Room Correction Required
I have to part with my Supernait 3. I have enjoyed it as much as possible in a room where I have a 7bB at 80hz hole at my listening position. It starts at about 125hz, bottoms out at 80hz, comes back up around 60hz before dropping into a black hole at 50hz. On top of that I have a serious peak (12dB) at 40-30hz. It makes for an odd musical experience. Obviously this is not the fault of the Naim. My previous unit did the same thing but I was wishing that the Naim would power through it. I also replaced my speakers in the same vain hope. Wishing vs. science..... oops. When I get out of the null zone the tonality is great but I can't be seated that far out of the space without looking really dumb or antisocial. Also the sound stage is wrecked when I get out there.
I have lived in this home for a year and a half. The issue was worse before I pivoted the room arrangement 90 degrees. My partner is an artist and designer, so I have blown all my rearranging capitol for the next 10 years (her words not mine). We looked at adding room treatments and perused the currently available options which look like church or hospital decor; SO NOT HAPPENING (her words again but I have to agree- yuck).
As a result, I need an integrated with room correction. Yes, I'm sticking with an integrated because I want a minimal gear set.
-TT via Gold Note PH-10/PSU10, outputs either balanced or single end.
-Prefer built in streaming to lose another couple boxes but it's not a deal killer. Current DAC outputs balanced or single end.
-Powering MA Silver 500 7G, not looking to change these.
-Single Revel B112v2 Subwoofer (not currently in use as the 500's are already peaking in the same range)
-TV, currently input optical to the DAC.
The top contenders are:
Anthem STR (no streaming)
NAD M33
Lyngdorf TDAI 1120 (the 3400 is not budget friendly).
Yamaha RN-2000a
So if anyone has experience with these units I'd like to hear about it. Also, I know it's going to happen and god bless you all; someone is going to tell to reposition my speakers (been done), stuff the ports (been done) get room treatments (ummmmmm nope?) and buy Luxman, Sudgen or something else because of __________ (fill in the blank). That's fine and I appreciate the advise but I don't see any of that happening in this room anytime soon under the current design driven regimen I live under.
Thank you all for taking a look!
@mitchellcp Your choice of electronics won't change the null. The standing wave causing it has to be broken up and electronics can't do that. You could use bass traps but they would have to dynamically move about the room depending on the bass note frequency to be effective. That is why multiple subs is the only way to solve this problem. |
I’m betting that since the mid bass null is not too severe, it will be bettered or cured. @mitchellcp The way room correction works is its an active EQ device that compares the incoming signal to what it hears happening in the room. This might be done with a test signal. So at that point if there is a dip, the room correction simply boosts the signal at the frequency of the dip. The problem is that if the dip is caused by cancellation, you can put any amount of power into that cancellation and it will be cancelled. So the dip remains. That is why you have to break up the standing waves before room correction can really work. |
I’m absolutely pleased with the results of the STR Integrated using ARC. The first run immediately eliminated the 30-40hz peak (prior to correction it really sounded like a 14 year old had gotten at the subwoofer controls). Additionally, via the graphic display of the ARC system I discovered that the 80hz centered null was a product of the right speaker room interaction only. I never ran REW on the individual speakers, all of which is beside the point, because the corrected curve fixed it. With the low end fixed I found the the high was flat and lacked the sparkling dynamics that had impressed me from the start. The Sterophile review mentioned the same effect so I borrowed the remedy from the same article, which was to limit the upper end of the correction curve to 500hz and presto! All the good and none of the bad. I’ll probably lower that some more. I found you can edit the curves for different sources by saving and assigning different profiles. This is great because my TT via the Gold Note PH-10 can be a touch bass heavy while the output from the TV TOSLink is what you’d expect- not the first word in dynamics. All of these things can be adjusted on the fly and the results are great. The next phase was to reintegrate the subwoofer into the system although I thought I could live happily without it. Mostly I was just curious about the effect. The effect is very good, the bass is tighter still. Double bass work in jazz just shines with realism. I also found I can listen at lower volume levels and still get a great immersive listening experience. Overall I’m really impressed. I’m easily able to ignore the hugeness of the STR integrated in exchange for its excellent sound quality. On a 1-10 scale I give it 20. |
