Totally agree its all a question of balance…my room is not perfect sonically but…I am enjoying the music…and the layout…
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Good observers stuff + Primacoustic bass traps, as I posted before
@Mark63 I am following your progress with interest and am a few weeks behind.
I now have REW installed on my Mac and a USB microphone, but one fundamental question
How do I get the pink noise to come out of my hi-fi speakers to run the tests?
Can I run a USB Cable from my computer into the USB cable socket on the front of the streamer? If that’s too easy what did you do please: I cant find any relevant explanation. Thanks
You can use an iPhone app (I use one called fGenerator) and cast it to the streamer using AirPlay or Chromecast. Also you will probably find some samples on Tidal or Qobuz if you search.
or youtube. Various test tones on their site.
You can generate pink noise in REW and get it to save it to a file. You can then store that file with your music library and call it from whatever app you use.
@chrissu @bruss @Jack
thanks for your prompt and helpful replies.
I couldn’t see anything so obvious in the REW 300 page instructions and was following Darko’s as simple as 123, see screenshot. Seemingly it’s as simple as 1,2.
That’s what I do using a very simple (and cheap!) USB to S/Pdif converter.
Hello John, I generated the pink noise file in REW and saved it to my NAS then used Roon to play it back.
I’ve also used the sweep tone in REW going out through HDMI to an input on my AV receiver set to pure direct mode for highest quality, no processing etc.
A few ways to do it!
Cheers,
Mark
Here is a good instructive video From Terry Ellis summing up a lot of what’s been discussed amongst us above. Enjoy Peter
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Topic cleverly and nicely presented!
Yes, room treatment is THE very first component of a music reproduction system.
I can’t imagine any good HiFi system in an untreated room.
It simply doesn’t make sense.
EDIT :
I like that he explains what “killing the sound of a room” actually is.
Lots of misconception amongst our fellow members.
Room treatment doesn’t kill the sound.
Incorrect room treatment does!
This sounds quite obvious once we understand a bit of acoustics…
But I believe it is good to remind it once in a while.
@PeterR well chosen video!
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Hi Thomas and a happy and healthy New Year to you. Yes, I thought it was a well made introduction to room acoustics and treatment.
Now Thomas, what is going on with the silver boxes and set up? 
….is it? 
All the best Peter
Hi @PeterR ,
Happy New Year to you too. I wish you the best for 2022.
Regarding Soulution electronics, they are astonishing! They are far from being analytical, as some have experienced (have they really?).
In my listening room, I compared the two systems carefully.
Oddly, I would say that the Naim system is more analytical than the Soulution system. Strange, isn’t it !?
Naim sound produces more sparkles; details are presented frontal and on the same plane.
The Soulution sound contains more detail (a lot more in fact), but you can’t hear them the first time. Or at least not as I’m used to with the Naim system. These details are distributed over different layers, front to back in the stereo image. The stereo image is really airy and three-dimensional but pretty understated.
All in all a very neutral, well balanced natural sound.
Regarding speed … I would say the 711 is simply blowing fast.
The bass control with the NAP500 is impressive, there’s no denying it, but it doesn’t play in the same playground as the 711 …
I didn’t know my speakers could go so low and with so much control. Organ and double bass enthusiasts would love it!
The Soulution electronics passed the voices test with flying colours (my wife was worried because it is so good with the 500 series). It is simply better! Probably due to the amazingly low noise floor.
In short, what happiness!
And all this in sub-optimal conditions.
As a result, I ordered an audio server to enhance these beautiful electronics. A little madness! The wallet took a hit.
I’ll probably go into more details when the Taiko Extreme arrives and is burned in.
Cheers,
Thomas
EDIT :
We could state that finding the Soulution better isn’t a surprise considering the huge price difference. But it’s not that obvious. An entire 500 DR series is quite something.
As said before, the exciting thing would be comparing it to the Statement 
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I’m in Schwarzsee (FR), Switzerland, with my wife and daughter for a few days. Relaxing and spending time together.
I placed some adverts for the 500 series system on the German website Audio-Marked.
Not easy to sell my Naim system… 
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Great great news Thomas, and not surprising to read your findings. Obviously you’ve got a good room for low frequency resoulution ( sorry couldn’t help myself 
) but I cannot help thinking, that maybe the stark improvement in your bass experience could also be much helped by a better preamp. I was somewhat surprised how much more I was allowed to hear of low frequency detail within a deep soundstage, when I added the S1 pre to my system. This in turn also highlighting that the 552 had become ‘the weakest link’ in relation to the 500DR.
No worries, I’m not deluding myself in the battle of 500 vs 711 
Really chuffed for you 
Peter
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Looks lovely, but where has the snow gone, strange times really. 
Enjoy your break Peter
Congratulations @Thomas , must be spectacular!
Was wondering whether or not you compared with and without the 725 preamp in the loop.
I do agree that the comparable Naim system would be the Statement.
Enjoy your new toys! I guess you still have the M2s to look forward to as well.
I now have some results using REW and a microphone. I could only use the sweep method utilising the tone produced by REW and transferred to the NDX2 using Apple AirPlay. The noise function in the program would not work and if I played pink noise from my library the measure function would not cooperate. However I feel the results are pretty informative and the modes correspond very closely with what was predicted simply from the room dimensions.
I would appreciate any comments or observations on the graphs because I have nothing by which to judge the scale of the issue.
Clearly the main issue is at around 36 Hz and to a lesser extent around 100 Hz and these peaks appear consistently with readings around the room. The intermediate modes variously appear around 50, 60 and 70 Hz and vary considerably at different listening positions.
Artnovian sub traps go down to 37 Hz and they say three would give 6-8 dB reduction for a room of my size but the graph suggests a greater reduction is needed.
There is also a notable dip around 45 Hz. No trap will boost this but I guess that by reducing the 36 Hz peak, the corresponding dip would also be ameliorated.
The first graph shows a target line at 75 dB. This was chosen by the program and seems a reasonable fit but does not vary with with the level at which the tone is generated so I’m not sure how arbitrary this is or is not.
The waterfall has come out very dark but as I understand it the decay time for the problem base modes is very long as depicted by the high light green spikes.
I am not really focusing on the high frequencies at present. That part of the graph appears pretty uniform although there are some notable downward points on the plot which I guess is the furniture etc. absorbing specific frequencies. I did a number of recordings with improvised absorption material which showed very slight attenuation but did not change the shape of the curve although some of the downward spikes were elongated. However it makes a significant difference to the sound one hears and so I am guessing that this type of REW analysis is much more helpful for bass issues than higher frequencies but I would be interested to learn from anyone with more knowledge.
Happy New Year.
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A little bit of DSP should pull back that 35hz issue easily…which will tighten things up a treat…generally that is a pretty impressive measurement…I wish mine was that good. What size room do you have?
Thanks.
The room is 9.25m x 3.5m and was originally built as a lounge with separate dining room so there is a bit of an arch now its been opened up 5.5 m down.
Using Roon DSP makes a big difference. Vocals seem louder and mid range clearer. Using REW Calculator suggests quite a bit is needed relative to their 75 dB line but this sounds too much. I suspect that with this less is more. Need to listen, make minor adjustments and listen again.
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