Sorry for the possible distortion in the pics. They’re 1.33:1 aspect ratio and I’ve tried to plug in the numbers to preserve the right proportions, but it posts them distorted once I actually post and view in portrait mode on my phone. When I turn my phone into landscape mode, the pics look like right and undistorted.
Digital Room Correction vs Room Treatments
I finally got a mic and used REW to analyze my room. Attached is the freq response for 3 different speakers (Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20, Sonus Faber Electa Amator II, and Sonus Faber Concerto Domus).
They all show similar characteristics - at least the most prominent ones. I did play around with the Amators trying them closer together and more forward in the room, but the major characteristics you see were mostly unchanged.
With this magnitude and number of deviations from a more ideal frequency response curve, am I better off biting the bullet and just doing digital room correction, or can these issues be addressed with room treatments without going crazy and having the room look like Frankenstein’s lab.
Cost is a consideration, but doing it right/better is the most important factor.
If digital room correction is a viable way to address this, what are the best solutions today? My system is largely analog (80’s/90’s Mcintosh preamp/amp, tube phono stage), and streaming isn’t a priority (though I’m not against it).
If the better digital correction solutions come in the form of a streaming HW solution, that’s fine, I’d do that.
Just looking for guidance on the best way to deal with the room, as both serious room treatments and digital EQ room correction are both areas I haven’t delved into before.
Thanks all. If more info is needed, let me know. My room is 11.5’ wide and 15.5’ long with the speakers on the short wall. Backs of speakers are 3-3.5’ off the front wall and they’re at least 2ft from either side wall. Some placement flexibility is there, but not a huge amount.
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Ok, I need to add one more important thing. In the past couple of days, I’ve decided to at least try bookshelf speakers in place of the Monitor Audio Gold 20’s. Part of this is because I am wondering if the Monitors are still too big for the room and the bass output qty is still too much. And part of this is just me being curious about whether bookshelf speakers can satisfy me as main speakers - I’ve been resistant to this in the past because I’ve always seen bookshelf speakers as “too small”. But the reality is my room and free volume in this room is also small, so a bookshelf may be the most appropriate sized speaker for my situation. While it’s by no means a given I’ll like the bookshelves and that they’ll become my main speakers over the Monitors, it’s very possible. I anticipate the FR curve and overall interaction between a different speaker and my room will be different as well so wanted to give the thread a heads up so I’m not exercising people to help me find a solution for a problem that may possibly change. |
@captouch that looks like a great music room. Think I understand better at what is going on. Everything looks a bit compressed, and yes, the room is filled. You might have a lot of speaker/power for that room, but that's ok. Had a thought, if you can get a wireless connection to your sub, find the room nulls, put the sub in the nulls, it might cancel out the room null. On the other hand, with your gear and that room, do you even notice the dip? Is it deep bass heavy? Do you feel the room is dead or alive? As most of us have realized, measurements don't always mean much to our ears. If it sounds good to you, then it's good. This is part of the reason why I don't want to measure my room. It's all analog (sans streamer), Done all the old school things, and it sounds good to me, so it is good. |
In my experience, room correction with DSP (MiniDSP+DiracLive) made a huge difference. In terms of sound, it went from fatiguing to blissful. The bass became more coherent, the mids and highs less muddy, more clear. Instruments and voices became separated, imaging dramatically improved. DSP is not simply about correcting issues with frequency response. As previously mentioned, time domain problems can also be corrected, which I assume is why the imaging has improved so much. Below is my frequency response, measured with REW. Yellow is with DiracLive turned on. And here are the impulse responses as measured with REW, before and after correction with DIracLive. My perception is that the magic comes with both the frequency and phase corrections that come with DiracLive implementation. Before MiniDSP, my room was treated with some absorption panels, mostly to reduce some of the reflective wall surfaces to improve reverb. The room includes a 77" TV, couch, furniture, large and dense wool carpet, and sits in the basement where two of my walls are concrete covered in sheetrock and insulation. Speakers ('bookshelf') are 5 feet from the front wall, about 3 feet from the side wall (right, concrete, a little more open on the left side). |
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