@Hattrick -
Reading Dr. Toole, I find myself questioning whether DIRAC does "anything useful" above Schroeder since it lacks the Spinorama information needed to differentiate the 1st arrival from the room response. The graphs might look better, but that includes the room reflections. If you have speakers like I do that are +/- 1.5dB the last thing you want to do is destroy the direct response in favor of a muddled room reflection. Some of these room correction companies seem to be claiming they have magic powers that somehow can fix something that Toole says cannot be fixed without the Spinorama response of the speakers you're using to differentiate the room from the speaker. I read an interview with Dr. Toole on newer correction and there's nothing he said that makes me think these room correction systems are exempt from the laws of physics.
While Trinnov uses more three dimensional microphones. It's possible they can glean direction better and give some added benefit, but I've never seen this actually proven. I remember the old Lexicon MC-12 had three microphones at once needed for its room correction system, but reading the reviews, it wasn't clear how great the benefit was above Schroeder either. I'm sure some people prefer the end results. There's no doubt some people prefer tone controls or a graphic equalizer to customize various bandwidth to taste, but that's not really
correcting the speaker's actual response.
People make similar fantastic claims about Audyssey full range. My own experience has been that the variance introduced by moving the microphone across several different positions to get an average has a rather random effect at higher frequencies of whether it thinks it needs any correction or not in either direction as the wavelengths are so short that the microphone is just as likely to be sitting in a peak or a null at that frequency as the mid-point. That, at least, would explain why taking 7 different correction calibrations resulted in 7 different sounds in the mid-to-high range frequency range (and 7 different graphs from REW in that region that get more variance the higher up you go).
If I bandwidth limit the results to Schroeder only, the graphs match precisely and the bass correction is real. Audibly, at best, the full range results sound comparable to the Schroeder limited results. At worst, they sound dull or have too much high frequency energy. I concluded I'd be far better off following Dr. Toole's advice and limiting correction to Schroeder. While something like DBLC might make multi-sub integration simpler, it doesn't
necessarily do a better job than a Mini-DSP and MSO/REW. In fact, if you have multiple rows, it won't help integrate multiple subs for them at all (MSO will).
I'm afraid full range room correction has become the new miracle oil of the 21st Century. Wild commercial flashy ad claims. Questionable results.
Frankly, if I had JBL speakers and a lot of money, I'd be going with their licensed version of the Trinnov Altitude32 as it
does contain the Spinorama data needed to make the room question work for those speakers full range and that would be more valuable than the
pyrite others are selling.
