Room correction, DSP for dummies.

The only advice I have left is this:

Listen to the system in store with room correction. Make sure you like the room correction’s choices before you commit.

Be aware that when you commit to this you are usually committing to an entire chain of devices. A/D, DSP, DSP Software, and DACs. Very few use digital only DSP units, though they do exist.

The issue here is if you are a DAC and speaker snob (and who isn’t? :) ) you are probably going to give up your choices in sound quality to the room correction.

Personally, I use room acoustic treatments along with DSP (not room correction) based EQ in the sub and center channels only. I leave the Surround, L and R alone. I have no problem getting seamless great sounding movies and music this way.  I do sometimes think about toying with time/impulse correction, but meh. 


Best,

E

grannyring

Remove the room’s impact as much as possible and the speaker is free to be what it was intended to be....a high fidelity instrument.

That doesn't quite make sense, because audiophile speakers aren't designed to be used in an anechoic chamber. You don't want to eliminate all reflections.

I guess I walked into a debate between David and Bill (the ’other Bill) unwittingly. My concerns with whole system DSP (and I’ve never heard the Lyngdorf ) if that’s what’s being discussed are:

settings and adjustments- is this done entirely through electronic measurement by the device itself or do you, as the user/listener, tweak the settings to taste?
to what extent does digitizing the signal (including of an otherwise all analog source) compromise the sound?
are you limited by being unable to substitute key components if you adopt a solution that integrates processing and amplifier(s)?

Does an "add on" DSP device that allows you to integrate DSP into an otherwise conventional system fall short of the best that DSP can do, so that you cannot retain an ’unprocessed’ system if you choose to?

I was curious about the MiniDSP products a few years ago, but they seemed to involve more than I needed for simple bass management and I was reluctant to introduce anything between my line stage and main amps that could affect the sound in a negative way. I guess I’m not entirely out of the "purist" camp, though I recognize that at some level, all of this is "processed" to a degree, even in the analog domain....

A discussion of modern DSP would not be complete, IMO, without mention of DEQX. In addition (depending on model) to being able to serve as a preamp, provide remarkably transparent A/D and D/A converter functionality, extremely versatile and flexible room correction capability and equalization capability, and the ability to support subwoofers, biamping, and triamping, as far as I am aware DEQX products are unique in that they can bring any speaker that is not time coherent much closer to being so. And the great majority of speakers are not time coherent, including all speakers which have a crossover that is not first order (i.e., 6 db/octave). (Vandersteen, Thiel (at least formerly), and Green Mountain Audio are among a small handful of manufacturers of speakers which use first order crossovers).

That said, using a DEQX entails a very substantial learning curve. Also, taking full advantage of its "speaker calibration" (i.e., time coherence) function requires making close-up measurements (e.g., from a distance of 2 or 3 feet or so, depending on the size of the speaker) of the speaker’s response to test tones generated by the unit, with room reflections reduced to a bare minimum. Reducing room reflections sufficiently can mean moving the speakers to the center of the room for purposes of that measurement, or even better to outdoors. Room correction is performed subsequently, as a separate step, with the speakers in their normal positions.

I use DEQX’s top of the line HDP-5 model, and it took me several months to fully optimize its settings to my satisfaction. And that was with a relatively simple setup involving a single pair of speakers running full-range. Although I chose to do it all myself, at my own methodical pace, rather than utilizing the services of a "DEQXpert" via the Internet, who I understand can greatly speed up that process and presumably accomplish it better than many users would be able to.

For further info, and considerable additional detail on the experiences of a goodly number of members with DEQX products including me, see the following long-running thread:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/is-deqx-a-game-changer

Regards,

-- Al

Bill, the questions and queries were not contemplative...they are direct. 

The 'more' portion was somewhat addressed by erik_squires, one of which is all the other 'pieces' in the sound reproduction chain...does room correction also know what was "intended" by those designers (power supplies, sources, recordings, cables, etc.)?...did the speaker designer know which components, etc. the customer was going to choose to build his or her system? Etc.

In other words, (what all) is room correction divining?

the room correction assures your speakers sound as the designer intended in your particular space.

The speaker is now able to sound as it should without room editorializing and degrading.

the speaker is free to be what it was intended to be

I'm not against room correction or DSP, or other software based 'corrections.'  @erik_squires  position lines up more with where I'm at, on the topic.

My issue is with "sound as intended" and "sound as it should" which are remarkable statements, to say the least, and to this mind border on the incredible.