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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
 
"Windowing" the impulse response to look at only the initial part shows us the frequency response of the direct sound with little or no contribution from the room.


Yes, but this windowing feature also limits the lower boundary of the FFT. The smaller the time window, the higher the minimum frequency of the FFT, and as pointed out, get low enough and the room is unavoidable.

But the entire premise of ARC is to actually correct for room behavior, so not sure how we got here. We want / need the room in measurements for ARC to work.

Quasi-anechoic measurements ( i.e. simulating a speaker without a room ) is the opposite of what we are looking for here.

Best,

E
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erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
We got here by Duke pointing out that consumer room correction, at least currently, (to our knowledge) does not take into account reflected/directly energy when doing level balancing, and hence while it can correct for phase/amplitude, it lacks a degree of freedom in setup.

Ahhh.  Well, Toole dislikes them, but I think that over the last decade it's gotten better. 

Personally, I do all my own EQ.  However!!!! Teaching a noob is a lot of work, and a lot of debate and a lot of different answers. 

ARC I think, over the last few years, has gotten better, and yields better than average audiophile results.

Could Duke or myself do better by hand?  Absolutely.
erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
TBC:  "By hand" I meant with measurement tools and adjusting ourselves instead of letting an automated system do it.

I certainly don't think anyone can configure a sub properly without measurement devices and experience.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Duke, you a obviously have not spent much time with one of the better digital management systems. You are making assumptions that may not be correct. I posted my system with details that help understand it. It works, Not just a little either. You can not tell there are subs in the system until a real low note comes along. The tonal balance doesn’t change with volume. Imaging is superior to anything you have ever heard because the frequency response of both sides is exactly the same.
Once you use a system like this there is no going back, it is that extreme.

Mike
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