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Hi, how many of you have implemented or heard good room correction such as Trinnov or Dirac on planars such as Apogees, Analysis Audio, Soundlabs, etc. Has that worked, or has that interfered with soundstage, and other elements of the system? Anyone in Western Europe?
Kedar
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I have Maggies 3.7s for fronts and a CC5/DMW center with Carver surrounds, which have a pretty good response without correction and sounds pretty good, too. I also have the Emotiva XMC-1 with Dirac and it just adds that little bit more of everything that just make you want to listen way more than you should. Things just seem more present and real. I guess it's the phase correction that Dirac does that makes the difference. Never had any good results with any Audyssey products in my room. My stereo system, 3.7s also uses Dirac to good effect. Really like Dirac. YMMV
I have been contemplating a couple of Carver CRM-2 speakers for surrounds or even possibly for a center replacement. I found some at a reasonable price, ah but there is so much more to consider first, like new furniture for my new apt. lol... Has anyone looked at the link I posted about IK Multimedia's offering of the Audyssey MultEQ XT-32? http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/messages/21/215752.html#postfp An Audyssey room eq for $299 list?? Although it is geared to the production user, it just might work in a reproduction system like ours...maybe a poor mans EQ?
I do not have the luxury of implementing Limage as my listening room is also my bedroom. Although it is quite large 14x14, and I have kept furniture to a minimum, it does limit placement. I have everything placed as ideally as they can be after much discussion here, but I cannot move my speakers, say five feet from the wall. Two to three feet is more realistic for me. Hence the investigation of room correction. Would love to hear some feedback on the above link. Does it sound like a full blown Audyssey or perhaps pared down a bit? I know nothing about the Audyssey, but hopefully someone here does.
Yes, many folks have expressed misgivings about Audyssey with planars. I should add that my good results came after tweaking for some of its weaknesses. Part of it was easy. I have the standalone measuring capability using a calibrated mic. So, I could compare and adjust.
One thing that I dropped early on was Audyssey's multi-spot mic placement averaging. Once I decided to measure for just one placement, my seating spot, things began to look quite acceptable.
At the end of the day, it was just for curiosity and for hobby fun because Audyssey or DRC was superfluous in my room. OTOH, the experience has allowed me to help friends to implement DRC in their rooms, with their box speakers.
I have just received my XMC-1 (Dirac Live Upgrade), as well as a calibrated UMIK-1 microphone from Cross Spectrum Labs, and just for the fun of it .... my first set of balanced cables to connect my amps and processor.
I am glad to hear the XMC-1 with Dirac is working well for you.
As soon as I can find time, my job is going 7 days a week for a while now, I will report back.
I have an almost all Maggie Music/Theater 5.1 room. 1.7's for LR, CC5/DWM combo for center, MC1's for surrounds, Rythmik F12 sub. I am awaiting delivery of Emotiva's XMC-1 processor with DIRAC built in. I am as curious as you as to what DIRAC might or might not bring to the table….I mean my ears.
Edits: 09/06/14
I have Maggie 1.6 fronts and mirage omnipolar center and surrounds. I have dual HSU TN1220 subs. I have a heavily treated room with bass traps, first reflection absorption and diffusion.
Possibly because of my room treatments, I prefer and use my parasound 2100 preamp in HT bypass mode for 2.1 channel listening. All processing from my AVR is disabled in this mode.
For movies I do use and prefer audyssey enabled.
I use the anti mode dual core with magnepan 3.6. I found its analog out inferior to schitt bifrost so I kept the bifrost and use digital out from the anti mode.
It only does correction at lower frequencies. At higher frequencies I manually put in a bit of parametric equalization in a couple of places.
I didn't notice any change in soundstage. It improves bass clarity.
and it works very well with my all-Magnepan fronts plus LS3/5A's in back. (Yeah, I know. I was doubtful whether the LS3/5A's would integrate well, but they do, and I think Audyssey is responsible for shaping their response so that they blend well.) I have MMG's left and right and—again, veering from orthodoxy—a Mini Maggie system as a center channel. That's right, I feed the Mini Maggie satellites + DWM woofer the center channel signal. This works better than the MMGC, which is defficient on the low end (drops off at about 150Hz or sooner), on the high end (can't compete with the Mini Maggie ribbons), and has a narrow sweet spot (I toe in the Mini Maggie satellites and get a wider sweet spot).
My 5.1 system sounds much, much better with Audyssey room correction than uncorrected. Surround sound plus Audyssey room correction is what made me abandon plain old stereo.
I have not tried Trinnov or Dirac.
Tubo I may have directed this post to the wrong person, but it is always a good subject for us. This reply to your post will hopefully alert you to the update.
LOL! As long as I have the coffee break time, let me add a thought or two also.
Keep in mind that I am fortunate that I do not need DRC, nor do I use it. (I need to stay in analog after the first D-A conversion). Still, I've tested several DRC & Audyssey incarnations with my modded MMGs in my room.
Over the past 4 years, all of Audyssey's systems have worked well here when compared to other DRC. The only "complaint" is that Audyssey tries to "correct" the huge & healthy 40-80hz bass that my MMGs issue by themselves. In doing so, the MMGs lose a perceptual pleaser. (It does appear that more recent improvements in Audyssey offer better bass resolution & control.)
My attempts with other PC-based software DRC yielded more flexibility but less "musicality". However, they all have a thing in common. If I first do my best at correcting WITHOUT DRC, then each DRC system seem to reach a higher SQ relative to itself.
The point being, don't just dump the problem solely on DRC.
I see it has been a while since this post, but in that you are familiar with the Audyssey system, I thought you might be the one that could give an educated opinion of the following system. I noticed after reading your post, that you preferred the Audyssey room correction system. When doing a search, I found the following that is geared towards production, but uses the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 and the price is $299 list. Following is the link, and I would greatly appreciate your feedback. I also like the idea of using the Mini Maggies for the center channel...excellent idea!
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/
Could this work and save a few bucks in the process? Or is it too limited? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have been investigating room correction, and I do understand that we are working with dipole speakers, however it seems the bulk of correction is needed in the bass region. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the bass less susceptible to the dipole effect or is it equally affected by design? I am using custom built IIIa's in conjunction with an MGCC1 center channel and two Tympani 1-D bass panels. I am limited to placement due to room design. It is not a listening room but the dimensions are about 14' x 14' so the size seems adequate. I know some may say I have too much speaker for the room, but according to Magnepan I don't. I am using a DCX2496 active crossover, Rotel 7 channel amp, a Crest CC5500 for the low end and an ADA PF200. Right now I am using the Rotel to drive the mids, tweeter, and center. I usually use the PF200 for the tweeter, but took it out of the mix to see if the Rotel would be better.
Thanks for your post, it has motivated me to look further into this.
It would be highly interesting to get feedback on this since I am considering it too.
I use Lyngdorf's "Room Perfect" DSP in a DPA1 pre-amp. I find it works well with 3.6's, it doesn't adversely affect soundstage. While it only works in theory to improve the bass, which it does, it also has benefits higher up in the range, making voices appear more real and in their own individual space. On very simple music, say guitar and voice, there isn't much difference, but as soon as things get busier, you definitely do hear a difference.
I keep turning it off, thinking I should do without it, only to always go back to it. I do have a sneaking suspicion that part of the improvement is just that there is a db of bass boost, but hey, it sounds good.
I have heard the FM 268C work well with box speakers and wonder what it will do for the 20.7 in a 2channel setup hence my curiosity.
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