millercarbon, since I can't believe your ears are that bad I can only assume that you have not had more than trivial exposure to more than the most basic room control systems/programs. It does not matter what the source is. We are not talking about CD resolution. The best room control systems ( really do not like that term) run in 64 bit programs 384 kHz. It is a lot more than just frequency response. As most of us know perfectly flat frequency response usually does not sound so hot. Those of us who have been working with this for a while use different response curves for different situations. As an example if the recording is to harsh (sibilant) I kick in a curve with a 3 kHz notch filter. All this can be done on the fly with a remote control. Most important is that the frequency response of both channels is exactly identical. You can not get the best imaging without this and there is no other way to do this. You will never get two loudspeakers of the same model to have exactly the same frequency response even if you put them in the same location forget about putting them in different locations. Once you are in the digital domain you can literally do anything you want without distortion of any kind. Subwoofer integration any other way is folly. You can not accurately time and phase align any other way. And, the fun of it is that you can see exactly what is going on right in front of you on the computer. You want to know what happens when you boost 10 kHz 3 db? Tell the computer what you want and have a listen. Any curve any cross over right at your disposal. A properly set up digital correction system will sound much better regardless of the program source. I think the problem is that with the best, most flexible systems there is a steep learning curve and you just have to sit down and work with it for several months to get fluid. You can also screw things up big time which I'm sure leads to some of the negative impressions. There are also other advantages. Having lived with this for 20 years or so I can walk up to a strange system and know to a large degree where it's failings are which does not mean I can fix them as usually in strict analog there is not way to do this. None of us used any of the analog EQ systems in the day as they all caused more damage than good. You can also set up a complex system without any analog crossovers at all and use any frequency or order you like. I do not have a single analog crossover in my system.
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mijostyn ... you have not had more than trivial exposure to more than the most basic room control systems/programs. It does not matter what the source is ... You can not get the best imaging without this and there is no other way to do this ... Once you are in the digital domain you can literally do anything you want without distortion of any kind. Subwoofer integration any other way is folly. You can not accurately time and phase align any other way ... A properly set up digital correction system will sound much better regardless of the program source ... Having lived with this for 20 years or so I can walk up to a strange system and know to a large degree where it's failings are ...Do you really believe all of this, mijostyn, or do you deliberately exaggerate for emphasis? |
Digital processors can't do anything about standing waves, first reflections, flutter echo etc. This is a physics of sound waves produced by the speakers in a certain room. Every specialist will advice you to use bass traps, absorbers, diffusers ... just like in any recording studios and mastering rooms. The size of the room is important, some rooms are too bad to be a listening room (especially a small room), some are much better. Watch Acoustic Fields channel on youtube and you will find the answers much quicker than on audiogon. |
chakster, there are certainly reasons to use room treatment. There are areas where it will work better than digital correction. As for standing waves digital correction will make the frequency response at the listening position flat but as you move away you are still going to get the same undulations maybe even worse at some places. Avoiding this requires room design and appropriate sub woofer set up. All this works together to achieve the best results. What DSP gives you, complete control over the entire frequency range, accurate time alignment between speakers and drivers regardless of their position in the room and complete distortion-less control over crossovers can not be done any other way. I use all three methods, actually four. I use speakers that have inherent in their design less interaction with the room, a room designed for flat bass response, room treatment at critical first reflection points and DSP control.
www.audiovero.de/en/acourate.php I encourage people to go here and download trial samples of the program and play around. |
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