What's your opinion on room correction?

[Geoff.R.G]

Room Correction is, as Paul said, equalisation (tone control) by another name. In live sound it is pretty near essential but equally easy to over indulge and get some horrible effects.

In my experience many Hi-Fi enthusiasts have a tendency to a bass heavy sound which is as unnatural as an over bright one. I haven't tried room correction at home and I really don't see the point unless you have a room dedicated to playing music because there are too many variables, like the number of people in the room, for which there is no easy compensation. So again, it depends.

[savvypaul]

I really don't see the point unless you have a room dedicated to playing music because there are too many variables, like the number of people in the room, for which there is no easy compensation. So again, it depends.

When I did the National Audio Show with Richard and Tomasz, I sharp noticed the differences between the full room and when there were just a couple of us in.

When I lived in Southend I had a high back sofa in my lounge. I swapped it for a low back Chesterfield type and the bass and stereo image all but disappeared.

[antonio66]

This is one of those threads where every post so far has made valid points with which I'd agree. Thanks everyone for your input so far and for your votes in the poll.

I had a convincing demonstration of the benefits of room correction when I visited the home of Pursuit Perfect System.
With his system in his room the bass had an overblown echoey character that dominated the listening so much that it detracted from the enjoyment of the system. With room corrections switched in, the bass was reigned in and more under control.

So for his system in his room, room correction was the right way to go. Edit: although thinking about it, was it? What if he changed his speakers? He said that he'd tried a lot of different speakers and that they'd all had the same issues in his room. But what if all the speakers he'd tried were slimline ported ones? It's one of those where there probably was something about his room. But even so it'd be interesting to try NVA or Klipsch Heresy speakers in his room.

For my systems in my rooms I've not been able to justify the expense of trying room correction so far.
I've not seen room correction equipment at a price that I could sell on for the same money or a modest profit if I didn't like it. But then I've not been looking out for deals on room correction gear at all, beyond the odd 5 minutes ebay search every 6 months or so.

If I'd posted this poll on a different forum, I'd probably get more votes in favour of room correction. This is a Richard Dunn created forum, and it's inevitable that a less is more general philosophy is prevalent here. I'm in the less is more camp.

It's apparent that the speaker room interactions with my systems in my rooms is a lot cleaner in the bass than the Pursuit Perfect system and room. To the extent that with my Bozak system, my impression is that I'm getting cleaner, more tuneful, more dynamic bass without room correction than he was getting with room correction. Which is fair enough when you look at the speakers we're using and the rooms and the furnishings. Would I get even better bass with room correction? Maybe. But at what cost?

One large rhetorical question I have for the avidly pro room correction people, is how come I can listen to live music with no room correction in a variety of venues, for example in practice basements, pub rooms, concert halls, football stadiums, large tents in a park and the live music always sounds like live music?

[Docfoster]

I don’t have any experience of this.
What do room correctors do exactly?
I’m inferring from what’s been said in this thread that they seek to achieve a flat frequency response by boosting or reducing certain frequencies that they detect as being out of whack. As Paul says, like an intelligent active graphic equaliser.
In theory then, and in a perfect world, would they make all systems in all rooms sound the same?

[Docfoster]

And are they really “room and system” correctors? As I assume they have no knowledge of to what extent it’s the system that’s causing the peaks and troughs and to what extent it’s the room.

[Alfi]

I feel if an enthusiast uses omni/semi-omni designs that generally work with their listening rooms, then room correction is not really necessary.

Alfi.

[Geoff.R.G]

One large rhetorical question I have for the avidly pro room correction people, is how come I can listen to live music with no room correction in a variety of venues, for example in practice basements, pub rooms, concert halls, football stadiums, large tents in a park and the live music always sounds like live music?

If the music you are listening to is amplified, there is room correction! As I said it is called equalisation and it is pretty much essential in most circumstances to get the sound "right", by which I mean "as the engineer/band want it". Only purely acoustic music will be free of equalisation and that can be heard in recordings made in different concert halls etc. I can certainly hear the difference between an empty church and a nearly full one.

[Lindsayt]

There was a large room at one of the Scalford shows with a good system in it.

When I entered the room I sat 3 rows from the back. Then I moved onto the back row and then the second row from the back. It was in this final seating position that the tonal balance was just right. In the other 2 rows it was too lean or too full in the bass.
That was a good reminder that positioning is a simple and effective tone control.

The thing with room correction is that it can only correct for one position in the room. Or at best for an elipse shaped area in the room.
If you always sit in the same place, then this is not an issue. If you move about then room correction will be an approximation. Which would lead onto the question of "Why not get that approximation with positioning of and choice of speakers, combined with room furnishings, instead of via room correction?"

[antonio66]

"In general I’d agree with “It depends”, but I find it can be very useful with in room bass anomalies."

So maybe your vote should have gone to good if you can afford it Ali. You would be able to use as little or as much adjustment as you would need.

[karatestu]

I have heard room correction once, it was a B&O system. I liked the overall sound but not sure how much of that was due to RC. It wasn't a patch on my system though (IMO ofc).

It's just more complexity and I for one will not entertain it