Room EQ or not?

[gus4emo]

I ran Odyssey XT32 so many times and every time I got messed up results, my basement is so awkward that I wanted to keep trying, decided to leave it off and will leave it off, watched Jurassic World after using my radio shack level and test tones, and everything else manually, use DALLAS IIZ, and amazing, I even heard the heights, anyone else has similar experience?

[teaman]

I never use the room correction. After my first adventure with my Yamaha receiver and mic that ended up sounding horrible I now rely solely on my ears for the best tweaking needed to make me happy.

Tim

[geebo]

Tried them but never used any until Dirac.

[gus4emo]

Sorry I meant DPL IIZ, I even wanted to watch Start Wars Episode I, lol, yes I know, but any way, I saw a ship going from the center of the screen up to the right, probably for a second, but I heard the right height speaker, ever since I got HSURESEARCH VTF15H MK2 and their HB1 MK2 and HC1 MK2,together with Deftech 800's, and calibrated manually, by the way using XPA7 and XPA200, everything rocks...

[yves]

For HT listening, yes, but not without a capable plan (!)

Manual mode instead of automatic

REW / ARTA measurements to also visualise DECAY TIMES instead of only the frequency response, and learn how to interpret a waterfall plot

Subtle adjustments based on the interpretation of correct measurements, but going by ear to verify the improvements, and avoid EQ overuse

Physical room acoustic treatments first, room EQ only if nothing else helps, and learn the science of how sound waves interact in a room.

[Loop 7]

I had terrible luck with Audyssey XT32 and with the UMC-200 room correction package but actually find Pioneer's MCACC to be quite good.

I predict I will like Dirac quite a lot once I get an XMC-200.

[mgbpuff]

Here's the dirty secret about 'room equalization' software - it does not correct the room for sound at all, but it manipulates sound amplitudes, phases, delays, decays, etc., so that the sound at ONE POINT IN THE ROOM , namely a point in between your ears where you sit (the MLP), has corrected sound. This is at the sacrifice of the sound at almost every other point in the room which may even be worse than without 'room correction' software. Multiple point software correction merely dilutes the correction at the MLP. If enough point corrections are made throughout the room I think the result might be the normal sound of the room without any correction at all. True room correction, as much as a room can be corrected for sound, is by learned use of absorbtion and diffusion techniques (physical panels folks). IMO of course! The only exception is bass eq. which can help with naturally resonant standing waves due to the major room dimensions.

[audiobill]

Treat the room, then trust your ears.

You will end up there anyways.

[gus4emo]

When I watched Jurassic World, the whole system sounded so good that I'm not changing anything at this point, dynamic, every channel on the 9.2 set up did it's part sooooo wonderful, by the way, I have 2 subs, Outlaw Audio top of the line for music, HSURESEARCH VTF H15 MK2 for movies..

[lionear]

Feb 29, 2016 6:26:22 GMT -5 mgbpuff said:

Here's the dirty secret about 'room equalization' software - it does not correct the room for sound at all, but it manipulates sound amplitudes, phases, delays, decays, etc., so that the sound at ONE POINT IN THE ROOM , namely a point in between your ears where you sit (the MLP), has corrected sound. This is at the sacrifice of the sound at almost every other point in the room which may even be worse than without 'room correction' software. Multiple point software correction merely dilutes the correction at the MLP. If enough point corrections are made throughout the room I think the result might be the normal sound of the room without any correction at all. True room correction, as much as a room can be corrected for sound, is by learned use of absorbtion and diffusion techniques (physical panels folks). IMO of course! The only exception is bass eq. which can help with naturally resonant standing waves due to the major room dimensions.

There's one more dirty little secret: the software only tries to account for the first reflection.  It's too hard for the math & there's too little processing power to account for the other reflections.

At the end of the day, after all those tests and measurements, you have to set them all aside and make adjustments by ear.

[garym]

I've always considered room correction a "soft scam" --- a "feature" which actually does something (unlike, say, $500 cables), but which is totally unnecessary.

Room ambiance is part of every live music venue --- jazz clubs, supper clubs, recital halls, piano bars, school gyms, etc. The variations introduced by the room acoustics are normal and not considered flaws unless the acoustics of the place are really awful.

If your listening room is a typical mix of hard and soft surfaces, and you remove anything that resonates at mid-bass frequencies (a pretty common problem) it will sound about like most small live music venues.

A high fidelity sound system should accurately reproduce the signal on the CD. What happens to it after it leaves the speakers is beyond the musician's or engineer's control. You take what you get.

[Boomzilla]

Some rooms need it - some don't. You'll never know till you try. Mine didn't.

[509Paul]

I just use the PEQ in the XMC-1 and RTA software to pull down the few extreme peaks slightly. Full on room correction has always sounded strange to me so I end up not using it. My Sony did really odd stuff with the sound so I would turn it off. The UMC-200 always took the life out of the sound and sounded better off. Dirac does not like something about my room openings and messes with all the imaging. I am sure in the right environment room correction could probably work wonders but not for me.

[405x5]

Feb 29, 2016 10:30:04 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

Some rooms need it - some don't. You'll never know till you try. Mine didn't.

One of these days I will get around to it........
I've got the XMC now, since Oct. of 2014 and my Dirac Kit is still unpacked.
Basically, my room is fairly symmetrical and carpeted. The manual room correction is VERY powerful as they have said, and my results have been SO pleasing that I have been afraid to upset the apple cart, so to speak.
Of course, the dirac results are saved as a preset, so I can play to hearts content with nothing to worry about, (I've just been busy with other things).
I will post my impressions when I finally get around to it.

Bill

[mountain]

I have only tried Yamaha and emoq room corrections.  I do better manually setting distances and spl.  I have even changed the spl in favor of my ears over the meter reading.  Once I get my mains placed and set correctly for two channel listening (including bass) which is most import to me, the rest is pretty easy and satisfying.   Getting rid of a large glass coffee table helped the most.  I could probably use more room treatments, but I am currently quite happy with the setups, both through the oppo and the umc-200.  

[moovtune]

I guess I'm alone in this thread by saying I prefer my room after using Audyssey XT32. It doesn't seem to do too much with the high frequencies, although it does help with detail - but does get rid of the low frequency "boom" effect caused by certain frequencies that normally get emphasized by my room. I use it all the time for movies and 5.1 music.

[wilburthegoose]

for me, Dirac >>> Audyssey.

[gus4emo]

For some reason Odyssey placed my 2nd sub at 30 feet when it's actually 9 feet away, it does that every time, was it maybe the wave hitting the front wall (since the sub is on the back) and bouncing back to the mic?

[etc6849]

It is supposed to do that as the circuitry in the sub has a delay, and it uses this "distance" (in effect it's really just a time delay) to correctly phase match your main speakers and subs.  You really should want to do that for max performance.

Feb 29, 2016 13:33:09 GMT -5 gus4emo said:

For some reason Odyssey placed my 2nd sub at 30 feet when it's actually 9 feet away, it does that every time, was it maybe the wave hitting the front wall (since the sub is on the back) and bouncing back to the mic?

[drtrey3]

The UMC-200 setup works great in my room and I use it to help correct for my left front speaker being closer to a wall while my right front speaker is just out there in space!

It works great for me.

Trey