My listening room is almost square with the ceiling almost half of the wall length. Standing waves has been killing songs such as billie eilish bad guy.
I have now managed to stick six bales of rockwool into the room and treated the wall behind the sofa. It now sounds good with EQ.+_12 db needed.
My question - will Dirac improve things further?
I use a different way to mitigate these artefacts, but one thing is for sure: you donât know what your music really sounds like until you have done so.
What do you do?
I use Linnâs Space Optimisation. Seems to work exceptionally well.
In my room the sound became to thin. I had space in and out and it was never right although dealer tuned.
This can be down to a difficult room which is now heavilly treated. I now use peq considering dirac
Hi Torbjorn,
The reply by @jlewis is very specific. He uses Linn Space Optimisation (as do I). From my reading of your profile you are using the Wiim Ultra?
Is my assumption correct?
Perhaps you might say a little more about the room calibration method that you (or your dealer) tried.
FYI I am a user of DIRACLive (for AV correction), Linn Space Optimisation for stereo and also aware of the DSP equalisation features available in the Naim CI-102. I also have conventional GIK Acoustics room treatment panels.
PS: My room is also a âhalf-height cubeâ.
I had a linn dsm3 where both myself and the desler worked with space. It was an in and out experience, sometimes better with spaced turned off.
I then got an ultra and enjoyed their simple room fit better. I started to treat the room and tomdo manual peq filters with a meassurememt mike an rew.
I have good results, will treat the room more and then consider dirac. Or just be happy with the wiim.
In terms of gik i am looking at combining rockwoo under sofa snd accoustic panels on the âlistening wallâ with scopus tuned traps in the corners to do a bit of whack a mole making equing easier.
SO needs to be accurately set up and with very judicious use of the final % optimisation slider. âThin soundingâ can be as a result of acclimatisation to the sound of the recording studio with your speakers within it. It takes a good while to set SO up even after the dealer has gone. Small adjustments can make big differencesLooks like you and Edmund have difficult rooms, with modes slurred into each other. In my room, with my speakers, music without SO is now just a mess.
I agree on the âjust a mess bitâ. Just got there quicker with PEQ starting to understand the room. It took a lot of effort but it also then helped me with room treatment.
Have you tried dirac for stereo? Or just assumed space is better?
âŚjust used spaceâŚit seems that I have âgot thereâ, everything has âclickedââŚso Iâm happy where I am. I guess that we all arrive at solutions that workâŚeven if they are different solutions (to the same problem!).
I wish you well on your inline digital EQ, I simply have not found a DSP solution from Linn to others that doesnât rob for vibe and feel of the music, it all tends to sound processed and synthetic . I have even tried processing stored digital audio files to compensate for the inroom response. I think the issue is that you can end up pulling the transient phasing all over the place by filtering specific frequencies, and possibly exposing distortions in the speaker response more than you would otherwise do with balanced mastered audio. I know there are some specialised active speaker array solutions than can do effective in room response, but that is different and good ones tend to be very expensive and in my experience not suited for quality near field listening but can be great for AV.
For me the best solution has been speaker and listening positions and specific treatments in the corners and behind speakers on the wall..
But I realize for some that is not possible and you got to make do with what you have. For really challenging listening environments I would heartily recommend high end headphones and a headphone amp if you really want to hear your recordings more as intended.
You need to be a bit careful with Dirac. Whoâs implementation? Many components that support native Dirac do so on a subscription basis. Stop paying and the optimisations are removed.
In testing, the more detailed hand-on approach of Dirac was also not found to be significantly, if at all, better than more automatic approaches like Audessy.
If you have standing waves in a square room, manual approaches may offer a simpler solution. Have you tried:
As youâve already taken some more serious steps with room treatment and found improvements, you may want to stop the tinkering for a while and ask yourself is there even still a problem to solve? Your own words: âIt now sounds goodâ.
Totally agree, if a system âsounds goodâ you might be listening to it more rather than the media.which might be want you want of course. I you are listening and you are drawn into the production so you can feel or sense the artistic vibe that has been crafted in the production then you will be getting there in my books and you probably are at a good place and your brain will fill any eq gaps as in a sense when you have connected with the content it becomes less important once it sounds sufficiently credible.⌠and of course different productions sound deliberately different and eq is one of the tools in the production process before mastering ⌠I wouldnât want a system that homogenises the recording productions .. which I have found can happen with replay DSP eq which is âworking too hardâ .. as I would tire of it overtime and loose interest.
It is a balance. Without peq it sounds terrible and the recording engineer has no clue about room.
I have only used my WiiMâs very basic room processor. I did several measurements and whilst they slightly differed it was largely consistent. However, the result was far from agreeable and as SiS said, sounded processed, thin and it took all the life out of the recordings. It was good to show where my modes were but that is all. I then made one adjustment on bass only on the parametric which coâincided with the measured mode and it was much better. These things (DSP) should be used sparingly imho.
I also have a real problem room, relatively small and square. Room treatment is out of question as it is also a living room. I then progressed to make changes to my speakers internally*, admittedly more faff than many would be willing to go through but all the above has resulted in a result which, whilst not absolutely perfect, is very enjoyable.
*Happy to post pictures of what has been done if anyone is interested.
I donât believe a recording studio flat response dead room should ever be the goal. Done that. Big mistake.
Itâs the imperfections in a room that leave their imprint on the replay that give the live in the room illusion. The trick is removing the worst offenders that ruin the music but stopping there. A light touch if you will. This is why often some clever positioning and adjustment of furnishings is enough. Maybe strategic room treatment for the worst problems if really necessary.
Every studio Iâve been in was very clear and a useful tool for understanding the mix. Enjoyable isnât really what springs to mind though.
Yea, agree, In my case I stuffed the space between floor and sofa full with rockwoll, then behind the backrest. Since I listen against the wall I now have absorption/diffusing there.
Which brings me to Dirac: good thing or should I stop with PEQ? The room respons swings wildly so would not work without EQ of some sort I am afraid.
See you answeared here. Lots of rockwoll, now good frequency response. Speakers are on the diagonal. One has 80 hz in a null but the other fills in and i âmix in monoâ when it comes to the EQ.
You might need to explore for yourself and form a personal opinion. I found Dirac to be be not as effective as Audyssey and only really like room EQ for surround sound. Others have played with other forms of room correction like REW. While some swear by it others swear at it.
Iâm wary of saying what is correct as I donât know. I know when it sounds wrong. The reverse is harder to determine. I personally wouldnât do it for stereo, preferring to tinker with the room itself and different speakers. That doesnât mean it isnât the right path for someone else. If you can do it for low cost and acquire a compatible mic, at the least you can have a try. Whether you like the result or not you will have learned more than when you started.