Room EQ

Kal and Eldartford : thanks; I was looking at the Behringer. I am not necessarily addressing a particular problem, Rather, my interests are in objectively evaluating the response of my system and correcting, if indicated, any deficiencies. What I am looking for is an efficient way of inputting a signal of known frequency content and measureing the response at a point in the room. Then inserting the filtering and seeing if I like the result. One box that does both of the above is what I am after. System consists of Marantz CDP - Mcintosh C45 preamp - Mcintosh MC 402 amp - B&W 803S speakers.

That's cool... you're going to objectively evaluate the results from a subjective viewpoint.

Given that no room is "perfect" and that most have serious flaws, there is a likely benefit to EQ... it just might not turn out to be the curve you think it ought to be.

But a unit like the aforementioned Behringer can analyze your room and show you what frequency bands have the most deviation from flat. It can also correct across the full audio spectrum and provide various filtering effects.

However, just like some amps sound better than other amps, some EQ's sound a lot better than other EQ's. They're not all created equal.

I've gotten very good results using a dbx 14/10, which can store up to 10 curves... in effect you can equalize each of your source components to your taste, or use different curves to tame down bright recordings, or recordings with too little, or too much bass. However you must be sensible when applying bass boost.

I'd say start with the Behringer, because at least that will show you where the peaks and dips are...and it probably has the widest variety of settings and filters and the ways it can be adjusted. What complicates matters is that in addition to the different EQ's sounding "different," they all have different features and settings.

I use Fuzzmeasure with a Behringer ECM8000 and E-Mu 0404 USB Mike amp - it is a very similar setup to Room Eq Wizard. Measurement plots are displayed on my virtual system. I use it for bass calibration to the sub only - speakers are run full range without any EQ. Fuzzmeasure uses a chirp or sweep which I prefer for running tests (very quick).

I suspect something like this is essential once you have done all the acoustic treatments that you can accept aesthetically. It certainly helped me correct for what was too much bass and too much room modal response at certain frequencies.

Copland drc205 The best in room EQ

I've tried the berringer a few times and find it's not very transparent. I would'nt use it for anything but the bass frequencies. I have not tried any of the more expensive ones. They would have to be way more transparent for me to consider using one.