Room correction

I have seen a lot of people discuss room correction and DSP correction etc.
I am totally clueless about this tbh.
My room is not the best but am limited to what I can do as a still the main living space so comprises have to be made.
Speakers are nearly equidistant laminate flooring with a big rug. Side wall large window with blinds and curtains. opposite wall is double width opening into dining room. Back wall sofa straight onto it plan wall.
Not much I can do you change the layout of the room so would any form of digital correction help?
And well what is there and how does it work?
Apologies I have never looked at this side of it and from my reading it is she most gains are made?

 

The first thing is if you have the equipment technology to do this?

Roon for instance will allow 'convolution filters' (i.e. the room corrections you made) to DSP, but you need to measure your room and make the filters. This can be done with a laptop, decent mic and REW software.

I'll tell you now, this is heavy entry into the geek-o-sphere and personally I would look at room correction only after exhausting all other possibilities.

The other question of course is, what are you trying to correct?*




*Changing a cable wont fix it either.

 

I have just started to look at this no equipment yet no.
I have a boom at lower frequency that becomes messy compared to the rest of the sound.
I just want to optimize the sound for the room or at least try to

 

Very roughly you use a microphone to measure the room from various places and use a computer program to analyse the room. You then use some hardware or software to apply the settings. A very fancy tone control - kind of. Depends how much fannying around with a computer you want to do or how much cash you want to shell out.

Maybe some sound diffusers, acoustic foam, moving speakers, isolation, rugs/heavy lined curtains would be worth a go first.

DIY starting point - Laptop + REW software + UMIK microphone

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/​

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N4Q25R8/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21​

Automatic - MiniDSP are a good shout or DSpeaker

https://www.strictlystereo.com/minidsp
https://www.strictlystereo.com/dspeaker​

Basic info here

https://www.minidsp.com/applications/digital-room-correction/drc-basics
​

If you want to get right into it check out Lyngdorf

 

Can you rotate the room/system 45 degrees so both speakers back onto the curtains?
The main issue i see is the listening positioning, having your head near the opposing wall to the speakers is never a good idea for clean low bass.

 

Based on the advice on here I've just been through the learning curve of using REW plus the Umik measurement mic to understand what is going on in my room. Speakers near to back wall, listening position in front of rear wall, and irrespective of which speakers I used there was always both a bass 'hump' at around 70-90 Hz making the bass sound boomy, and then a bass 'null' soon after that. No appetite for adding professional room treatment so started using a DAC with EQ capabilities - the RME ADI-2, and have used that to successfully cut out the bass hump - after lots of trial and error and looking at youtube videos it's not as complex as it seems and has made a decent difference. The RME DAC is pricey but you can do the same thing with a cheaper box from MiniDSP for a couple of hundred quid.

The EQ can't do anything about nulls though, that theoretically makes some sections of bass sound flat, that can only be fixed with positioning and maybe room treatment, I can't easily change either in my room so have to live with it. The brain does adjust to fill in the gaps though apparently!

 

Cheers will look into it.
Sadly pulling the sofa away from the wall not am option room just not big enough. Not really practical to put curtains on a bare wall. What will help a bare wall above a sofa then and still pass the partner test lol

 

What I was meaning was to move both speakers in-front of the window/curtains and sit with you back facing the double width opening to the dining room?

 

Just not possible with layout unfortunately room not big enough for that plus the couch faces TV etc and can't move that as on the wall speakers floorstanders either side

 

May I suggest this very well written article as a starting point?

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/what-is-accurate-sound-r923/

Here room EQ is linked with integrating subs, but that's a separate rabbit hole for now. It's a useful article. The other thing I intend doing is reading Dr Floyd Toole's book on sound reproduction in order to grasp the basic principles.

I'll be working through a similar process sometime soon.

 

Something like this? Advanced Acoustics Photophonic Acoustic Panel 2ft by 4ft

Will try again with image!

 

that is an excellent article, thanks for sharing

 

Personally I wouldnt be without some form a equalisation. REW contains a room simulation programme. In simple terms you key in room size and speaker positions and it calculates a frequency response for you. Its free and easy to do. I would look at that and see what the graph looks like.

If it shows some big bumps in the equalisation will probably help.

where you go from their probably depends on your budget and the amount of time you want to spend.

It takes me the best part of a day to equalise 2 channels with an analogue parametric equaliser, against say 20 minutes with a Dspeaker dual core. The Dual core gives a better result graph/waterfall wise but sound wise I prefer the analogue route.

 

Cheers for all the inputs I will look into this definitely. So to begin with I need to get the usb microphone and software to see where the issues show up that right? From there try and change the room or look at electronics to correct it?

 

It depends what you use at home.

If you have multiple sources then something from miniDSP between your pre and power amp allows you to convert everything to digital, perform EQ and convert back to analogue. I have a hard time accepting the approach, but I'm assured the benefits outweigh the costs significantly.

(Alternatively there is a nice Monacor allDSP unit in the classifieds - Cooky is selling it.)

Or, a more powerful solution is to perform the EQ entirely in the digital domain, in a computer prior to a DAC. Roon (for example) would allow you to insert the correction into the playback chain prior to the DAC. Not quite sure how that might work with multiple sources though.

I am still mulling over possible connection diagrams in my mind.

 

If you want an easy way of doing it then I think the dsp antimode is the most straightforward. Using something like REW is much more complicated. Conversely REW is more configurable and is more of a hobby in itself.

 

Decent guide for anyone with roon. Even if not using roon then the parts on how to import the files can be ignored. Only takes some free software and a mic. This is the rta method rather than static sweeps but both are valid and have pros & cons

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/a-guide-how-to-do-room-correction-and-use-it-in-roon/23800

 

Also bear in mind that you don't need a specific /specialist piece of hardware for DSP. You could just use a raspberry pi, although you'd need something to convert any analogue signals to digital and back again.

 

I'm also interested in room correction too as I feel my room doesn't like bass. I downloaded REW and went for a room sim to start as I don't have a mic. I got this graph but don't know yet how to incorporate it into JRiver.

Hopefully my first attempt to the image works.




Gavin

 

That'll be no then. Ok try again.

http://imgur.com/gallery/kjzK1mO