Best Option for Room Correction?

[pedalfasterben]

Hey Ascends,

I have a new system and am hoping to get some direction around room correction.

My system:
Sonos Connect (Spotify)
Peachtree Nova 220 SE
Ascend Sierra 2's
Rythmic E15

While it sounds amazing, my room is an acoustic nightmare, confirmed by REW. No amount of acoustic treatments are going to get the levels where I want them, so looking at correction options.

Thoughts:
1. Return the Peachtree and get an Emotiva XMC-1 with SA-250? I could leverage Dirac and/or REW xml import to even things out, but have a few questions (waiting for Emotiva callback) about the DAC quality and how Dirac Live/Xml Import from REW work in 2 channel modes...

2. Add MiniDSP's DDRC-22D (digital in/out) in between my Sonos and Peachtree?

3. Your recommendation?

Dave made these speakers amazing, I'll be damned if I'm going to let a crappy room compromise my listening experience!

Cheers,
Ben

[curtis]

First, you should do what you can with room treatment. The least that any room correction software has to do, the better.

If this is just a 2.1 system, you are better off with the MiniDSP. You don't need the other HT related stuff from XMC-1.

Also, with the Sonos, you can feed it lossless files(you might do that already along with Spotify)...that will also help. You might want to try Tidal and compare to Spotify.

How bad is your room? I know that is subjective, but most people's, if you take measurements, look pretty bad.

[pedalfasterben]

Thanks for the info Curtis,

I've played with some acoustic treatments and while they help a few DB here and there, I still have upwards of 10db gain at 48hz, hence the EQ research.

I do have some lossy stuff that sounds good, but Spotify over Sonos is dang close. IMHO, Tidal is crap, in comparing about 10 songs I know well and there is no clarity/fidelity difference, they just went for 'louder is better' and increased the gain a LOT!

Once I get some detail on the DAC/EQ stereo details of the XMC-1, I'll drop a note back here.

[curtis]

48hz? Have you tried using the parametric EQ on the Rythmik? Or trying it in different spots in the room?

[pedalfasterben]

I did the full sub crawl and found the smoothest spot for the Rythmic was the center of the wall, and in testing with REW found the Sierra's were the 48hz culprit - they extend a bit too well in my room, no matter how they are placed. It'd be nice if the Peachtree had some sort of crossover control, but I simply set the Rythmic crossover at 50hz and dialed in the phase, close enough. Almost a waste of a great sub, but this crappy room is short term so I'll live with it.

So reading more about Emotiva's XMC-1 - with Dirac you drop from 96hz to 48hz, not a huge deal, but rules it out as a solution. And like you mentioned Curtis, no need for the HT stuff, my goal with this was "simple"...

So the MiniDSP/Dirac? I downloaded the 2 week Dirac Live Trial to my Mac, did the live calibration, and did some A/B testing with local lossy content and Spotify - WOW!. Bass is butter smooth, vocals are much warmer, instruments are more crisp. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it being used to a much 'livelier' sound, but after about 5 minutes I couldn't stomach the cold, sloppy, and boomy non-Dirac source, I'm SOLD!

Just placed my order for the DDRC-22D, it will be optical in/out between my Sonos and Peachtree...

I read a few other reviews of the MiniDSP/Dirac stuff that said, "If you don't wanna spend the cash, don't test it" - it's very true, I couldn't go back now!

[curtis]

Ahh...no crossover between the speakers and the sub. Got it.

Sounds like the miniDSP will do the trick for you. Good luck, and let us know.

[pedalfasterben]

So got the Room EQ a few weeks back and couldn't be more pleased...

Bit of background - my listening room is a nightmare - it's square, 20ft ceiling, half wall on one side, and both listening positions are outside the sweet spot. I spent a few hours playing with placement and settled with the exact spot recommended in the Cardas guide on speaker placement using the golden ratio - highly recommended if anyone thinks placement isn't dialed in. It gave me a better starting point, but I needed help beyond by basic acoustic treatment and placement.

While the Dirac Mic stuff does take awhile to setup, especially if you optimize for multiple spots, it's totally worth it. It knocks out all the standing waves ( my 14db gain at 48hz, etc), brings everything in line/phase, and tweaks gain and delay to move the sweet spot to your listening position.

Sound travels about 1ft in 1ms, so a chair 4 feet left the sweet spot gets loud left channel and 4ms delay on the right channel - the MiniDSP dials in the balance and tweaks the delay to get both channels hitting you at the same time - the different this makes to the stereo image is amazing, everything is crisper, cleaner, and the sound surrounds you - especially noticeable on live recordings or strong vocal tracks. And I don't miss that 48hz room gain a bit :P

Out of curiosity I moved the chair right to the sweet spot, did some A/B with the natural sound and the room eq - same results as above, just a bit more subtle. Even if I could sit in the sweet spot I'd want this thing, it's that good... If you have a great room and acoustic treatment not sure if it's worth the cash, but anything less I highly recommend it!

Happy listening.