Is DEQX a game changer?

The DEQX really does sound like a game-changer.  The reviews so far indicate it provides a very large improvement in sound quality and it makes good engineering and bio-acoustic sense as well.

Room interactions have always been one of the most major impacts on sound quality, and top speaker designers have been working on group delay and related problems for at least 30 years.

Hi Ozzy,

I can't answer your question about the download CD you referred to. I was provided with the calibration file for my microphone by the dealer from whom I purchased my HDP-5 together with the mic kit (see below), Nyal Mellor of AcousticFrontiers.com. The microphone calibration file would have a .mic file extension, and if it is not on the CD I would expect that the person you bought the Premate from should be able to email it to you. Or perhaps DEQX could supply it, if you were to ask them via their support link.

Once you have that file on your computer, the mic would be "installed" into the calibration software by selecting "Install Microphone" under the "File" menu, and then navigating to the calibration file for the particular mic.

That said, it appears that the EMM-6 is the cheapie (approx. $50) microphone that is included with the DEQX units as standard. I chose the much more expensive ($745) Earthworks "Reference Calibration Kit" alternative. Based on my experience with mics in those two price ranges for unrelated applications I suspect that you would get significantly better results if you were to purchase the Earthworks kit. A good source from whom to purchase it would be Nyal Mellor:

http://store.acousticfrontiers.com/Digital-Signal-Processors/deqx-earthworks-m23-cal-kit.html

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

P.S: I just took a look at the CD that came with my HDP-5. Viewing the files on it via the File Explorer in Windows I see that there is a folder called "Microphones," and under that "Dayton," and under that "Dayton" again, and under that "6780EMM6-INV.mic" among many other listings. If you can find that file on your CD, copy it to a location on your hard drive and proceed as I indicated above.

Regards,
-- Al

Ozzy, if it isn’t on your CD, you can also download your mic file by going to the DEQX website:

From the bar across the top of the page, choose: Owners, then upgrades from the dropdown box, scroll down to Dayton mic files & Dayton all Microphones - download (mic).

You will be asked for authentification.....
User name = beta
Password = nyquist (all lower case).

Once you unzip the folder, the file "6780EMM6-INV.mic" is in there.

As for the two different mic types, I originally used a Behringer ECM8000 (DEQX predecessor to the Dayton) with the HDP-3 & later upgraded to an Earthworks M23 before I purchased the HDP-5.

I would not worry too much about the different mic’s because the critical frequency range is going to be somewhere between 200hz & 10khz & the reference mic really comes into its own at the highest frequencies, although measurements across the board do appear to be a little more precise. My measurement routine, calibration and setup is quite OCD and therefore the benefits gained by the M23 proved worth it (I am able to use much lower levels of smoothing & greater accuracy in calibration across the entire frequency range if I choose to).

Listening to music via the same speakers based on an outdoor measurement, there is definitely an audible improvement for the M23 but it is not that great. If I had never made the later calibrations, I would still have been extremely satisfied with those from the lower cost microphone.