audio device mounted on a car or the like generally has a configuration as shown in FIG. In the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a sound source device, which comprises, for example, a CD (compact disk) or MD (mini-disc) player, a tuner for receiving audio of a radio broadcast or a television broadcast, and converts an output digital signal of the CD or MD into an analog signal. It has a built-in D / A converter for conversion and outputs left and right analog audio signals R and L. Reference numeral 2 denotes a main volume, which controls a volume according to a volume control signal from a control unit described later.

[0003] Reference numeral 3 denotes a bass filter, for example, a low tone (a band having a maximum value at 200 Hz or less) as shown in FIG.
4 is a trebles filter, for example, a treble (2 kHz) as shown in FIG.
z), and has a basic frequency characteristic of enhancing
Is a loudness filter which normally remains off, has a flat frequency characteristic when off, and switches from on to off and off to on when a bass enhancement switch (12b) described later is operated. Switches. When the switch is on, it has a basic frequency characteristic in which the attenuation increases as the frequency increases in the range of 20 to 300 Hz, and substantially the same attenuation occurs at 300 Hz or more. Therefore, when the audio signal passes through the loudness filter 6, the low band is emphasized relatively more strongly than the middle band and the high band. When it is off, it has a flat frequency characteristic over the entire audio frequency band.
These three filters 3, 4, 5 are cascaded, and their overall basic characteristics are shown in FIG. Reference numeral 7 denotes a fader (attenuator), 8 denotes a power amplifier, and 9L and 9R denote speakers.

A control unit 11 stores a CPU, a program executed by the CPU, basic data, and the like.
U comprises a plurality of memories and the like for performing temporary storage and the like necessary in the process of executing the program, and a switch (button) 1
Each part in the audio device is controlled in accordance with the operation contents of 2, 12, ..., 12b. Reference numeral 13 denotes a display, which is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display element, and includes switch operation contents, modes (MD / CD reproduction mode, tuner reproduction mode,
There is a menu mode and the like. ) Etc. are displayed.

The switches 12, 12,... 12
12b out of b is a bass enhancement switch. When the switch is turned on, the loudness filter 6 is turned on, and the bass is enhanced. The other filters, namely, the bass filter 3 and the treble filter 4 are connected to another switch 1.
By the operations 2 and 12, the frequency characteristics can be changed from the above basic frequency characteristics individually in multiple stages or continuously. When the bass enhancement switch 12b is turned on while the bass filter 3 and the treble filter 4 are individually changed to have a certain overall frequency characteristic, the loudness filter 6 is turned on based on the overall frequency characteristic. Thus, the low frequency band is emphasized relative to the other bands by a predetermined emphasis level.

As shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG.
When the bass emphasis switch 12b is turned on when the bass emphasis filter 14 that amplifies the low frequency band of the audio signal is used instead of the loudness filter 6, the bass emphasis filter 1
There is also an audio device that turns on 4.

According to the above-described audio apparatus, when the user wants to use a low tone for the music to be viewed, the loudness filter 6 (or the filter 14 for low-frequency emphasis) is turned on by operating the low-frequency emphasis switch 12b. Thus, the low frequency range of the overall frequency characteristics can be emphasized. Therefore, it is possible to enjoy the presence of powerful bass and powerful music.

In some cases, it is preferable not to emphasize the bass depending on the genre of music (genres such as jazz, new music, rock, pop songs, classical music, etc.) or the number (tune). In such a case, the bass is emphasized. By operating the switch 12b, the loudness filter 6 (or the filter 14 for bass enhancement) may be turned off.

[0009]

By the way, recently, users of audio devices, especially car audio devices,
There is an increasing demand for a stronger bass enhancement effect when the bass enhancement switch 12b is turned on. When driving a car, especially when driving at high speeds, the noise heard inside the car increases, and since the noise has many low-frequency components, the bass of music is drastically eliminated by the noise, resulting in a bass enhancement effect. Because it fades.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem. A plurality of signal paths having different frequency characteristics and individually adjustable characteristics are provided in a signal path through which an audio signal output from a sound source device passes. In the audio device having the filter of the above, further comprising a bass enhancement switch that is operated to enhance the bass, it is possible to further enhance the bass enhancement effect when the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass. The purpose is to:

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, when the bass enhancing switch is operated to enhance the bass, the frequency characteristic is changed so as to provide a bass enhancing effect to the plurality of filters. It is characterized by the following.

