Equalizers anyone?

Warnerwh - What a wonderful offer! If you're serious I'll take you up on it and would be willing to let you try my stored-in-the-closet Creek OBH12 passive remote volume control. However, that Audio Reasearch is a damn good pre-amp but it might be fun to see what a passive would sound like. I'll e-mail you with additional info.

By the way, which digital equalizer did you try out? I'm still very curious about the Accuphase based on The Absolute Sound's review a 2-3 years ago.

Tomryan: Send me your address and I'll send you Audio Control. Be sure to do some research. You'll learn a flat room response is not what necessarily sounds best. As a matter of fact almost nobody likes what truly flat sounds like as the bass is thin and the highs to bright. What you can do though is an eye opener for sure. Regarding digital equalizers I've never used one as I have a problem with the dual conversion. After owning many dacs I was worried the d/a or a/d would be something I don't care for as have been many dacs that are so highly acclaimed. I'm not familiar with the Accuphase but it the frequency response of a room is horrible and most people are shocked when they do in room measurements. Also remember you need to mount a db meter on a tripod or something as moving it just 6" can make a big difference in the readings. If you go to Rives Audio they have some frequency reponse sheets you can print out and make a graph of your room response with. There's no doubt in my mind that only the minority of people have any idea what their room is doing to their sound. Then they go buy high dollar cabling or different electronics and still aren't happy. It's the room and all rooms with walls have modes. Straighten things out some and you'll find the timbres of instruments and voices to be much more accurate and pleasing.

Warnerwh - I'll e-mail you my address. Looking forward to starting to get this room business dealt with! Thanks again.

What i want to know is why nobody has mentioned that when you EQ a room, you're actually only correcting for the area where the mic and / or readings were taken. Move the mic / point of readings within the room and you may get very different results. As such, EQ can be helpful, but works best for those that tend to sit in one spot and / or listen by themselves mostly. I say this because someone sitting in a chair or even on the other side of the couch from where the "test results" were calculated will be hearing something different from what you're hearing. That's why it is important to get the room and speakeers dialed in as close as possible and then utilize "tweaks" to finesse it from there ( if necessary ). Sean
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Good point, Sean. Unfortunately, my wife almost never listens with me and I only have friends over for real music sessions a few times a year. But you are right that speakers and room have to be physically corrected as much as possible before going to electronic equalization.