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In Reply to: Re: Finally dropped the coin on a DEQX ... posted by hemholtz on December 10, 2006 at 04:22:42:
Hi Bart,I am running on a 2006 Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M90. It is configured with XP Pro (1st problem =), 4GB memory, 2.16GHz dual-core Centrino, USB2, Gigabit ethernet, 802.11 A/B/G WiFi, 1920x1200x32bit color 17" display and 7200RPM 8MB cache hard drive. It is a pretty capable laptop (until the quad cores hit the mobile market). I live on this laptop running XP Pro and various flavors of Linux (Fedora Core). The only other times I have gotten blue screens was using an M-Audio external USB2 sound card.
I get quite a few crashes, exceptions, etc. running the DEQX softare that want to kick me into Microsoft's developer studio debugger. I haven't been able to run for long without it crashing on me or throwing an exception. At least once per sitting. Maybe they should run it trough Purify to clean up some of the exceptions. I don't get this type of behavior with MS Office or my development software I use on a daily basis.
So I am learning more about the software with repetition. I have been re-reading the manuals, re-taking mesurements and comparing them to past measurements. I catch errors that I make and move onto the next generation. I tried a triamp configuration, but it would not let me put in a crossover point lower than 100Hz. I guess I have to stick with the bi-amp + sub, unless I throw the Bryston 10 back in the mix like what you did.
I tried the subs in the corners of the room (which implies adding timing delays into the mix). I then tried the subs next to the Maggies to eliminate the time delay settings and treat Maggiis and the subs as a pair of quad-way speakers. I think I am going to keep it this way. Should make for better balancing through the whole room and not just the sweet spot.
I need to check out the etf5. Always good to get a 2nd non-biased set of readings to confirm your setup and the other software. I see some reading deltas between my left and right speakers that are most likely caused by a-symetric room decor and furniture. I am taking more readings and doing the process of elimination to eliminate nasties from the readings.
I just got my digital ICE Power amp back to drive the subs today. The measurements are coming out better than what I was using before to drive the subs. A friend has a pair of Maggie 20's that he wanted to test the ICE POWER amps on and had it for the last month so I was using an old receiver's amp section to drive the subs.
I noticed that I have to turn up my pre-amp a lot more with having the DEQX inline. I must be reserving some of the gain to allow individual gain boosts/cuts on each one of the outputs.
Just found the "Solo" buttons this evening. I nice feature to isolate solo channels/bands without having to move from your listening position.
Thanks for your help.
Follow Ups:
bsod is bad. from my experience it is usually hardware. are you running software version 2.01 and firmware 58_11? those are the latest "release" versions. there are more recent "beta" version that fix specific issues that some folks are having. i never really noticed any if you are following the wizard (measure> correct> configure). if you're getting different readings from right and left speakers the room is probably to blame. you can try moving them to the center of the room or the furthest point from a room boundary. i just treated the crap out of the front wall to clean up the impulse response. i can't recall whether they let you see the impulse response of right and left separately, but it's very important that it's clean ie no early reflections. when taking measurements i use a yard stick to place the mic. with one end touching the wood between midrange and tweeter and the other end pointed right at the listening position touching the business end of the mic. i figure this should phase the drivers the best. for the final tweak i check phase with etf5 from the listening position and adjust toe in slightly if phase wanders a little. if phase decreases as frequency increases move tweeter closer to listening position.
i really like etf5 for tuning the bass and placing the subs. the low frequency spectral decay view lets you look at not only amplitude but more importantly time. flat response is good but bad decay is ruins everything. i found the lower i can play the maggies the better. i currently highpass to the mains at 45hz and lowpass to subs at 40hz 24db linkwitz-riley . i spent considerable time on the parametric eq to fix low frequency problems. if this ends up being the case for you, make sure you save the eq settings to your project on the hard drive, then back it up. if you save your project it remembers the eq settings, but if you open the project later, change the eq, then close it without saving, the changes are only on the pdc2.6. just something to remember.
Bart,I tried hooking the 3.6's and Sub up as a Tri-amp system last night and did multiple room measurements by adjusting the XO point between the Sub and 3.6's up and down. The smoothest room response for me came at 45Hz. Lower and I got holes, higher and I got anomalies showing up in the graph. Since then, I switched back to Bi-amp + stereo sub mode. I left it @ 45Hz, but can now specifiy different points with this configuration.
Thanks for the offline help. The articles fixed the gain problems for me.
Curious thing, I have the TrueRTA software from www.trueaudio.com and it shows different rolloffs on the 3.6's than what the DEQX software does. The TrueRTA indicates that the 3.6's extend lower than what the DEQX indicates. Don't know whose software readings to believe.
are both microphones calibrated? i would go with the calibrated one. each deqx mic is calibrated and comes with it's own cal file to plug into the software. once you identify the problem room modes and make necessary cuts and boosts to "kill" the resonances and restore the nulls, you can worry about a few db's of rolloff. i chose 45hz because in my room i could not get my subs to behave as well as the maggies above this frequency. there is definitely something to be said for dipole bass. for the modes use 1/6 octave or tighter cuts and boosts to pinpoint the frequency without disturbing what doesn't need to be disturbed. for a little rolloff you will want a nice wide boost, say 1/3 octave.
Bart,My 1st/TrueRTA mic is the same Behringer ECM 8000 mic that comes with the DEQX, but it did not come with any calibration files. The one for the DEQX has a calibration file.
I need to check if the TrueRTA can use the same calibration file. If so, I will use the same mic for both apps.
i had an extra behringer mic that came with an ultracurve. i used the same cal file with both mics and didn't see (or hear) much difference. perhaps the placement of the mic wasn't precisely the same in both measurements? that will probably make a bigger difference than the cal file.on a somewhat related note, store your mic in the case in a quiet place. i left mine sitting out in my equipment rack for a some time only to find out it it had failed. possibly due to prolonged exposure to loud music? anyways, a new calibrated one from deqx is about $80.
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