Therefore, according to the audio device of the first aspect, when the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass, only one filter, for example, a loudness filter (or a filter dedicated to the bass enhancement) is provided with the bass enhancement effect. In addition, since the frequency characteristics are changed so as to bring the bass enhancement effect to other filters as well, it is possible to enhance the bass enhancement effect when the bass enhancement switch is operated by the bass enhancement switch compared to the past. become.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The audio apparatus of the present invention basically has a plurality of filters having different frequency characteristics and individually adjustable characteristics in a signal path through which an audio signal output from a sound source apparatus passes. In the audio device including the bass emphasis switch, when the bass emphasis switch is operated by bass emphasis, a frequency characteristic is changed so as to provide a bass emphasis effect to the plurality of filters. However, the sound source device is, for example, a player such as a CD player or an MD player, an AM broadcast, an FM
A typical example is a tuner that receives an audio signal of a broadcast or a television broadcast, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this. For example, a sound processing unit for generating a sound signal of a reproducing apparatus having an image reproducing function of reproducing a television broadcast or a DVD (Digital Video Disk), reproducing car navigation information, and reproducing an image on a display is also a sound source apparatus. Corresponds to.

As a filter that is turned on when the bass emphasis switch is operated for bass emphasis, the lower the frequency in the audible voice band, the higher the frequency, the greater the attenuation.
In the band above Hz, a loudness filter that emphasizes the low frequency band by attenuating it with a substantially constant intensity may be used, or a filter dedicated to bass emphasis that emphasizes the low frequency band may be used instead. May be.

A bass filter and a treble filter are generally used as filters other than a loudness filter (or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement) which is turned on when the bass enhancement switch is operated. In this case, the bass enhancement switch is operated by the bass enhancement switch. When this is done, the loudness filter (or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement) is turned on, and the frequency characteristics of the bass filter are emphasized in the low frequency range, and the frequency characteristics of the treble filter are emphasized in the high frequency range. The reason why the treble filter is emphasized in the high frequency band is to compensate for the fact that when the bass is emphasized, the resolution in the high frequency band is reduced by the masking effect. As a result, the masking effect in the high frequency range, which is a side effect of bass emphasis, can be reduced, and the deterioration of high-pitched sound quality can be corrected.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIGS. 1A to 1C and FIG. 2 are views for explaining one embodiment of the audio apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2A is a circuit block diagram illustrating a schematic circuit configuration of an audio device, FIG. 2B is a front view of a display, and FIG. 1C is a diagram illustrating a state of each filter in a bass emphasized state. In the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a sound source device, which comprises, for example, a CD (compact disk) or MD (mini-disc) player, a tuner for receiving audio of a radio broadcast or a television broadcast, and converts an output digital signal of the CD or MD into an analog signal. Built-in D / A converter for conversion
The left and right analog audio signals R and L are output. Reference numeral 2 denotes a main volume, which controls a volume according to a volume control signal from a control unit (11) described later.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a bass filter, for example, a low tone (a band having a maximum value at 200 Hz or less) as shown in FIG.
4 is a trebles filter, for example, a treble (2 kHz) as shown in FIG.
z), and has a basic frequency characteristic of enhancing
Is a loudness filter, which is normally kept off and has a flat frequency characteristic when it is off. Then, the state is changed from the on state to the off state and from the off state to the on state by operating a bass enhancement switch (12b) described later. And when it is on, 20 to 300H
In the range of z, the attenuation increases as the frequency increases, and 300H
Above z, there is a basic frequency characteristic that causes a substantially constant attenuation. Therefore, when the audio signal passes through the loudness filter 6, the low band is emphasized relatively more strongly than the middle band and the high band. These three filters 3, 4, 5 are cascaded, and their overall basic characteristics are shown in FIG. 7 is a fader (attenuator), 8 is a power amplifier, 9
L and 9R are speakers.

