Digital Room Correction vs Room Treatments

@rooze My room is a dedicated room for me, so there’s some flexibility in room treatments -within reason because I still don’t want it to look too wacky.  But it also doubles as an Atmos HT room and 2-ch audio room.  Because of the way my side and ceiling Atmos speakers are placed, it’s hard to move my listening position by too much without getting me out of the ideal spot for Atmos.

I’m using cheap acoustic panels in the corners (not true bass traps) and have some I can use on the side walls, but looking at REW measurements with and without, I’m not sure they’re doing much.

But I can definitely take more REW measurements with the mic in different places to see if that bass dip does smooth out.  It can either give me some incentive to try to find a way to move the LP, or resign myself to the fact that it’s not easily fixed without a sub or room correction.

I do have a SVS sub I use for the Atmos system.  With some switch boxes (I have two Schiit Sys devices), I can double up the use of that sub for both Atmos and 2-ch (I know it’s not an ideal sub for audio though).  

While I’m using all vintage equipment for my 2-ch setup, both preamps I use (Mcintosh C35 and Conrad Johnson PV5) have processor loop options for a hardware DSP solution.

One thing that would seem to work is the miniDSP Flex device which uses Dirac Live.  It’s about $750 (I guess $800-825 with tax/shipping) and I believe you can only selectively treat the frequency ranges you want.

On one hand, it’s not a cheap solution, but bass traps from places like GIK can run $400-500 each too, so I could easily spend as much or more than that on acoustic room treatments.

@yyzsantabarbara Where does Mitch's DSP insert into my system?  I'm using one of either of two preamps: a late 80's/early 90's Mcintosh C35 or an '80's Conrad Johnson PV5.

Typically, I'll have 2-3 analog inputs into the preamp (CD player, DAC, and tube phono stage into C35 or will use built in phono stage when using PV5).  Both have processor loops where something could be inserted into the signal chain to work on all inputs, but for Mitch's solution, would this have to be a computer?

uhm you should never smooth bass region in REW... so use VAR smoothing. Also you need to tackle the modes. Push your speakers closer to the front wall and see how that changes the RTA and the modes in your room. DSP is used in tandem with treatment, but treatment takes precedence @captouch 

Room treatment is as much about reverb time (Rt) as frequency variations, particularly in frequencies above 100hz. You don't want sound bouncing around your room. Below 100 is a different story. EQ can help there. 

Diffusion and absorption can help minimize frequency variations above 100hz as well as get Rt down below 300ms, or about 1/3 second. 

Below 100 hz, Speaker placement and subs are the better solution. EQ is most useful below 80hz. Your room is a system like your components. You have to work with various elements to optimize it. REW can help but I find a real time analyzer to be important as well. With a live 1/3 octave display, you can walk around your room with a calibrated Mic and see what's going on. Then you can try different solutions and both measure and more importantly, hear the results. 

Room treatment including where the gear is located is a cure.

EQ, correction, etc, a band aid if used before proper correction, not a cure.

Always treat the room the best you can to see if you can get by without correction and only use it if no other way to get the results you want.