Experienced only: What have you done with room correction?

I am using 3 different DSP technologies and they all improved the sound in the rooms in which they are used. I use: whatever Emotiva offers in the MC 700, whatever Integra offers in its receivers, and whatever DSpeaker (model 2 or some such) uses. I don't care what they call these methods, I only care that they work - and they do. I notice someone suggested that you throw your equipment away because they don't work. This is certainly unhelpful, not to mention arrogant and disrespectful. Disregard such nonsense, please, and continue your quest for good sound in your home. It does make a great deal of difference where the microphone is placed during the testing phase of the procedure. I always place it on a pillow (because my clothing absorbs sound - we are trying to simulate a listener's head) and prop it up on cardboard boxes so that is "head high."  If you placed the microphone on an 18 inch squarr marble slab on the seat you usually occupy, the results would be very different. Emotiva's fanciest system, which I help a friend to install, has a very detailed (and lengthy) setup involving multiple mike placements which produced a really remarkable (if I were a less reserved person, I would say "spectacular!") improvement in a loft usig Magnepan 1.7i speakers and a single subwoofer. Happy listening.

So-called room EQ is fascinating I think. First it helps to understand the behaviour of sound in your your room in terms of the broad division of frequency bands into specular, transitional and modal. Room EQ certainly helps with tonality across the frequency spectrum. You also want to know the reverberation behaviour of your room EQ can’t help much with that.

My room is quite dry in acoustic terms due to its construction (a Japanese style timber house) so I’m good to go with room EQ. My RT60 (an approximation, because small room behaviour doesn’t give us a diffuse field) is around 200 ms until the bottom octave where it increases to 300 ms. If you live in a concrete apartment block, those figures will be significantly higher and you’ll have to add absorption first.

I model my room in REW and Amcoustics room simulators to get a handle on Schroeder frequency (which divides specular and modal) room modes and influence of loudspeaker position. When I bought new speakers a year or so back I positioned them, measured FR at listening position, moved the speakers in 200 mm steps laterally then longitudinally, measuring at each step until the most problematic nulls were minimised. You can’t fix severe nulls with EQ so this comes first.

I use a Mac as source running Apple Music (now with hi-res and spatial audio aka Atmos) and Sonarworks software to EQ, then USB over Thunderbolt to the DAC. I like Sonarworks because it measures ~37 locations spread around the listening position to get a better model of room behaviour before running EQ. I used their mic in a Røde shock mount pistol grip handle and their sonar location method is completely fun.

My previous speakers (Audio Physic Tempo 25) were a bit warm in the mid-bass but otherwise pretty good FR-wise. Running Sonarworks EQ full-range along with the B&K 1974 curve improved mid-bass FR smoothness (expected) and resulted in even better delineation of the stereo image (which I didn’t expect) so I was very happy. AP speakers have great timbre and EQ didn’t harm that at all.

My new speakers (Audio Physic Codex) are close enough to full range so bass issues that didn’t arise before presented themselves (reinforcement at 25 Hz being the rooms lowest lontitudinal mode was beneficial but a 15 dB bump at 50 Hz from the room’s second longitudinal mode was deleterious). EQ fixes errant peaks unproblematically. Those speakers were also a bit shy in the mid bass (opposite to their smaller brethren) as room modes in the transitional zone (250-700 Hz in my case) had a negative influence and EQ coped quite ok with that, balancing mid-bass with midrange nicely. EQ also provides a bit more lower bass extension (but don’t go overboard as high levels can damage speakers).

In my experience, even with excellent speakers, careful positioning followed by judicious application of DSP has no real downside. With the smaller speakers, bass distortion (I use Fuzzmeasure for analysis) rises but doesn’t sound too bad, but headroom is an issue then. With the larger speakers, bass distortion is insignificant and higher levels are comfortable.

Btw I’m aware Acourate and Audiolense are very cool but I haven’t gone there as running things in a Windows VM doesn’t seem with the effort. If you use a Windows PC source, by all means try them.

Very nice detailed explanation of frequency-dependent sound behaviour at SynAudCon here.

I use the "artificial Ficus Tree" room correction technology.  Depending on your room size, but 1 to 2 dozen 6' Artificial Ficus trees and scatter them around the room behind and besides the speakers, behind the speakers, behind the listening position and in the corners.  It's a time proven technique to take care of room anomalies.  And much cheaper and better sounding than active solutions.

@bpoletti I’ve heard live ficus trees produce a more natural sound.  Heh heh.