A control unit 11 stores a CPU, programs executed by the CPU, basic data, and the like.
U comprises a plurality of memories and the like for performing temporary storage and the like necessary in the process of executing the program, and a switch (button) 1
Each part in the audio device is controlled according to the operation content such as 2s, 12p, 12m, and 12b. Reference numeral 12s denotes an operation target changeover switch. By pushing this switch, the target of an up / down operation by an up (+) switch (12p) / down (-) switch (12m) described below can be switched. Each time the operation target changeover switch 12s is pushed, the operation target is switched between the player and the tuner, the reception frequency is switched in the tuner, the volume, the low frequency characteristics of the bass filter, and the high frequency characteristics of the treble filter are changed. The switching can be performed in a ring manner so as to return to the original switching target after one switching target has been switched.

Reference numeral 12p denotes an up switch, which increases a control amount or the like in a stepwise manner each time an object designated by operating the operation object changeover switch 12s is pushed. For example, if the reception frequency of the tuner is an operation target, the reception frequency is increased by a fixed amount, and if the operation target is a volume, the volume is increased by a constant level.
In the case of (1), the low-pass characteristic is increased by a predetermined level, and in the case of the treble filter 4, the high-pass characteristic is increased by a predetermined level. Reference numeral 12m denotes a down switch, which reverses the control amount of the operation target in the opposite manner to the up switch 12p.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a display, which comprises, for example, a liquid crystal display element, and displays a current operation target 15 specified by operating the operation target changeover switch 12s (a display state indicating that the bass filter is an operation target in the illustrated state example). ), And a display 16 such as the current control amount of the operation target.
(In the illustrated state example, the control amount is 10 dB, more specifically, the display state shows that the maximum value level in the low range is 10 dB.) Also, bass enhancement switch 1
When 2b is turned on to enter the bass emphasized state, a bass emphasized display 17 indicating this is also performed.

Reference numeral 12b denotes a bass emphasis switch, which switches from a bass emphasis state to a normal state (a state without bass emphasis) and from a normal state to a bass emphasis state each time the switch is pushed. As described above, when the low-frequency emphasis switch 12b is operated to enter the low-frequency emphasis state, the low-frequency emphasis display 17 indicating that is made, as described above. And when the bass is emphasized,
As shown in FIG. 1 (C), the loudness filter 6 (or the filter 14 for low-frequency emphasis) is turned on, and the low-frequency emphasis of the bass filter 3 and the high-frequency emphasis of the treble filter 4 are performed. This will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the audio apparatus shown in FIG. The operation flow will be described below with reference to FIG. (S1) "Previous state" When the car key is turned on, the operation of the audio device automatically starts, and the audio device returns to the state when the operation was stopped before. Since the audio device has a built-in nonvolatile memory and always stores the current state in the memory, even if the audio device is turned off due to the stop of the engine or the like, the state immediately before the turning off is stored. Therefore, when the operation of the audio device is started, the state immediately before the turning off is read from the memory, and the audio device is controlled so as to be in that state. Therefore, when the state immediately before the previous OFF is a state in which a certain MD is reproduced by an MD player, for example, the subsequent reproduction is started. Then, the overall frequency characteristics of the filters 3, 4, and 5 become the overall frequency characteristics immediately before the filter is turned off. The same applies to the volume and the like. However, there is a possibility that the sound volume may be suddenly reproduced at a large volume, so that there is a type of audio device in which the volume level is set to a predetermined small level at the start of the operation of the audio device.
The present invention does not prevent implementation in such an embodiment.

(S2) "Switch Operation?" Next, the determination as to whether any switch 12 has been operated is repeated until a determination result of Yes is obtained. (S3) "12p?" When the determination result of step S2 is Yes, it is determined whether or not the operated switch is the up switch 12p.

