I think that DSP gets a bad rap from the old days of octave band equalizers, which no self respecting audiophile would be caught dead with one in his system. Perhaps some clever science based semi marketing material showing the benefits, and the much higher performance of DSP would change some minds, of course with an in home demo.
And I cannot speak for this as a fact, but I suspect that many of the recordings used them in the studio to make the Master Tapes which are so highly respected.
I guess a lot of us are somewhat intimidated by the idea of tuning expensive products when we’ve become used to relying on golden eared folk in Salisbury. Also, there’s a lot you can tweak, not just bass and treble so it would be easy to get lost.
Thats why I got someone who knows what they are doing to do it. Tried myself and could not get anywhere near to the result I have now. Which is likely more close to what Naim intended. Not everyone has the perfect room or budget, time to fix it, looking at the stuff available as post solutions no thanks I like my room ot still look like a living area. GIK might have some pretty pictures and patterns but does not make them all that acceptable considering how many are often needed. I’ll stick with my invisible £100 fix.
I wouldn’t say that was entirely true. There are plenty who have found that, for example, after a source or amp upgrade, they get more bass extension that excites room nodes that were not previously a problem, and moving the speakers further into the room (or applying room correction via DSP) is required. Now you may argue that it’s still the fault of the room, but all HiFi boxes are to some extent ‘tuned’ to perform in a domestic environment, and while the speakers are perhaps the most important component to match the room, I wouldn’t say they were the only ones.
But it’s still a room correction. It’s just that a room may need different corrections for different systems. IOW: DSP tunes/corrects the room to the system. If the system changes and produces different sound waves, the room may need to be retuned/recorrected.
Except that for accuracy you need a microphone with a flat response, which is why a measuring microphone not a general purpose cheap one is recommended. (Ideally it should be calibrated.)
No, you need software such as REW for that to a) capture the readings and b) do the adjustments. These can be PEQ values or convolution filters. If you want to do the adjustments yourself ou really need to know what your doing and an understanding of what your looking at with the readings. If not done well you can just make it sound worse. I had a go myself but it was never great. I got Home Audio Fidelity to do the corrections I just supplied the readings. Can’t recommend Thierry enough.
There are some good threads on Roons forum about Room EQ using REW and Home Audio Fidelity. I suggest you look them up. I found them invaluable when testing and getting good readings.
I second getting a floor mic stand it’s essential and he UMIK-1 is a good calibrated mic to use for the readings.