You use Trinnov with your speakers? Why not build a system with the DSP and amplification in one box? $ 35k for a system without the amps? Genelec, Kii and some others you get the whole package for that or less.
Oh Room Correction, how Far You've not Gotten
I have been excited about digital signal processing (DSP) since the early 90’s. I remember, naively, only thinking about frequency response, then thinking about how it might be useful in overcoming stored energy problems in drivers, and even compensate for compression, anything that could be mathematically modeled. Along with this was the servo controlled speakers from Velodyne and Genesis. Oh what great ways we’d have to overcome the limitations of driver design and even physics itself!! The infinitely powerful, all knowing computer of Star Trek applied to audio would surely solve everything and make it possible for every average music and film lover to have mastering studio quality sound.
After having great success with manually configured miniDSP units in my modest apartment in San Francisco and movies I wondered to myself how much better would a "real" room correction algorithm be than what I could tweak by hand. I read a paper by Floyd Toole where he scoffs at the idea of "room correction" altogether. Surely Mr. Toole, this paper is now old and has been superseded by modern research! Surely room correction is now worth it’s label!
After living with and playing with the Anthem room correction built into the MRX 520 I can tell you that for at least this example, Mr. Toole remains undefeated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent HT receiver, far far better than one’s I’ve bought and discarded before. Also, the subwoofer integration and web interface are pretty sweet. What it does not really do well at all is create an immersive or enormous sound field which I was able to get before using miniDSP and OmniMic. I have big booms but not the credibility and transparency I was able to create by hand tuning the EQ.
Over the rest of this year I’ll spend more time and money investigating exactly what ARC does, and whether or not I can do much better by hand tuning.
A really frustrating part of my purchase is that this amp does not give me any sort of ability to set and modify individual filters. I have some overall level controls but nothing like the sort of control more advanced DSP software gives you.
P.S. - Many of you will automatically and correctly point out that room treatment solves many problems that DSP/EQ cannot. Yes, that’s true, but this is a well treated room already. I’m specifically looking into what the ARC has done or failed to do in the frequency domain.
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@djones51Yes, Trinnov is part of our speaker system.Our Apollo 9 system comes with two 9 driver AMT towers, 2 woofers modules (each containing two 10" long throw woofers), 2KW amp for the woofers and the DSP unit. 22 high quality drivers in total. Our AMT drivers are very expensive to build. Check out the prices of Mundorf AMT drivers. Obviously the Apollos are more than just a pair of speakers. We specifically designed the Apollo system so that owners can use their existing amps, or choose amps of their liking, to drive the towers. Some people use low power tube amps, others use SS amps. The towers are high sensitivity and can handle quite a bit of power so any good amp will work. I have been told by other industry professionals to not make our system so flexible and offer so many features. I respectfully disagree and believe that a true high performance audio system should provide options to the owner. Our systems are designed to be modular so many options are available. We can (and sometimes do) supply all the amplification and have multi-channel processors for DSP controlled distributed bass. We can supply a complete system which only needs a turntable or music server. As you can see, our system is very different than the ones mentioned. We have being active systems and DSP controlled in common and that's about it. Mike |
So I would need 18 channels of amplification not counting the bass to run a pair of these speakers ?
Do you have anechoic measurements or better yet Klippel NFS on any of your speakers? |
"So I would need 18 channels of amplification not counting the bass to run a pair of these speakers ?" No. The Apollo system processor has four channels total, two channels per side. Each tower is on its own channel and each woofer module (or multiples) is on its own channel. Woofer amps are supplied (unless user wants to use something else) so user typically supplies tower amp(s). Can be one stereo amp or a pair of monoblocks. We have lots of data and measurements on our systems. Mike |
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