I originally was using this with a XS2 and microRendu setup a couple of years ago if this helps you.
1 Like
Is there a way of doing this kind of EQ if you’re not using Roon? An external box maybe?
I’m interested in this as it’s something I’m used to on the AV side with Audyssey which is very effective.
I have an ND5 XS 2 and have been considering a Qutest as a possible upgrade too if it would require an external Dac. Thanks
Thierry gives good rates for filters on second sets of measurements. I can see no reason why it would be any less effective on an office system.
As I’ve said above if you’d spend between £100 -150 on a cable for your office system then in my experience (of cables and these filters) you’ll get much better bang for your buck with the filters.
.sjb
2 Likes
This is what the home audio fidelity website says
“Here is a list of players compatible with our technology: Roon, HQplayer, JRiver, Foobar (together with the VSTconvolver plugin) and any other player with VST plug-in format compatibility or using Brutefir convolution engine (like Volumio).
Filters can be implemented in Audirvana using our dedicated plugin.
With the filters we deliver an installation instruction for your audio player.
For audio players having only a classic stereo convolution we can generate “downgraded” versions of the correction (no cross talk for instance) Such filters can also be used with hardware solutions like the ones from miniDSP.”
I’m not sure I’m any the wiser reading this in relation to hardware but Thierry is really very approachable so maybe ping him an email.
.sjb
Yes you can either buy a Dirac based hardware box from MiniDSP or their basic one and add some filters created by HAF. Using HAF filter in MiniDSP kit is limited though and some only work internally at lower resolutions or fixed sample rates.
You can use any playback software that supports convolution such as Audivarna and use the VST plugin to apply HAF generated filters.
Thank you, somehow I missed that on the site!
Your comments on the improvements for this track in particular stood out as I have exactly the same issue with it as you had.
Thanks again, certainly worth looking into.
Thanks, I’ll have a look at the MiniDSP products, the Dirac ones sound interesting in particular.
Cheers.
@Sloop_John_B are you noticing any effects that you don’t like? Have they made the sound, sound equalised/digitised in anyway?
I wonder what the cons are vs physical acoustic panels in ones room.
I am very interested by this and keeping an eye on your thread.
Popeye 
1 Like
No DSP can do anything about cancellations arising from standing waves in a room, nor stop reflections for all they can seemingly compensate. That doesn’t mean that the DSP approach is bad, just it will never be as good as directly treating the room. Ideally one should treat the room, and then use DSP to improve whatever imperfections remain.
1 Like
No but they can reduce the affect quite considerably from standing waves as Thierry did in my case with my old speakers. Most people cant do treatments as I have said many times nor want a recording studio in their front room. All the rooms I see with acoustic treatments I would not like to live in at all. Just wondering if you have heard how good DSP can be when done right and by someone who knows what they are doing. Considering its used in very high end Actives these days I am sure it not in any way too detrimental. I kow I didnt hear anything bad in my system with it.
1 Like
The short answer is no.
Caveats being when I asked Thierry about the filter and how it worked he said “The correction is making the frequency response of the loudspeakers more linear and it flattens out the low range (you don’t have really problematic resonances, so the correction is quite light)”
There is nothing that sounds wrong, some that sounds quite similar, much that sounds slightly better, some that sound much better.
I’ve moved on to albums rather than skipping from track to track. Graceland, Mezzanie, Revolver, Protection. So for example today with Revolver I was thinking, gosh George’s vocals in “I want to tell you” are a but harsh or probably forward is the better term… I switched off the filter to find that perhaps they were. I then changed from HAF to crosstalk and they became less harsh or forward and now sounded better than without filter. (the bass is just so more defined / in focus - it’s what I imagine people talk about when they talk about grip and control of an amp. Because the bass is more defined nuances in drumming become evident - kick drums now actually kick.).
Graceland just sounded superb, but it always did. However I remember a comment somewhere about the bass on You can call me Al and never quite hearing what was described, well now I am. I would never have quite said I had one note bass -I didn’t - but some was muddied by whatever dance the room and speakers were doing together.
The Massive Attack albums surprised me in that I was expecting BOOM from the bass. I go back to the word control. Turing off the filter there seemed to be more bass but it was an undefined blob in places where with either filter it was placed it in the mix - the initial effect seemed to be less bass in Massive Attack albums. Both have their appeal actually but the extra precision in the treble wins the day for the filtered versions.
I have rationalised (and I may be totally off the mark here) that my non filtered setup approximates to somewhere along the spectrum from standard HAF filter to the crosstalk one. Sometimes with the crosstalk filter some notes or instruments can make you jump, they are just so much wider than the speakers. I’m thinking for my next request that I will ask Thierry to dial down the 2 crosstalk filters (the regular and the smoother one) to see if this will give the benefits of crosstalk reduction without some of the OTT effects.
