Equalizer in a Hi Fi system

“What setups have you heard with the implementation of DSP (not necessarily meant as a total lineup, but just some examples), and in which capacity were the DSP sections used - merely as a digital crossover, only digital room correction, or both?”

Ive yet to hear DSP as room correction, as speaker timing corrective, or as crossover function. I have only tried some tone curves with Roon and Auralic DSP among others similar to that. And Neutron media player. All digital parametric. But just bass and treble custom tone curves. Not all the above. As I mused on this previously, I will muse on it again. I wonder what it would be like to optimize the room first, then do room and speaker timing correction with DSP. Then lastly have an analog piece that is great sounding for bass and treble shaping which has hardwire bypass for full circuitry bypass when not needed. 

@tlcocks I am currently looking at the only great DSP demo I know of and if you are ever in the area you are welcome to hear it. The owner of Sounds of Silence will be over with a friend on Thursday. Perhaps he will comment on this thread. It will be interesting because he is an analog guy and only listens to vinyl. 

I have taken a big leap that has increased the complexity of the situation by an order of magnitude. I am now actively bi amping Soundlabs ESLs. Each transformer has it's own amplifier channel. The DEQX Pre 8 has a digital 4 way crossover. The DEQX software is in a very early state of development which makes life even more fun. I spent 6 hours yesterday running sine sweeps and staring at graphs only to discover that I can not lower the gain on the high frequency amp enough to match the other 4 amplifiers. They have to match perfectly or you are wasting bits and clipping filters. In-line attenuators are coming tomorrow. In the meantime the system is not listenable, the price of progress. Being an immediate gratification type has it's drawbacks. There is no going backwards as the modifications to the speaker back plates is permanent. Damn those torpedoes!

The DEQX equalizer is different than the others I have used. It puts up a graph with a flat line at 0 dB. Anyware you click on the graph the program will bend the line to go through that spot. Then each spot has a lever arm that you use to adjust the Q. It is very awkward at first, but you eventually get used to it and there are no limitations as to what you can do within the limits of the graph. 

“It’s important to get an overall bearing of the setup contexts here to get fuller picture and what was the deciding factor to account for your less than enthusiastic response to these setups. I would say the DSP’s themselves used in the setups you heard, depending on their specific implementation, are likely the lesser sonic influence compared to a variety of many other factors. It’s about how they’re used, component specifics, and overall implementation.”

it’s important not to conflate bass and treble tone shaping EQ with room correction. The former is better sounding (by far) with analog. The latter is only properly executed with DSP, with its minute amplitude options and infinite possibilities with narrow notch filtering

And crossover 

Mike, sounds great!  This Thursday?  I’ll reach out privately!