Using an Equalizer to help with room correction?

[scottmhill]

I own a pair of Vistas and a pair of Depth I subwoofers. I'm powering the Vistas with an Emotiva XPA-200 (approximately 240 watts each) ran off of a second zone of a Marantz receiver (main receiver for home theater in the basement). Because I am using a second zone setup, I have no Audyssey or other room correction from the receiver. At best I have bass/treble controls for the second zone.

I'm using them in a formal living room/dinning room that is approximately 35 feet long, 15 feet wide, and a vaulted ceiling. The room has hardwood floors, a couch and sitting area on one end, and a dinning table on the other end. I have one rug in the sitting area, and drapes on both end.

I know my room setup is not ideal...hardwood and a lack of sound absorption on the walls to start. But not much I'm allowed/willing to do to change the room.

I'll admit I have a fairly amateur ear, but I can hear that I have some odd dips and spikes throughout the bandwidth. I've used a radio shack sound level meter to help adjust the subs and the interaction with the Vistas, and I can tell through that device that I have some weird issues that I attribute largely to my room.

My question is this. I've considered purchasing a used Rane ME-60 dual channel graffic eq off ebay that I can pick up for $100-$200. I would use it along with either the radio shack sound level meter or something like REW Room EQ wizard to try to cancel out some of the dips and spikes.

Is this a bad idea? I welcome any feedback, but I'm trying to think of a fairly inexpensive way to help with room correction. It seems to me (feel free to correct me) that Audyssey and other room correction software does this, so why can't I do it manually?

 

[sleepysurf]

First thing I would suggest is optimizing your sub(s) placement, even trying them on side walls (if possible), and listening/measuring the effect That's the most important step, (along with phase/volume adjustments that you can do manually).

Instead of the rat shack level meter, get yourself a legit room measurement kit, either REW (with a calibrated mic and USB sound card) or the XTZ or Omnimic "plug and play" kit. FYI, I believe this promo deal is still going on for a discounted XTZ mic kit that works with REW.

Once you can objectively measure your speaker/sub/room interaction, you'll see what's really going on, and can then decide if room EQ (Audyssey, or comparable) and/or additional room acoustic treatments (bass traps) are worth considering.

 

[|Tch0rT|]

Graphic EQ's aren't good for that usage. You need a Parametric EQ. I concur with Sleepysurf's advice too.

 

[amey01]

I'm running a Behringer DEQ2496 (as Tchort said, parametric not graphic), however I wouldn't recommend it for anything other than the bass (I use mine <80Hz only). Treat the room (and placement) first, and then (and only then) if you have big problems consider EQ. EQ will flatten the frequency response, but will introduce a whole host of other problems like phase shifts and linearity issues. To be avoided if at all possible.

 

[beanbag]

There are different levels of Audyssey, and even though I am not really familiar with it, some of them can do some pretty fancy signal processing stuff that is beyond the level of a graphic equalizer. That's the short version.

The best and cheapest solution for you would be to buy a MiniDSP (digital equalizer and crossover) and Umik-1 microphone from the Minidsp company in Hong Kong. You can then use the REW program to help with your sub integration and eq-ing out some of the bass ringing peaks.

Even if you can't do much for room acoustic treatment, at least try to put something soft at the first reflection points and get the slap echo down.

 

[JonFo]

Hi Scottmhill, first, it would be helpful to know a bit more about your setup, so please describe the signal chain from the receiver to the subs/Vistas. Do you go to each Depth i first for crossover before going to the Emotiva Amps?

If so, then I'd recommend a nice one-box solution to meet both the measurement and the EQ challenge. MiniDSP now offers the Dirac Live (a competitor to Audyssey) built into their kit. Priced very attractively (the software alone is $500) at $900, this one-stop solution will address your frequency and some time-domain issues you likely have.

As others have noted, first play extensively with positioning and whatever acoustic treatments you can get away with before applying Room Correction. For that, you can use the measurement tools that are included in this MiniDSP kit:

http://www.minidsp.com/dirac-series/ddrc-22a

 

[RUR]

EQ will flatten the frequency response, but will introduce a whole host of other problems like phase shifts and linearity issues. To be avoided if at all possible.

Mixed-phase EQ solutions - Dirac, Trinnov, etc. - have no such issues, Adam.