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Automatic Room Correction has won the Subwoofer Wars

Just thought of something while perusing the chats, and finding yet another "help me, I bought a subwoofer and it sounds bad" threads. 

You know what we rarely if ever see?  "Help me, I used ARC to set up my subwoofer and it sounds bad."

I think this is a strong testament to how effective these systems are to integrating a sub into an existing system, and why I'm no longer trying to help others improve as much as pointing them towards ARC as better options.

While ARC does a lot more than subwoofer integration, I think we have to admit that for most it's pretty much been a panacea.
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
TBC: By ARC I mean the acronym generically, not a particular brand. There are at least 4 brands of automatic room correct systems which include subwoofer integration.

Adjusting the arrival time and levels of a sub to match the main speakers is trivial for these systems to do but in addition to that what they do far far better than your average audiophile is the crossover slope /phase matching and bass EQ. It is that most audiphiles have no idea what this is, that it matters, that they’ll have to learn and adjust for it that makes a new sub hit or miss.

This just does not happen with most modern ARC (generic) systems.
rodman99999
6,131 posts
 
I’ve been using a TacT RCS 2.2Xaaa, in my system, since the 90’s.    Not much has changed, since then.     FFT is called that, because it is and can discern between direct and reflected sounds.      Read the ’How REW makes it’s measurements’ section (page 5), here:   https://www.roomeqwizard.com/REWhelp.pdf        Especially, the fifth paragraph, of that treatise
erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
I also should have said that how the ARC (generic) treats the rest of the bands is not what I mean to bring up, and this behavior is a lot more varied and subjective.

It is in the subwoofer integration though that almost all ARC systems are better and easier than your average music-phile with nice speakers.
avanti1960
1,476 posts
 
not for me. it is a band aid at best and robs your subwoofer of power at worst.
It is no substitute for optimized subwoofer placement (within reason). 
erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
not for me. it is a band aid at best and robs your subwoofer of power at worst.
It is no substitute for optimized subwoofer placement (within reason).


I will argue that these are not either or but instead of. One really interesting thing I’m reading here is how many are only looking at ARC as EQ.

ARC subwoofer integration is in addition to EQ. It sets up the crossover slopes and delays and this is where most have the biggest problems.  The point of the EQ choices not necessarily being great varies with ARC vendor.  Some make better choices than others.  JL Audio and Dirac are two of the one's I tend to like the results of, but all will properly set the crossover settings.

Optimum placement of a sub is always a good idea.

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