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Dont like the sound of room correction

krizvi786

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So I have tried now 5 differend avr/processor.

i have used audyssey, anthem room correction, Dirac with arcam now dirac with monolith.

i own Kef R series mains and center, kef in ceiling, kef rears T series (slim) and 2 rel T5i subs

despite multiple permutations and combinations, i still feel the natural sound coming from the Kef R series is still better than the same speaker with room correction of any type

does anyone have the same experience? Or is this nonsensical?

sound with all types of room correction doesnt sound as natural

and ive tries narrow windows with minimal correction vs full range

still feel same way
 

StevenEleven

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So I have tried now 5 differend avr/processor.

i have used audyssey, anthem room correction, Dirac with arcam now dirac with monolith.

i own Kef R series mains and center, kef in ceiling, kef rears T series (slim) and 2 rel T5i subs

despite multiple permutations and combinations, i still feel the natural sound coming from the Kef R series is still better than the same speaker with room correction of any type

does anyone have the same experience? Or is this nonsensical?

sound with all types of room correction doesnt sound as natural

and ive tries narrow windows with minimal correction vs full range

still feel same way

Not nonsensical. Your brain expects some things based on what your ears and eyes perceive in the room. Defy those expectations and it might not feel right, IME.

Have you tried just moderately taming any room modes (especially bass peaks) you might have? REW and a umik-1 will let you see what’s going on, and you can moderate them judiciously with DEQ. Otherwise to some degree less may be more. :)
 

AnalogSteph

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This sort of thing can in fact happen when the speakers are not well-behaved, as @Matthew J Poes points out:

It's just that I wouldn't necessarily expect the fairly new KEF R series to have problematic dispersion. In fact, what I found indicates that they are very well-behaved.

You can always try the above "bass only" approach but it's a bit of an odd issue for sure.
 
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krizvi786

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Not nonsensical. Your brain expects some things based on what your ears and eyes perceive in the room. Defy those expectations and it might not feel right, IME.

Have you tried just moderately taming any room modes (especially bass peaks) you might have? REW and a umik-1 will let you see what’s going on, and you can moderate them judiciously with DEQ. Otherwise to some degree less may be more. :)

I think you nailed it on the head. My brain expects the room to sound a certain way, and when it doesnt it seems unnatural to me

the word I would use would be “restricted”. Speakers sound “restricted” with the room correction on
 

FrantzM

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Hi

Have you applied any curve, say Harman to the results? Audyssey in particular can sound ... "strange" with weak bass if left alone .. I have no experience with anything else.
 

Jimbob54

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I think you nailed it on the head. My brain expects the room to sound a certain way, and when it doesnt it seems unnatural to me

the word I would use would be “restricted”. Speakers sound “restricted” with the room correction on

I have a similar experience EQ headphones at first. Especially making some of the large adjustments some HP need if you are trying to get to existing preference curves eg Harman. When toggling the EQ on /off I would always prefer the "original" sound. The jump was too big from what I was used to. Ears adjust quickly though , and I ended up using less EQ .
 

ElNino

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Just curious... are your speakers from the new R series or the previous R series (R500 etc.)?
 

Webninja

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Try the room correction from 500Hz down. I have Audessy, and out of the box I didn’t like the correction at all. Having to buy the stupid app did solve that though, as I can tweak the curve to my tastes.

i would think Dirac would be better than Audessy though.
 

MZKM

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What correction is say Dirac doing above say 500Hz-700Hz? Because the R series is pretty good so it should only be doing maybe slope changes and not doing anything extreme. For bass correction, maybe whatever boost they apply is too much for the speakers to handle and many any dips are taking away from enjoyment.
 

RayDunzl

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the word I would use would be “restricted”. Speakers sound “restricted” with the room correction on

I don't have an AVR.

Doesn't DRC software generally attenuate the source before applying correction?

I have to use -6dB on a no-eq setting to more closely match the level of the EQ'd output. (or more or less, depending on what I told the EQ to use as initial attenuation. -3dB is the minium it permits and is mandatory)

Do AVRs adjust the volume when you turn correction on and off to keep the resultant SPL similar?

If not, try upping the EQ'd volume to match the perceived (unrestricted?) level of the un-EQ'd version.

(excuse me for wasting reading time with my ignance of modern AVRs)
 

Absolute

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Yes, I feel the same way. Both Audiolense and Dirac degrades the sound above a few hundred hertz in my ears. Dulls the sound down in a way that sounds over-polished.

Limit them to a few hundred and it's a different ballgame.
 

Blumlein 88

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I've never cared for any Audyssey results I've heard. Always too bright. I've much preferred the corrected version with the old Tact gear, and judged that Dirac was even better. Doing manual calibrations one is well advised not to try too much correction. Too much correction can result in strange or dead sound.
 

Chromatischism

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Audyssey will make a lot of speakers too bright by default and really needs the app to limit its correction to the bass region. However, that is also true of other room correction software. When limited to the transition frequency of the room, Audyssey and Dirac are similar. The ace up Audyssey's sleeve however is Dynamic EQ so your bass levels are always in line with perception at low, mid, or high volume levels.
 

Daverz

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I only have experience with DRC-FIR, but it only seems to work well for 2 out of the 4 sets of speakers I have: Dunlavy SC-III and the Buchardt S400, with the further caveat that it only sounds good with those if I get them close enough to the front wall to raise the frequencies below 100 Hz so that DRC doesn't require as much gain.

I have not gotten very good results with either the NHT XD or the Vandersteen Quatros. With those it tends to sound too bright/lean. I'm not surprised that the Vandersteens don't take it well as they don't have very good on or off axis performance, but the NHT XD system has stellar on and off-axis performance with wide dispersion. With these two, I get better results with just PEQ filtering below 100 Hz.

The Dunlavy and Buchardt speakers both have narrow dispersion and an F3 around 50 Hz. The results with DRC-FIR (using the "soft" preset) and the Buchardts are very impressive.
 

Fillius

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It took me a bit of fiddling to get Audessey right with my Kef R series.

I have finally got it balanced to a point I'm happy with by limiting the correction to 300Hz on the speakers and 150Hz on the sub. Before that it sounded far too bright because the upper frequencies were being pulled up a few dB's against their natural roll off.

The sub was still a little underwhelming which I suspected was due to a large room mode which was unavoidable due to limited placement options in my room. I ended up adding a MiniDSP 2X4 HD as an anti-mode device and running correction before Audessey.

Everything now feels balanced and I've got it to a point I'm happy with. Dynamic EQ works well for some content but not others, it depends on how enthusiastic the movie mix already is. I tend to have my Denon set to around -20dB for movies so Dynamic EQ does help bring a bit more depth to some, my room is too small to listen any louder comfortably.
 

Joachim Herbert

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I attenuate a room mode at 42 (!) Hz by 24 dB, and that's it. Speakers Adam 3sv. Great sound.
 
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Χ Ξ Σ

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Would you mind posting some measurements of before/after room correction? It would be interesting to see if your perception can be reflected on the graphs. I am also curious to see what kind of frequency response can sound "restricted".
 
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