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pegwill

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Hi Guys

I wonder if you can clear up my confusion which is basically loudspeaker response and room response.

I have just watched the following



Which deals with speaker response that I interpret to be setting up your system to account for all elements of your system including cables etc. While it appears to be using some form of electronic frequency tuning. Could this be done by using an graphic equaliser (or parametric) for modifying analogue signals instead of digital?

If it is possible to do the above do you still have to do room treatments?

As you can see doing the first option has lots of advantages as applying room treatments in a domestic setting is not easy. It also strikes me that if you use room treatments you would have to redo the speaker response.

I realise that by using some form of analogue equaliser is adding something else in the sign al chain but as with everything we do it is always some form of trade off.

You wisdom would be welcomed please.

Many thanks

Regards

William
 
Welcome! You have just jumped into the deep end of the pool. Luckily we have some REW users who can answer all your questions. Sadly, it is not me!
 
The order of importance I use is:
Placement
Placement
Placement
Treatment
Tubes
Calibration

The point of this is to say that where the speakers are placed is the most important part of the puzzle. Location, toe or no toe, tilt, all of which is free, it just takes time. Along with this, look at the room. Is it filled with hard surfaces and no furniture? or lots of absorbing carpet and soft furniture? This all plays into what is needed for possible treatment and how much treatment if/probably needed.

Another point to make is that calibration can't fix a bad room. Maybe it can help, but that's a stretch.

I'm still in the process of changing some things with my system which involves subwoofers. While things are great for the theater side of things for which I use Dirac room correction, I still don't use correction for two channel above a few hundred Hz. I just don't like it. Or, to put it another way, I haven't been able to use it for anything except for bass and be happy. I enjoy the natural sound - the good and bad or whatever - of what the stat panels put out.

My room is old wood floors over a basement, no carpet, 1" thick plaster walls and ceilings, and an entire wall of glass windows. There are several rugs with heavy pads underneath specifically for the sound, otherwise I'd just love to only have the wood flooring. The most important rug is between the seating and the speakers, and no coffee table in the middle to cause unwanted reflections or trap any sound. I use very little treatment, but could use some more, but it's not a high priority considering the huge and lifelike soundstage I enjoy.

The things I've been changing in my system are absolute and total "wants", not "needs". I'm doing it for getting that last 1%, loving to tinker, education, etc. But it's not because there was a underlying huge problem to fix. But by doing this I did discover something that happens when both Left and Right speakers are playing mono bass, and that is a null between 60-70Hz, so it now is this null that I'm fixing - but not with calibration because calibration can't fix it, it's being fixed by adding a subwoofer to work with the L&R.
 
Well, I am not a REW user and a Dirac or other user. TTocs is giving you great advice. The cheapest, easiest, simplest way to see if you have any big issues is to get a db meter and a disc or any sweep tone you can listen to that goes from 30-20,000 hz. It can't sweep too fast as you want to watch on your db meter where the volume increase and decreases. Turn on your meter and set your volume at say 75 db. Then watch the meter as you play the sweep. If you have any low volume frequencies by 12 db (or more) or any louder frequencies by 12db or more, then you can start moving speaker placement until you level it out as much as you can given decor restraints. Once that is done then if you still have any large 12db holes or spikes, you can try to EQ some of them out which means you can only drop the peaks, you can't bring up the holes as they cancel regardless of the volume. Anyway, once you do that you should have a fairly decent system setup. Then if you want to use REW, you can go for it. What I am telling you is cheap and will give you fairly good results. after that it depends on how far you want to chase a certain frequency response from your system. Even with REW as the guy on the video showed, it might not be perfect. Pretty much no system is perfect as you are setting it up to your preferred listening parameters. There you go. No money really and you have tweaked your system quite well. It DOES take time. You may be playing with it for days until you can get it how you want. Adding in a subwoofer means you need to have that in the mix after you get your speakers set up. That will then change your frequencies from about 200 hz on down. So then you redo the sweeps from 200 hz on down and tweak in the sub. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Good Luck on your adventure and above all HAVE FUN!
 
Hi
Thanks for the input. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated listening room then I expect room treatments will/should be not be that much of a problem however in a domestic setting is totally different. So the option of optimizing the outputs as it were would seem to be the best option. While it’s quite clear that it won’t cure all the ills it will make a compromise solution that may be an improvement. Whether to go down the REW route or the decimal meter route not sure what what the best route is. As I only have a stereo I still need something like a minidsp to effect the changes that’s whether or not I use REW or Meter option.

Thanks for your input and advice. Will let you know in the fullness of time how I get on.


Regards

William
 
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