Is DEQX a game changer?

Ah, so you like the top end rolled off a little bit! Just kidding, I'm sure it sounds great.

Actually Psag I actually like very clear but smooth treble and both my TTs use cartridges that achieve this: AT150ANV and Ortofon 2M Black. Neither can be called rolled off

Digital sources now have a very close signature. The harshness I described in the DEQX DAC was very minor but I am extremely picky! (I also have a Chord 64 DAC and that IS rolled off)

My 'real' love in this hobby is live amplified music and I spend way too much on that. DEQX in my system using all my sources gets me remarkably close

(Somebody told me there's a reward for posting the longest message)

If you prefer to use your own DAC with DEQX [and your speakers aren't bi/tri amp-able] you can use the DEQX's dig-in and have the convolved signal exit DEQX's mid/full dig-out right into your favorite DAC. If you do have a bi/tri amp-able system you can run those 2/3 dig-outs into multiple DACs.

I got into DRC about a year ago and [given my ADD] it's a miracle I was able to accomplish anything. The stereo is that one hobby that promises immediate gratification -- I've been conditioned to wait not longer than 30min for tubes and stuff to warm up.

DRC is funny because it's the last thing an audiophile would purchase (certainly after cable upgrades), and it's effect is on the scale of a speaker upgrade, which would have been your first purchase. I spent good money on tweaks to combat the issues unique to my speaker/room/seating interaction. I'd spend a few hundred dollars on something and it was a challenge for my ear to detect that something changed at all, and along comes DRC software which all but made fun of my whole upgrade process. For me DRC's most evident improvement is how it makes speaker cabinets vanish like Totem Rainmakers. Other things are improving but that's what hits me first when trying it on different speakers. At this point I'm proud to say I've receeded to all budget cables (bluejean speaker, bluejean AES, belkin USB, and a variety of affordable RCAs).

I don't doubt DEQX is an amazing appliance. Last time I researched DRC hardware I didn't see any that had dig-in. Accomplishing this stuff in the digital domain prior to the first D2A is important. It's impressive that DEQX learns your speaker independent of the room effect. Those additional parameters must yield amazing results.

But this is my situation:

-My Thiels are already time aligned and I don't use subs

-I've got this giant vaulted ceiling with giant traps, speakers are 3ft off a back wall that is 37ft wide, and my focus is on my room's response to my speakers, and not my speakers. When I measure different speakers the graph shows a common suck-out and hump in the low frequencies.

-I'm all digital, so EQ'ing analog sources is not an attraction

-I'm a budget audiophile, so my "expensive" [worst case] solution would have been forking out $500 for Dirac Live.

My first taste of EQ was in Foobar using the MathAudio Room EQ plug-in. I then spent $100 on a FocusRite 48v mic preamp and a $60 mic. Eventually I spent around $50 to have Herb @ Cross-Spectrum Acoustics create a calibration file for my microphone. I did some free trials of affordable software but weeks turned into months and I conceded to take the beaten path started Dirac's 30day trial. That's when I learned my tiny netbook (Intel atom) would take several minutes to generate a filter. So I spent about $600 on a faster computer (Intel NUC - I call it my pocket computer), switched from Foobar to JRiver (which was yet another learning curve), and I spent $500 on Dirac.

In the beginning I thought my only issues were between 30hz and 700hz. Eventually I learned my whole system was out of phase and once that was corrected I discovered wonderful improvement when I ran the filter all the way up to 20khz. The other thing I learned is that a target curve that asks for aggressive "up EQ" will easily clip and therefore require the DSP gain to be set lower, and if the DSP gain is lower than 50% (-4db) then you aren't getting your money's worth. So I start my filter above my room's bass suck-out frequency (83hz) and this allows me to crank the DSP gain way up.

I'm now at a point where I use a single filter for all my music, but playback is now like driving stick. Each recording affords a certain amount of headroom for "up EQ" (generally the same for an entire album), and you want the DSP gain set as high as possible without Dirac's clip indicator redlining. So I'm always tinkering with the DSP slider which makes me feel like a DJ. So far it's not a bother for me -- I suppose when it does I'll start experimenting with JRiver's auto-leveling feature. 2 years ago I would have scoffed at a product that couldn't resolve above 96khz, but I've grown to appreciate the fundamentals and my priorities have since changed. I now would prefer to hear a 320kbps mp3 with DRC to the 24-192 version w/o DRC.

Its true that this technology can make decent equipment sound like audiophile equipment. This is not an attractive feature for some, such as those who have invested megabucks in their analog gear, and some reviewers who are invested in the status quo. But then again even Mr Analog Jonathan Valin is now promoting DSP, although his editor is still stuck in the 20th century.

Wynnytsky, given the challenges imposed by your room, you might want to consider adding dual subwoofers. DSP plus dual subs is a match made in heaven.

Psag -- my preamp and my integrated don't have additional outputs for a sub so I'd have to use REL subs. This is sort of a blessing because I'm spared the additional expense of exploring this avenue.

For me the term DSP conjures up memories of Yamaha's church and hall effects. I wouldn't be surprised if audiophiles are turned off by DRC for that same reason.

For those who are steadfast against altering the signal instead of treating the problem (room, speaker, crossover, etc) I would say you should still purchase a DRC product. It's like a 3d virtual tour of what your system would be like if a team of Swedish engineers pimped your rig. You still get your money's worth even if you don't take the anechoic measurement or convolve each driver independently with bi/tri amplification.

I think in the future we'll see more audiophile DACs offering additional channels but less will be done in firmware and more will be done in software. Software will be able to operate the 3+ outputs to do bi/tri electronic EQ or steering 2ch music into 3ch audio, and DRC will be available on all channels. My interest in convolving a 3rd ch peaked a couple years back, but that didn't seem to be within my reach so I settled for DRC.