Room correction, DSP for dummies.

OP: My recommendation is to buy a calibrated microphone, a miniDSP mic goes for $100 on Amazon, and down load the free Room Eq Wizard (REW) software and measure your own room. Based on that data, you could have a more meaningful discussion about what DSP can do to improve your room/ speaker acoustics.

I’ve done the measurements and it’s a lot of fun.  You can get a miniDSP equalizer for $200 and program it with the same tools you used to measure the room.  It works as advertised. My room/ speaker set up has some SBIR issues but DSP cannot fix a null.  In the end, I didn’t use DSP.  I did some room treatment (a more general solution) and was satisfied.

SPEAKERS AS THEY ARE DESIGNED! 

I know people who design things for a living. I have not talked to many who said they were not often forced to make tradeoffs between what they desire vs what is possible given their reality. 

I am also 100% positive that while some favored systems are really very good, there are many ways to end up at a destination. One that is right for some may not be right for another no matter how much a person may want everyone to follow their lead. 

I use the MathAudioRoomEQ plugin for my music player, Foobar2000.

The good: it's free.  It works way better than not using it.

The bad: I don't know; haven't tried any of other solutions.

REW plus minidsp looks interesting, since I could use a turntable, and it would work on ALL my computer audio, not just Foobar2000.

Winter is when I typically play with audio - summer is for cycling and cameras.  Maybe this year.

I use a DSPeaker Antimode 8033 on each sub and I love the results enough to consider getting their Antimode 2.0 for full range correction.

A little late to the party here, let me add a few experiences and observations. I’ve had Dirac Live on my PC for several years across multiple amps and speakers. Every setup sounded better corrected, and every amp and speaker retained their unique sound. Otherwise I’d save a boat load of cash and run an AV receiver with Audessy as a prepro to a cheap amp and speakers.

Speakers have their own characteristic sounding drivers and cabinet harmonics around the fundamental tones being swept for calibration. Quality of crossovers or lack there of matter as well,

Whether the dsp’d sound was as intended by the manufacturer was lost on the fact that my system sounded better with correction. To Eric’s point, a well treated room is always a better starting place.

What I like about PC corrected audio is that it’s all done digitally in the PC and sent out USB. The only D/A process now occurs in the wide selection of DACs or Pre amps available to you now. No need for bundled, expensive DAC/Pre/Room Correction units. Want an R2R dac or that tube pre everyone is raving about WITH correction? - now you can. You may find yourself in this hobby upgrading sooner than expected and I never want to throw out a digitally corrected room. Stays in the computer and yes, a minimal level of computer skills is required. It’s not the easiest option and could be why I don’t see many folks with PCs operating as music servers with room correction.

I just wish there was an ethernet streaming box with quality room correction minus the compromised bundled DAC or Pre. Digital input/digital output. An excuse to move up to an Ultra Rendu.

My USB is sounding toe tapping good with the Sotm usb card, reclocking, LPS and galvanic isolation. I’m sure giving up USB room correction for ethernet streaming would be a significant step back. Same goes for MQA DACs.

If I’m missing a solution out there please respond.