Neumann MA-1 room EQ for living room / sweet spot

[Chimiel]

Hi,

I have the Neumann KH420 + miniDSP Flex Dirac room EQ. The Dirac app let's you choose between a focussed and wide sweet spot.
For the couch in our living room I've chosen the wide sweet spot, and Dirac is a night and day difference.

Here it comes:
I'm curious about upgrading with two KH750 subwoofers and using the MA-1 room correction for the KH750 + KH420 combination
(not a necessity, given the frequency range of the KH420's tamed by Dirac, just curious)
I've heard and seen in YouTube manuals that you have to anally measure your sweet spot to the centimeter in the Neumann app,
and that distance between the monitors, should also be distance to the listening position: a = b = c.
That won't be possible in my living room; the distance between the monitors is 3,5 meters, distance to center listening postion on my couch is about 4 meters.
(positioning the monitors wider puts my right monitor in the corner of the room and causes some serious peaks according to REW)
And I have a listening area on the couch about 2,5 meters wide.
Does anyone happen to know if my listening position renders Neumann MA-1 correction useless ?

Kind regards,

Michiel

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Hi,

I have the Neumann KH420 + miniDSP Flex Dirac room EQ. The Dirac app let's you choose between a focussed and wide sweet spot.
For the couch in our living room I've chosen the wide sweet spot, and Dirac is a night and day difference.

Here it comes:
I'm curious about upgrading with two KH750 subwoofers and using the MA-1 room correction for the KH750 + KH420 combination
(not a necessity, given the frequency range of the KH420's tamed by Dirac, just curious)
I've heard and seen in YouTube manuals that you have to anally measure your sweet spot to the centimeter in the Neumann app,
and that distance between the monitors, should also be distance to the listening position: a = b = c.
That won't be possible in my living room; the distance between the monitors is 3,5 meters, distance to center listening postion on my couch is about 4 meters.
(positioning the monitors wider puts my right monitor in the corner of the room and causes some serious peaks according to REW)
And I have a listening area on the couch about 2,5 meters wide.
Does anyone happen to know if my listening position renders Neumann MA-1 correction useless ?

Kind regards,

Michiel

I don't know, of course, but here are some infos and experiences:
- You can just take the distance between speakers and LP and ignore the distance between speakers
- The very first measurement has to be exact. If it is not perfectly centered, software will add a delay or make one speaker louder than the other, and you don't want that. The other 6 measurements don't have to be as exact and can be stretched over your place, like in Dirac.
- The whole process is not really made for a 'sofa' use case. It is made with a single dedicated LP in mind.
- I have 2 KH310 in my living room, a bit similar to your setup. Before selling my 2 KH750 from my other system, i tried using them as MA1-processors for the living room. I did not try for long,only one evening, but it did not convince me. I use MA1 in my other system (with a dedicated single LP) and i think it is great, but the sofa-setup did not sound "right" to me in my case. YMMV, of course. BTW in my living room i use a very basic EQ, just taking the worst modes in bass a bit with a few manual EQs, nothing sophisticated. I have a Dirac licence, but don't use it. For me in this case, i like it as simple as possible.

 

[hashhar]

Sorry for off-topic but what are those smaller speakers on the top?

 

[Chimiel]

Sorry for off-topic but what are those smaller speakers on the top?

Those are Abacus Cortex, they don’t go very loud, but down to 22 Hz

 

[Chimiel]

I don't know, of course, but here are some infos and experiences:
- You can just take the distance between speakers and LP and ignore the distance between speakers
- The very first measurement has to be exact. If it is not perfectly centered, software will add a delay or make one speaker louder than the other, and you don't want that. The other 6 measurements don't have to be as exact and can be stretched over your place, like in Dirac.
- The whole process is not really made for a 'sofa' use case. It is made with a single dedicated LP in mind.
- I have 2 KH310 in my living room, a bit similar to your setup. Before selling my 2 KH750 from my other system, i tried using them as MA1-processors for the living room. I did not try for long,only one evening, but it did not convince me. I use MA1 in my other system (with a dedicated single LP) and i think it is great, but the sofa-setup did not sound "right" to me in my case. YMMV, of course. BTW in my living room i use a very basic EQ, just taking the worst modes in bass a bit with a few manual EQs, nothing sophisticated. I have a Dirac licence, but don't use it. For me in this case, i like it as simple as possible.

Thank you, good to know. Why did you sell the KH750’s ? Too much peaks and dips without the MA-1 software ?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Thank you, good to know. Why did you sell the KH750’s ? Too much peaks and dips without the MA-1 software ?

I had 2 KH750s and 2 PSI AVAAs with the KH310s in my 3x5m mancave for years.
I decided to downsize to a pair of KH120II, moved the 310s to the loving room, sold the other stuff and bought camera gear instead.

I realized i just don't need this in my small room. I never listen loud, don't want to disturb neighbours and the actual difference is very small. I am sitting closer to the speakers than before now, managed to close a gap i had before in the 80Hz range and still have bass down to 30Hz with the 120II due to room gain. And really, i don't miss the 20-30hz range at all. In lower volumes it is hard to hear anyway.

 

[Chimiel]

I had 2 KH750s and 2 PSI AVAAs with the KH310s in my 3x5m mancave for years.
I decided to downsize to a pair of KH120II, moved the 310s to the loving room, sold the other stuff and bought camera gear instead.

I realized i just don't need this in my small room. I never listen loud, don't want to disturb neighbours and the actual difference is very small. I am sitting closer to the speakers than before now, managed to close a gap i had before in the 80Hz range and still have bass down to 30Hz with the 120II due to room gain. And really, i don't miss the 20-30hz range at all. In lower volumes it is hard to hear anyway.

Sounds you figured out what you needed