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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.

captouch
captouch's avatar
captouch OP
64 posts
 

The issue is I have very limited adjustments on my sub.  See pic below:


So I can adjust phase and level, but nothing else.

I was also having some issues getting REW to output to mains and sub at the same time.  So when I played with phase using sub output only, it didn’t change anything because I think it’s the phase interaction with the mains that will cause different responses to the FR curve.  Just changing phase if the sub is the only thing playing the frequency does nothing to change the FR curve.

mswale
284 posts
 

You got a few issues going on. Think you have a couple nulls going on.

The bass energy spike 30-40 is huge, then that massive hole at 50-80. Some peaks in the middle, with treble dropping off.

This tells me you have a boomy setup, with bright mids, and low highs. DSP will not fix this, just adjust. Don't think you can room treatment out of this.

Your speakers are in the wrong spot, or your listening spot is totally off. Think you should move the speakers around. It looks like the walls are enhancing the low bass, nulling out the mid-bass, the room appears to "dark" already with the highs. Maybe remove a couple of panels, or move them around the room. 

Do you have any tones controls active? Turn them all off, if you are taking readings, then adjust them after the readings.

captouch's avatar
captouch OP
64 posts
 

The 35Hz spike is there regardless of speaker placement and LP - varies a tiny bit in magnitude, but not much.  Room is 11.5’ wide by 15.5’ long and 8’ high.  Probably a characteristic of the room.

The 60Hz dip can be filled in at the expense of creating a more shallow one around 180Hz.

The speakers are places 1/5 of the room length from the front wall and 1/5 of room width from the side walls.  It was recommended to place the LP about 1/3 room length from back wall (60”), but I found I preferred my LP 54” from the back wall.

No tone controls active.  I’m using Pure Direct mode on my AVR to bypass the Audessey room correction.  I’m only using the AVR for the sweeps because it can accept the HDMI from my MacBook.  Normally, I use a McIntosh C35 preamp that has a 5-band EQ, but I normally listen flat.  Sometimes with a small bit of loudness contour, but mostly flat.

lemonhaze
442 posts
 

OP, let me apologise for assuming your SVS sub could do what I mentioned. Looks like you’ve got one of those  early models. I’m using an SVS SB 1000 PRO which sells for about $600 and has a very useful feature. Download the App and you can adjust all the parameters I mentioned from your phone but forgot there is also a few bands of PEQ. Check out their site. This is the sort of sub you need. There are other good subs available but the SVS is great value and I prefer it to my REL which has 0 or 180 degree choice so means I have to keep trying different places to get it dialed in.

I am using OmniMic to measure and I am not familiar with REW which  essentially does the same thing. I play a CD with sweep tones and have the mic. at my listening position sampling the combined sound of the speakers and sub/subs and while changing settings on your phone you can watch the frequency response change. The second sub will smooth the response even more. REW will also display  RT60 as a waterfall plot (CSD), the time it takes for the sound to decay by 60dB. The average room will be about 300ms.

I have 2 large floor to ceiling bass traps, broad-band absorbers, extra heavy curtains plus 2 subs and the bass is dynamic, very detailed, informative, clean and powerful.

erik_squires
16,898 posts
 

Sorry for contributing only infrequently.

A point that I may not have properly addressed earlier is that the benefit of a sub in a situation like this is not it’s bass output but the ability to move it to an ideal location.  However if you are severely space constrained, then a sub is almost useless. 

TO place the sub you’d put the sub in your listening location, then move the mic around potential locations until you find the best measuring place.  That’s where you put your sub.

My earlier advice to clip the peaks and lift up the entire bass region still stands.

If you can’t do this and your sub is generally where your main speakers are there’s no point.

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