@duckhue One thing that I would try is to first apply
@pierre's
EQ preset based on Erin's
anechoic measurements of the RP-600M II ("Data & EQ" tab), then measure the in-room response with it applied, and finally correct room modes <~500Hz only.
This is the advice the OP should be listening to.
In general, bad sound after DSP can be divided into 2 causes:
1. Improper measurement technique.
2. Wrong DSP strategy.
Re: measurements. Please go through the checklist in
this post to make sure that you took a proper measurement in the first place. If you try to correct a garbage measurement, you will get a garbage result.
Re: DSP strategy. As
@staticV3 said.
As for "shoutiness". It is caused by a broad dip in the upper bass / lower midrange region. Either improper EQ created the shoutiness, or your speakers have nonlinear behaviour that produces the shoutiness at different volumes (i.e. one amplitude response at volume A, different amplitude response at volume B). The way to test this is to do a dynamic compression test. This is how:
- set up your mic 1m/3ft from the speaker.
- using an SPL meter*, play pink noise and adjust the volume of REW until the SPL meter registers 76dB.
- take a sweep at 76dB.
- repeat sweeps at 86dB and 96dB by increasing the volume in REW in 10dB increments
without using the SPL meter.
* If you don't have an SPL meter, then repeat the measurement from "normal listening volume" with 10dB increments until it is unbelievably loud.
In REW:
- overlay all the graphs and normalise them to the same volume (All SPL tab, right click, align SPL, average SPL)
- all the graphs will be referenced to 76dB. So Trace Arithmetic A-B, and subtract the 76dB curve from 86dB. Do the same for 96dB. Finally subtract 76dB from 76dB to produce a flat line.
- Rename the curves to something sensible like 76dB, 86dB, and 96dB. Go to "All SPL" again and select these graphs for display. You will see something like this:
(random measurement I grabbed from Erin's Audio corner). See that 0dB flat line? With a perfect speaker, you will see 3 flat lines perfectly overlaid on top of each other at 0dB. Most speakers don't do that, they will change the frequency response with volume. I suspect that this is where you will find the cause for the "shoutiness".