Digital Room Correction vs Room Treatments
I finally got a mic and used REW to analyze my room. Attached is the freq response for 3 different speakers (Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20, Sonus Faber Electa Amator II, and Sonus Faber Concerto Domus).
They all show similar characteristics - at least the most prominent ones. I did play around with the Amators trying them closer together and more forward in the room, but the major characteristics you see were mostly unchanged.
With this magnitude and number of deviations from a more ideal frequency response curve, am I better off biting the bullet and just doing digital room correction, or can these issues be addressed with room treatments without going crazy and having the room look like Frankenstein’s lab.
Cost is a consideration, but doing it right/better is the most important factor.
If digital room correction is a viable way to address this, what are the best solutions today? My system is largely analog (80’s/90’s Mcintosh preamp/amp, tube phono stage), and streaming isn’t a priority (though I’m not against it).
If the better digital correction solutions come in the form of a streaming HW solution, that’s fine, I’d do that.
Just looking for guidance on the best way to deal with the room, as both serious room treatments and digital EQ room correction are both areas I haven’t delved into before.
Thanks all. If more info is needed, let me know. My room is 11.5’ wide and 15.5’ long with the speakers on the short wall. Backs of speakers are 3-3.5’ off the front wall and they’re at least 2ft from either side wall. Some placement flexibility is there, but not a huge amount.
Overall, if you did this ONLY with EQ, I'd flatten the 35Hz and 95 Hz first, and then raise the entire level bellow 150 Hz to taste. Bass traps are a good idea, but may be too expensive. Adding a subwoofer in the right location, with the low pass filter set high could also help. May take some experimentation, adds more hardware and of course, is expensive too. |
@lemonhaze Here's an alternate FR curve at 48" (bolded line) vs 60" (which was what was previously recommended to me as best of my alternatives). 48" reduces the 60Hz -11.5dB dip to -4.5dB, but the 180Hz dip is increased from -1dB to -3dB, a 300Hz +3dB peak is created, and 550Hz goes from +3dB to +5dB. Overall, 48" seems a little more peaky, but the benefit is filling in that 60Hz trough pretty substantially.
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@captouch have you tried as close to the front wall as possible to see how that looks? Close enough that your speaker cables may touch the wall but not be deformed |
@kofibaffour while the front baffles are 37” from the front wall, I have cabinets in the front that gear is set on/in. So there’s very little space between cabinet front and speaker back as seen in pic. This means I can only open one side of cabinet without moving the speaker, which I’m okay with as I don’t have frequently used items in there. But it’s pretty much a non-starter to move these cabinets off the front wall as there’s no other place to put them in the room and I need the storage space. |
