Room correction - what device works best?

I grew interested in acoustics and having a technical background and DIY inclinations, studied quite a bit, got a measurement mic, mic amp, REW software, and built a number of tube traps, Helmholtz resomators, etc. also worked a fair bit on layout. The benefit was very apparent, although my wife wasn't as happy with the ugly stuff in the living room. But proved room treatments are worth the effort.

My only source these days is a very optimized PC with hardware and software optimizations, feeding an Audiophilleo and Metrum Octave DAC, a Lamm LL2 pre, a McIntosh Mc275 amp, 3-way speakers and a pair of subs.

Recently I incorporated Acourate software. Along the lines of Dirac, but less automatic and more powerful. So far I have been using it for room correction only and it works wonderfully. Miles' Tutu playing now, sounding as real as ever before in my system. Imaging has improved a lot.

I guess purist is in the eye of the beholder. My purist plan is to go fully active 4-ways and enable Acourate ability to run digital crossovers, driver linearization, and time-alignment. An amp driving directly a speaker driver is as purist as it gets in my view.

A couple of good articles for those who might be interested in learning more, at computeraudiophile.com, by Mitchco:
Introduction to Acourate: explains the basics for a 2-channel system. What I'm doing.
Advanced Acourate: explains how he implemented his 3-way active system, linearized drivers, time-aligned.

Almarg,

What a great post. Great synthesis of the potential of a DEQX.

Are you planning to go active with your speakers, getting rid of the passive crossovers?

You might recall I thought about the DEQX HDP-4 (at the time) and eventually opted for Acourate. Yet my end destination seems to be very aligned with yours. I opted to build a system around this concept and will build my own speakers, multi-amp, use active digital crossovers and get a time aligned, linearized, room corrected system.

I am technically inclined, but certainly less experienced/knowledgeable than you. It would be great for me to be able to bounce ideas/questions with you as you also go through this process. Such a fun project!

Al,

Yes, your speakers are truly of fine craftmanship. I've never heard them, but always found them very appealing from what I read.

Are you sure the DEQX can achieve time alignment among the drivers if you are to keep the passive crossovers in there? My understanding is the time alignment is done between pairs of channels, at the crossover points, through linear phase crossovers. Hence the need for actively amping. Maybe DEQX is different, but I think I did exchange with a user about this. At least on Acourate, I know the system can't time align if it only sees two channels as it can't delay part of the signal within a channel. This is why this decision has been so difficult to make. My system will need to change almost completely.

Thanks Al, Roscoe. I learnt something already.

Cheers!

Al,

Yes, your speakers are truly of fine craftmanship. I've never heard them, but always found them very appealing from what I read.

Are you sure the DEQX can achieve time alignment among the drivers if you are to keep the passive crossovers in there? My understanding is the time alignment is done between pairs of channels, at the crossover points, through linear phase crossovers. Hence the need for actively amping. Maybe DEQX is different, but I think I did exchange with a user about this. At least on Acourate, I know the system can't time align if it only sees two channels as it can't delay part of the signal within a channel. This is why this decision has been so difficult to make. My system will need to change almost completely.

Not sure when people refer to Dirac if they are referring to the software package or a hardware unit with Dirac inside? Either way I understand it can't do crossovers. In case someone meant software, then Acourate can do digital crossovers, driver linearization, time alignment and room correction.

There was a comment above indicating frustration that DEQX could only handle 96kHz, and a great reply by Almarg. I completely agree with Al. To add my experience from another angle: at some point I was considering the 8-channel DAC e28 from exaSound, which can play 24/192 & DSD256 natively on 8-channels. It looked ideal for my needs. Discussing this with Uli Brueggemann from Acourate, he explained he tried it at 24/96 and a powerfull computer was running out of steam, suggesting 24/192 would be very very hard. So I dropped the idea, despite my computer being very powerful (server motherboard with Xeon processor, etc).