What's your opinion on room correction?

[antonio66]

But you'll never know until you try it in your own room Stu.

[karatestu]

Hello Dave. I agree with what you say but i really can't be bothered.

All the best to you.

[Ali Tait]

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.

The systems usually come with a mike and use a sweep tone to detect in room frequency anomalies which they then automatically compensate for. Mostly in bass frequencies.

[Geoff.R.G]

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.

The systems usually come with a mike and use a sweep tone to detect in room frequency anomalies which they then automatically compensate for. Mostly in bass frequencies.

As already stated, the correction is only going to be "right" for where the mic is situated. Preferably the mic would be positioned where the listener's head would be in normal listening. Even then the listener will be having an effect on the sound and the person operating the system during set-up will have an effect too, because they won't be in the listening position.

As has been said, in a domestic environment, repositioning the speakers and/or furniture is likely to be as effective as an expensive DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system but markedly cheaper. Unless there is some reason why speaker positioning and furnishing cannot be optimised I wouldn't consider any form of DSP simply because the correction comes at a cost in terms of sound quality, in my view you fix one problem in exchange for another one.

[antonio66]

Hello Dave. I agree with what you say but i really can't be bothered.

All the best to you.

I don't think I would be bothered, especially if living on my own and with Cubes as speakers. A guy came round to install my brother's Roon server and brought with him stuff to take measurements, we moved the speakers to improve the bass response, took measurements again and made a slight adjustment using Roon eq.

[Twistedheat02]

I'd like to try out room correction to hear before and after results.

Never really been an issue for me though as I've always tended to have small bookshelf speakers as I generally prefer the presentation of smaller speakers

[Ali Tait]

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.

The systems usually come with a mike and use a sweep tone to detect in room frequency anomalies which they then automatically compensate for. Mostly in bass frequencies.

As already stated, the correction is only going to be "right" for where the mic is situated. Preferably the mic would be positioned where the listener's head would be in normal listening. Even then the listener will be having an effect on the sound and the person operating the system during set-up will have an effect too, because they won't be in the listening position.

As has been said, in a domestic environment, repositioning the speakers and/or furniture is likely to be as effective as an expensive DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system but markedly cheaper. Unless there is some reason why speaker positioning and furnishing cannot be optimised I wouldn't consider any form of DSP simply because the correction comes at a cost in terms of sound quality, in my view you fix one problem in exchange for another one.

Why should it come with a cost to SQ?

Rather sweeping statement to make if I may say so.

I’ve no horse in the race either way, however I did run fully active OB’s for years, in various iterations, using DSP. I didn’t notice any degradation. I’ve also heard a pair of speakers run with their conventional crossover and then with a DSP unit, didn’t cause any problems to my ears. Admittedly this was at an Owston, so not the best place for critical listening.

[savvypaul]

My view is that any additional complexity always comes at a cost to SQ. If you are lucky, then the effect may be barely audible. I don't see that as a sweeping statement, but a statement of principle.

I will agree that adding complexity to treat the symptoms of a problem may be better than living with the problem, untreated. BUT it is always better to root out the problem, altogether.

I'm not surprised that DSP is becoming a big thing. The sellers have put a lot of sophisticated marketing into convincing you that it is the 'miracle cure'. It isn't. It is a (very expensive) last resort. If your amplifiers are not stuffed full of unnecessary capacitors and filters and your speakers are not burdened with music-killing high order crossovers then you won't need to spend fortunes on graphic equalizers.

[Daniel Quinn]

Those who say filters don't effect the sound must listen for different things than me.

[valvesRus]

Those who say filters don't effect the sound must listen for different things than me.

What about those who say that "reflections" from the room, and within the speaker cabinet, colour the sound ?