(S4) "Up" If the result of the determination in step S3 is Yes, the control amount and the like for the current operation target are increased by a predetermined amount. (S5) "Switching of Display Contents" After the control amount or the like is increased by a predetermined amount in step S4, the display contents are switched to display the control amount or the like after the increase.

(S6) "12m?" If the result of the determination in step S2 is No,
It is determined whether the operated switch is the down switch 12m. (S7) "Down" If the determination result in step S3 is No, the control amount or the like for the current operation target is reduced by a predetermined amount.

(S8) "Switching of Display Contents" When the control amount or the like is reduced by a predetermined amount in step S6, the display contents are switched so as to display the control amount or the like after the decrease. (S9) "12s?" When the determination result of step S6 is No, it is determined whether or not the operated switch is the control target changeover switch 12s.

(S10) "Switching of operation target" When the result of the determination in step S9 is Yes, the operation target is switched. Specifically, the operation target is switched to the next operation target after the operation target according to a predetermined order. (S11) “Switching of Display Contents” When the operation target is switched in step S10, the display contents are switched so as to display the switched operation target (see operation target display 15).

(S12) "12b?" If the decision result in the above step S9 is No,
It is determined whether or not the operated switch is the bass enhancement switch 12b. (S13) "Bass emphasis?" If the judgment result in step S12 is Yes, it is judged whether or not the current state is the bass emphasis state.

(S14) "Normal state" If the result of the determination in step S13 is Yes, ie,
In the case of the bass emphasized state, the state is switched to a normal state (a state in which the bass is not emphasized). (S15) "Switch of display contents" Next, the bass emphasized display 17 which has occurred so far on the display 13 is erased.

(S16) "Bass Enhancement" When the result of the determination in step S13 is No, that is, when the current state is the normal state, the state is switched to the bass enhancement state. (S17) "Display Content Switching" Next, the bass 13 is displayed on the display 13 in a bass emphasized manner. (S18) “Car key cut” When any of the above steps S5, S8, S11, S15, and S17 is completed, or when the determination result in step S12 is No, whether the car key has been cut is determined. Make a decision. If the result of this determination is No, the flow returns to step S2, and if Yes, the flow ends.

Since such an operation is performed, when it is desired to switch the operation target, the operation target switch 12s is pushed. Then, each time the push is performed, the operation target is switched one by one in a predetermined order. When the user wants to increase the control amount of the current operation target, the user pushes the up switch 12p. Then, each time a push is performed, the control amount of the current operation target increases by a preset level. Conversely, if you want to lower the control amount,
When 2m is pushed, the control amount of the current operation target decreases by a preset level every time the push is performed once.

Therefore, the operation target is switched to the low-pass characteristic of the bass filter by operating the operation target changeover switch 12s, and then the up switch 12p or the down switch 12m is pushed to enhance the bass enhancement of the low-pass characteristic. Or lower. Similarly, by switching the operation target to the characteristics of the treble filter 4 and pushing the up switch 12p or the down switch 12m, it is possible to increase or decrease the high-frequency emphasis of the characteristics of the treble filter 4. Therefore, the characteristics of the bass filter 3 and the treble filter 4 can be individually and arbitrarily adjusted.

By operating the bass emphasis switch 12b, the state relating to bass emphasis can be switched between the bass emphasis state and the normal state. That is, when the bass emphasis switch 12b is pushed in the normal state, the bass emphasis state can be set, and when the bass emphasis switch 12b is pushed in the bass emphasis state, the normal state can be achieved.

