Vandersteens on active speakers and room correction

I have my unpacking, setup, breakin and long term listening notes from 1k hours of use... maybe this thread will get me to clean those up :-)

Regarding Mr. Vandersteen's views on "digital filter networks" (for active configuration) compared to discretely equipped passive filters in the higher-end realm - views which, fundamentally, I don't agree with - I find below linked video a more even-handed take on the pros and cons of active (also digitally filtered) vs. passive overall:

https://youtu.be/7Z_UPvXr4pA

Where room correction goes I'm more divided. DRC Designer made some improvements in my previous (passive) main speaker set-up, but not without some artifacts in the shape of mild ringing/ghosting. 

I have to say that when it comes to convenience, automatic room correction is super hard to beat, especially in configuring a subwoofer.

erik, you can't argue with the ease, but my personal thoughts have never been positive and I think I've heard some of the more popular implementation's in the US market.  Again, it's all about ease vs performance.  

It took us about 2 hours for Johnny Rutan to tune the bass on my Quatro's.  It was straightforward, but you needed two people to do it properly unless you use a stand to hold your meter.  Easy?  Not nearly as so as hitting a button and moving a microphone around the room, but you don't hear it.  I have yet to hear a digital correction that didn't degrade the sound a bit.  Roon degrades the sound too, but it's a breeze to use and fun.  I don't use it as I guess I still care about sound quality most.  

When I want ease of use and fun, I turn to my custom in ear monitors and DAP.  I can play all day long and have a blast as I don't care as much.  JMHO and not for everyone.  Fully understand the 'ease' of use market and I'm sure I'll be there some day also.

I don't know who Johnny Rutan is, but I assume he's experienced at doing this sort of thing, and that kind of proves my point, that the biggest benefit of ARC systems isn't the EQ so much as the sub configuration. It's not easy. I wrote about those difficulties here:


https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-not-buy-subwoofer.html


I personally have avoided EQ anywhere but in the subwoofer until recently. I don't use ARC with Roon, just some tailored PEQ settings I wrote about here:


https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html


Tune your system for your own preferences, but having massive peaks and nulls in the bass is to me far worse than any sound quality issues I've noticed with Roon, which so far I haven't.  Of course, sub placement, room treatments all matter, as does the basic phase, delay, level settings.

As for the rest of ARC, I am with Floyd Toole in the sense that I like my speaker sound, I don't want an ARC system to attempt to deliver a perfect presentation and I think some systems work much better than others. Consumers too often believe that because it's computers and math the results must all be the same, which is far from true.  Humans pick the algorithms and targets and parameters of importance, they just automated quite personal tastes.  Whether they match yours is another story.


Best,

E