The smoother/ sweeter filter worked very well for a synth pop journey I took last night. Sometimes 80s synth pop can be a bit brittle and hard to listen to for long. These still sounded like 80s synth pop but more like I remembered them not the harsh way too bright mess that they can sometimes sound like.
Very difficult to articulate these things especially as I’ve said above for someone who doesn’t really speak the language of transients, noise floors and timing.
Hopefully my descriptions are intelligible, they are trying to describe - “does it sound better” - (yes it does) and give some idea of where.
.sjb
4 Likes
I do use DSP in my own system, with two different speaker-listening positions, one optimised the other not, so one with more DSP than the other. Having an active crossover with spare DSP capacity made it an obvious thing to do. (I’ve mentioned somewhere recently in more detail, but it appears not this thread) I’m am happy with the result, but I do know there is excessive decay time caused by the room, and I believe I have near reflections from the ceiling, so I do plan room treatment if I remain in this property (currently uncertain). I haven’t tried the HAF system - I did trial DIRAC a few years ago, but wasn’t impressed: I did mine manually, using REW to show me what was going on. If room treatment proves impossible or inadequate it would be tempting to have a trial of HAF.
1 Like
I agree that DSP cannot solve everything, I don’t believe treating the room can either, unless it’s in a dedicated room. Treatment in a normal living room will be limited or even impossible, unless the rest of the family are as into music as we are! I mentioned to my son I was looking at putting bass traps in the corners and panels on the ceiling, he just gave me a look and a comment that it’s not a recording studio 
I do know that Audyssey on my AV amp makes a big difference, it’s very easy to toggle it on and off during playback and the improvement is very noticeable. I posted this on another topic, it shows the correction results for the right main speaker:
This was corrected with their default target curve but you can adjust it how you like in the app.
I’ve been reading a lot about the MiniDSP Dirac series on their site today and it does look very interesting, something I’m seriously considering now.
Apologies to the OP for the slight derailment!
Cheers,
Mark
@Mark63 HAF provides a few sample corrected files based off tracks you know well. I think it’s worth reaching out the HAF as well and it’s likely less expensive.
Hello, I’ve certainly not ruled it out, the results people have been reporting here can’t be ignored!
Maybe I’ll try Roon for a few months, could run it on my office pc while I’m not working. I don’t have a large music library being 95% streaming which is why I hadn’t considered it before now.
Cheers
1 Like
Yes you can trial Roon for 14 days I think. However I’d wait until next week to trial Roon. The new version 1.8 is phenomenal IMHO.
1 Like
So I’m nearing the end of a successful journey with Thierry’s Home Audio Fidelity filters.
I’ve spent the past week listening with my “new normal”. This is crosstalk filter 1 activated. For about 1/4 of my listening I prefer the crosstalk 2 filter - the smoother one. Then perhaps there are the 5% of albums where the crosstalk reduction effect is too extreme and I use the standard filter, which still sounds mighty good. I’ve just received 2 new filters with reduced crosstalk to see if these work with the above 5% of music so that I can still enjoy the benefits of the crosstalk reduction with the extremes tamed. If it doesn’t work it’s no great issue, if it does all the better!
I never thought I’d be able to manage measuring my room and having convolution filters specifically to sort out the sonic issues with the room. However Thierry’s measurement program really is foolproof, certainly if you can set up Roon you can do it. Then you get sent a set of filters that are an even simpler task to put into Roon. And Thierry is so responsive to email and never uses jargon or spiel.
Including the UMIK-1 mic this is the best value for money upgrade I have ever done. It really is one of those giant killers. I’m embarrassed to think I’ve spent 4 times the amount on an interconnect. I may have been lucky, as Thierry said and I posted above, my room had few resonances and the correction is quite light. So paradoxically the graph of my room may have looked okay if I had managed to get my PhD in REW.
A clear top contender for Sloop’s Product of the Decade!
.sjb
5 Likes
I’m using a Dayton audio mic, but I can’t seem to get it working (MacBook and MacMini) despite selecting it in the system preferences sounds tab.
Has anyone got any suggestions before I return it?
Thanks in anticipation.
I used a Microsoft Surface Pro so cannot give any specific advice except that initially it didn’t work (but I knew the mic worked as I use it on zoom) and seemingly doing the exact same thing to the settings seemed to get it to work.
It might have been that I needed to change the OS settings after I had the HAF program running.
Also consider reaching out to Thierry for help. There is a long running thread on the Roon forum and I know of a least one guy who Thierry talked through it with REW as the HAF program couldn’t be got to work. (I cannot remember if it was Mac or pc though).
.sjb
1 Like
Thanks that’s helpful to know … my tinkering will have to wait now until Monday.
I did note this morning that I need to plug it directly into the MacMini rather than with an extension. I using a free frequency analyser but it still was not very sensitive. But enough for now.