When switching from the normal state to the bass emphasized state, the loudness filter 6 is switched from off to on (see the broken line and the solid line in FIG. 4C), and at the same time, the low-pass level of the bass filter 3 is changed. From the state shown in FIG. 4 (see the broken line in FIG. 4A), and raise the high-frequency characteristic of the treble filter 4 from the current state by the preset compensation level [FIG. 5). In this way, not only the loudness filter 6 is simply switched from off to on, but also the frequency characteristics of the bass filter 3 and the treble filter 4, which are other filters, are changed to enhance the bass emphasis state compared to the related art. This is a feature of the present embodiment.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when the bass enhancement switch 12b is operated to enhance the bass, not only the loudness filter 6 is turned on, but also the bass enhancement effect is applied to the other filters 4 and 5. , The frequency characteristic is changed so that the bass enhancement switch performs a bass enhancement operation, so that the bass enhancement effect can be enhanced as compared with the related art. Since the high-pass characteristic of the treble filter 4 is emphasized, it is possible to prevent the sound quality of the treble from deteriorating due to the masking effect due to the bass emphasis. Can be.

When the bass tone emphasizing switch 12b is pushed to switch the state from the bass emphasis state to the normal state, the loudness filter 6 is turned off, and the low band of the bass filter 3 is lowered by the emphasis level. The high-frequency characteristic of the treble filter 4 is reduced by the compensation level.

In this embodiment, a low-frequency filter 14 indicated by a two-dot line in FIG. 1A may be used instead of the loudness filter 6.

[0038]

According to the audio device of the first aspect, when the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass, only one filter, for example, a loudness filter (or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement) is provided with the bass enhancement effect. As well as changing the frequency characteristics so as to bring the bass enhancement effect to other filters,
This makes it possible to enhance the bass enhancement effect when the bass enhancement switch is operated by the bass enhancement switch as compared with the related art.

According to the audio apparatus of the second aspect, one of the plurality of filters of the audio apparatus of the first aspect is a bass filter, the other is a treble filter, and the other is a loudness filter or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to a general audio device having a bass filter, a treble filter, a loudness filter, or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement without any problem.

According to the audio device of the third aspect, when the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass, the low pass characteristic of the bass filter is not limited to simply turning on one loudness filter or filter dedicated to the bass enhancement. Since the high-pass characteristic of the treble filter is strengthened and the high-pass characteristic of the loudness filter is enhanced, the bass tone can be more strongly emphasized by the bass tone of the bass filter. By enhancing the pass characteristics, the masking effect that is derived from the bass enhancement state can be reduced, and the bass enhancement state can be created without sacrificing the decrease in the treble level.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A to 1C show a configuration of an embodiment of an audio apparatus according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a circuit block diagram schematically showing an overall configuration, and FIG. 1B is a front view of a display. (C) is a diagram showing a state of each filter in a bass emphasized state.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an audio device, showing background art.

4A to 4C are characteristic diagrams showing frequency characteristics of a plurality of filters, in which the horizontal axis represents frequency and the vertical axis represents dB, FIG. 4A shows a bass filter, and FIG. (C) of the filter shows the characteristic of the loudness filter.

FIG. 5 is a comprehensive frequency characteristic obtained by synthesizing the frequency characteristics shown in FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sound source device, 3 ... Bass filter, 4 ... Treble filter, 6 ... Loudness filter, 12b
... bass emphasis switch, 13 ... display, 1
4: Filter for bass enhancement.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Inoue 6-35, Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation F-term (reference) 5D020 AD02 AD05 AD08 5J030 AA05 AA07 AB01 AC09 AC11 AC19 AC22 AC28

Claims (3)

[Claims] An audio signal output from a sound source device is passed through a plurality of filters whose frequency characteristics are different from each other and whose characteristics can be individually adjusted, and the sound is reproduced.
And an audio device having a bass enhancement switch for emphasizing bass, wherein when the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass, the frequency characteristic is changed so as to provide a bass enhancement effect to the plurality of filters. An audio device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The audio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of filters is a bass filter, the other one is a treble filter, and the other one is a loudness filter or a filter dedicated to bass enhancement. . 3. When the bass enhancement switch is operated to enhance the bass, the loudness filter or the filter dedicated to bass enhancement is turned on, and the low-pass characteristics of the bass filter are strengthened. 3. The audio device according to claim 2, wherein characteristics are enhanced.