Speaker correction / optimisation

[tino]

I read lots of threads about people complaining about their hifi audio quality and the OP is sometimes met with questions like:... how big is your room?"... do you have carpets, pictures, rugs or soft furnishings?"... will your speakers be near a wall?"... do you have high mass or low mass stands ... Presumably since the coupling of the speakers to the room, and the room acoustics are a very significant factor, and most of us donlt have anechoic chambers for living rooms, I'm surprised I don't hear too many suggestions to use some form of speaker correction device in the audio chain for a traditional 2.0 or 2.1 setup. I understand that in home cinema setups this type of correction is more common?I'll be the first to say I don't know too much about these devices ... is there anyone who can shed light on how effective (or not) they are and whether they are worth the trouble?ThanksPS ... It was this thing that piqued my interest ... http://www.dspeaker.com/en/products/20-dual-core.shtml

I read lots of threads about people complaining about their hifi audio quality or wanting to upgrade, and the OP is sometimes met with questions like:

... how big is your room?"

... do you have carpets, pictures, rugs or soft furnishings?"

... will your speakers be near a wall?"

... do you have high mass or low mass stands ...

... etc. etc.

Presumably since the coupling of the speakers to the room, and the room acoustics are a very significant factor, and most of us don't have anechoic chambers for living rooms, I'm surprised I don't hear too many suggestions to use some form of speaker correction device in the audio chain for a traditional 2.0 or 2.1 setup. I understand that in home cinema setups this type of correction is more common?

I'll be the first to say I don't know too much about these devices ... is there anyone who can shed light on how effective (or not) they are and whether they are worth the trouble?

Thanks

PS ... It was this thing that piqued my interest and prompted the thread ... http://www.dspeaker.com/en/products/20-dual-core.shtml

 

[shafesk]

Hey Tino, you are absolutely right...it is more common in the home theater than the hifi market. The reason probably is that in hifi we prefer to take the room correction route via bass traps etc than rely on software to do this. Also, in analogue stuff like most amplifiers, hifiers object to the use of digital equipment, Ken Ishiwata said that he didn't want a hifi amp that has a dac built in because it interferes with analogue circuitry. He further said that in the case of home theater amps, they can have a dac built in because they already have to deal with digital equipment in av amps so it makes sense. However, doing this in a hifi amp will lead to expensive corrections which would render the amp uncompetitive. I guess the dac argument applies to the room correction software too. I've seen a couple of dacs which have room correction built in, but haven't hear what they sound like. Room correction in av amps from Denon, Marantz and Yamaha that I've heard definitely improve the sound in my opinion.

I guess the route to take in the hifi world would be to incorporate it into a separate digital device, or into a dac....I sure would love room correction, my right speaker sounds much less open than my left one due to room reflection and it annoys me immensely

 

[a91gti]

The old room tuning ploy eh. Some folk have taken this to an artform. Shun Mook for instance is well worth a Go ogle. Have a look at this effort...

 

[chebby]

The old room tuning ploy eh. Some folk have taken this to an artform. Shun Mook for instance is well worth a Go ogle. Have a look at this effort...

But where do you actually listen? No chairs.

Barely anywhere to stand.

 

[Overdose]

There is a forum member that uses the room correction EQ function for his Event Opals and the result looked very good.

 

[shooter]

They [drc] are good but there are caveats, the main one being the sound can sound worse than before. Weird and if your like me in that you use various places around the room to listen, sofas, table and chairs then it could well do. The reason being that when you set them up you do so in one listening position which is optimised for it, the rest of the room is taken out of the equation and there is no way of correcting the whole room.
If you are like me then room acoustics (panels) or digital eq may be better.

 

[a91gti]

The old room tuning ploy eh. Some folk have taken this to an artform. Shun Mook for instance is well worth a Go ogle. Have a look at this effort...

But where do you actually listen? No chairs.

Barely anywhere to stand.

Nevermind where do you sit, how the hell do you take a step without tripping over something?

 

[tino]

The old room tuning ploy eh. Some folk have taken this to an artform. Shun Mook for instance is well worth a Go ogle. Have a look at this effort...

But where do you actually listen? No chairs.

Barely anywhere to stand.

Must be very expensive throwing a few Stadivari and 6000 rugs around the room just to absorb the odd bass reflections. I think I would opt to try the DSP approach!

 

[a91gti]

There are cheaper methods, one guy has a plank with a newspaper nailed to it in the corner.

I'm sure these things work but I'm far too shallow to appreciate the subtlties involved in such serious tuning.

 

[shooter]

Presumably since the coupling of the speakers to the room, and the room acoustics are a very significant factor, and most of us don't have anechoic chambers for living rooms, I'm surprised I don't hear too many suggestions to use some form of speaker correction device in the audio chain for a traditional 2.0 or 2.1 setup. I understand that in home cinema setups this type of correction is more common?

What problems are you having with your room? A XTZ room analyzer could be worth thinking about.

Have you tried repositioning you speakers?

 

[tino]

I don't have any significant problems (that I know of) w.r.t. speakers and bass reflections .. but a lot of people on here do and the suggestions are to go and buy a rug and a set of matching curtains ... see this thread http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/is-there-a-floor-in-my-plans?page=1 :?