Room correction- mainly analogue setup

[Entrigo]

Hi all,

Advice badly needed!

I have been progressively upgrading my system over the past couple of years, making some very good improvements, but I keep skirting around the issue of a less than ideal listening room (full details at the bottom).

As room treatment is not really an option, I keep going back to the idea of adding some kind of room correction software.

My set up is mostly analogue – with vinyl playing the lion's share:
• ⁠Technics SL-1300G turntable feeding into
• ⁠Vertere Phono-1 phono preamp feeding into
• ⁠Rega Elex-R amp
• Also feeding into it a Wiim Pro Plus streamer and a Marantz SA8005 CD player.

Is there a way to add a room correction module /DSD whatever to the Rega amp so that room correction is applied to all inputs?

I really like the sound of the Elex-R, so would want something to tighten up the sound, reducing "glare", reflection etc but retaining the original Rega character.

Room info:
• One half of a double living room (whole room 7 x 3m).
• Speakers either side of fireplace and TV - about 3m apart
• On left of L speaker there's a bay window with wooden shutters; on the right of the R speaker there's my record cabinet cutting the room in half and above /behind it mostly empty space.
• Speakers are about 2.5m from the listening position.
• Listening position is on a large sofa, with a few cushions and a large footstool in front
• Sofa is against the “picture wall”, with lots and lots of picture frames on it – as they are my wife’s movie-themed frames, covering them all with large squares of acoustic panels will likely result in divorce! I place a 150x80cm felt panel behind my head and pull the sofa away from the wall when listening, scatter some cushions or rugs on the floor, but that’s about as much as I can do in terms of room treatment.
• Hardwood flooring

Any suggestions also for units/components that could work- ideally under £1k?

Thanks!

 

[Vincent Kars]

It can be done e.g. miniDSP Flex as it can run Dirac.
Unfortunately your amp has a pre-out but not a power amp in. So you need: switchbox >Flex > amp.

Speakers are about 2.5m from the listening position.

Try near filed listening. Have the tweeters at ear level, toe-in having the acoustical axis of the speaker pointing straight to your head and reduce the distances to e.g. 1 m (between you and the speakers and between the speakers them self). By doing so the direct sound becomes predominant eliminating the room as much as possible.

 

[Entrigo]

It can be done e.g. miniDSP Flex as it can run Dirac.
Unfortunately your amp has a pre-out but not a power amp in. So you need: switchbox >Flex > amp.

Thanks.

Will need to look at that. Someone elsewhere suggested using the Wiim - running the phono into the Wiim's line in and the Wiim as it is into the Rega Line in. Would that work?

Try near filed listening. Have the tweeters at ear level, toe-in having the acoustical axis of the speaker pointing straight to your head and reduce the distances to e.g. 1 m (between you and the speakers and between the speakers them self). By doing so the direct sound becomes predominant eliminating the room as much as possible.

Well sadly that would probably not work, as it would mean having the speakers right in the middle of the living room. I do bring them a bit into the room, so they end up as a ca. 2m equilateral triangle - which is what Focal recommends - and of course toed in to cross just behind my head (and recently started placing a 140x60 felt board behind my head). Although I have to be honest, they do create a better soundstage when they are 2.5m apart (and 2.3m from me), though I haven't paid attention to frequency responses in that position.

 

[Integralista]

Hi Entrigo, there is a lot detailed information about your system in your post. I just miss: Which cartridge, which speakers are you using and at least main, speaker, interconnect cables are you using? I am not big fan of Dirac, etc. room corrections. In certain situations and systems it works for sure. Questios:

1. Does character of sound of your hifisystem (negatives you ' ve described) change with volume of sound?
2. Does character of sound change when changing components, sources of signal?
3. Have you tried influence of good active adjustable subwoofer?
4. Have you tried other speakers, cables, amps in your system? What is your experience after them?

My system is also mainly analogue (Rega turntables, Lyra and Benz Micro cartridges, Rega phono preamps, Audia Flight amp and CD, Cabasse main speakers and 2x Subwoofer_Velodyne, Cardas and QED and Nordost cables. Also years long tuning. Similar Superwoman at my home, not accepting visual and nearly any compromises...
My room is 7x5 living room opened into kitchen and hall room with midfloor. Simply very complicated space, it has more "L" shape. For very long time my system was sitting like fortress on long wall like yours. On short wall was installed HT with big OLED TV. There were two independent systems in one room. I was never satisfied with sound setup of stereo hifi but paradox; HT on short wall has worked and sounded very good. So I dismantled HT, sold HT and twisted all around. Big Hifi came below position of OLED TV and big towers are finaly placed some 60-70cm from rear and 100cm from side walls. I played with listening position, which has changed after many experiments. My speakers are very sensitive and "alive", it required some effort to find optimal placement. Same for a game with 2 subwoofers. I truly do not look for some Dirac magic or similar. Old school hifi arsenal has to be tried first. What has also helped is large wool based carped on some part of the floor. And we made new wood wall tiling on short walls and new roof from plaster slabs. But nothing very special, normaly used materials. BR.