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Does a non-audiophile have to calibrate?

To all
I was at an audiophile store for the first time in my life not too long ago and heard the most amazing and beautiful music I ever heard in my life. I watched bits of few different movies that were just breath taking. The conversations sounded like they were in the room. At one point someone in the movie called a character with the same name and I turned around thinking the sales guy must have called me.

So I bought me a system:
Sonus Faber Cremona (Mains)
Sonus Faber Cremona Center
Sonus Faber Cremona Subwoofer
Sonus Faber Concerto (Surrounds)
NBS Serpent III Speaker cables and interconnects
NBS Omega IV digital cable
Krell Showcase Processor
Krell Showcase 5.1 AMP & NBS Omega II power cord
Marantz DV8400 Universal Player
Marantz VP-12S2 projector
V Inc. Bravo D1 DVD Player
VOOM HDTV receiver
Monster HTS 5100 Power Conditioner
76' Stewart StudioTek 130 ceiling recessed w/masking system

I just hooked it up and it sounds good. Now people are telling me I have to calibrate. Would a non-audiophile appreciate a calibration or only a trained audiophile ear can appreciate the difference. I went to HAA’s site and still do not understand why. The site said my system would lack clarity and was very vague and using audiophile words like tonal balance, checking for voice matching, frequency response, room resonance, ambiance effects, and standing waves.

How does this translate in to English? What am hearing wrong? What is not clear? I am not an audiophile, and it sounds fine. I have no problem hiring a calibrator; I just want to understand why.

Perhaps my room dictates a calibration? My room size is 19'L x 11'2"W x 8'H. It is also a library. It’s all filled with books. There are also artistic cabinets built in to the shelves so there is a lot of exposed wood. I have a bench bay window in front of my room, behind the speakers. Inside the room is a love seat and a recliner and a gas fire place that is 4’H x 2’D x 5’L.

Please help me understand,
Cap
captaincapitalism
captaincapitalism OP
52 posts
 
Wow! Nice to see this thread revisited. I have learnt much since I started it. What I discovered is that every tweak makes a difference with material I am familiar with (Except for the $1200 PC which did no audible difference). That is not to say better or worse, just it's different.
Anyway, I decided to hire a local professional calibrator, though that has proven very difficult, so I just might hire Rives. I figure I'll start with a flat response and tweak from there. I wanted TacT, but my media room went well over 100% over budget and that would put another $10K on my system.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I ditto the suggestion to contact Rives. He usually does jump in on threads like this one. If you can get Rives to review the above it will be to your advantage. I understand his calibration equipment is both good and user friendly.
captaincapitalism OP
52 posts
 
I've contacted Rives. Very nice and helpful people there. They answered all of my questions. I will fill out the application (as soon as I get the time) and hear what they have to say.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
Rives is/are good people. Trust them.
exertfluffer
270 posts
 
A simple reason to have your sytem either engineered for your room and calibrated properly for your setup is that it will make your system sound tremendously better!
You have so many varriables in such a small acoustically challenged space, that working with someone can yeild a tremndous(perhaps 3 fold or better) sonic(and visual) improvment! It would be akin to having WolfGang puck drop off all the great ingredients to a dish, and not leaving the dirrections!...and thus you make the dish with less than par results..even though it may seem tasty to you..it can can taste sooooooo much better!...it's a choice.
You do have the advantage of a diffuse soundfield will adresssing reflectio npoints in the room with the books/shelves. Your immaging and soundield will be better than most if you have books all over the place(would have to see your setup). Still, there are many many other variables, like bass response, volume for each speaker, proper crossover selction, phase, soundstage width, cohession between speakers, proper possitioning of speaker/seats, Speaker toe-in, perspective and height/placment of speakers, etc, etc.
Anyway, there are lots of ways to do it all so very very wront and compromised for optimal results. If you've never heard it done correctly, you might never know what you're missing, or what you could have with some edjucated consulting.
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