As stated earlier Roon and only in one room. I bought Roon lifetime for $500 in 2019 but now I want something more sophisticated.
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The ultimate low cost solution for room correction?
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Count Arthur
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Well, I've bitten the bullet. 
In the end, I got the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen audio interface, instead of the Swissonic. It was a bit more expensive, but the specs were better: +/- 0.06dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Focusrite, versus +/- 1dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Swissonic; I thought that might be worth it for a measuring microphone.
It will be a while before it turns up, but because you can switch the correction on or off, via a button on the unit, it will be interesting to compare the ARC's correction to my manual correction using a UMIK-1 and REW.
In the end, I got the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen audio interface, instead of the Swissonic. It was a bit more expensive, but the specs were better: +/- 0.06dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Focusrite, versus +/- 1dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Swissonic; I thought that might be worth it for a measuring microphone.
It will be a while before it turns up, but because you can switch the correction on or off, via a button on the unit, it will be interesting to compare the ARC's correction to my manual correction using a UMIK-1 and REW.
Cool, please report your journey and findings when you get things running.Well, I've bitten the bullet.
In the end, I got the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen audio interface, instead of the Swissonic. It was a bit more expensive, but the specs were better: +/- 0.06dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Focusrite, versus +/- 1dB 20Hz - 20kHz for the Swissonic; I thought that might be worth it for a measuring microphone.
It will be a while before it turns up, but because you can switch the correction on or off, via a button on the unit, it will be interesting to compare the ARC's correction to my manual correction using a UMIK-1 and REW.
D
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Seriously. Having read suggestions here and in general, I'm confident stating that you won't find anything better og more suitable than a miniDSP DDRC24 with Dirac Live. It is stand alone, has every feature you'll need, is small, can be on 24/7, Dirac Live is user friendly.
Count Arthur
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Quite a few more reviews have popped up on YouTube and they all seem to be pretty positive: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=IK+Multimedia+Arc+Studio
Hi Keith_W, I have an ARC Studio and I have it hooked up in a 2.1 configuration. I have a Tannoy sub-woofer, which allows me to plug my Focal monitors into it, and set the cutoff of frequencies that go to the sub and the others to the focals. My M-Audio Profire 2626 is output to the ARC Studio's inputs and the outputs to the ARC Studio go to my Big Knob. Works like a charm.
I think the targeted market for ARC Studio is primarily those making music in a home recording studio, which is why I use it. However, it can also be used by audiophiles as well, as I route my NAS through it via my home network, so the correction is available regardless to what device I'm using. That works pretty cool for me, being a software expert by profession and a recording artist hobbyist.
Am I missing something, it's the last component before the speakers so everything routes through it when using those?
Count Arthur
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Confusingly, ARC Studio is now both a software and a hardware solution.
As I understand it, the ARC Studio software and measurement microphone has existed for some time and there have been several versions. These can be used in conjunction with other studio software, and some of IK Multimedia's monitors for room correction, where EQ settings can be uploaded to the monitors themselves, in a similar fashion to some Neumann and Genelec monitors.
Thinking about it, it would be nice if we could have an industry standard for uploading room correction settings to DSP based subs and monitors.
The hardware box, to which you can upload EQ settings is a new addition. The box can then be placed between the analogue XLR output from your DAC, or audio interface and the analogue input of either your sub, monitors, or power amp, depending on your set up.
So you are saying it can be connected to the amp input or amp output or ether? Sorry this is what is confusing me.Confusingly, ARC Studio is now both a software and a hardware solution.
As I understand it, the ARC Studio software and measurement microphone has existed for some time and there have been several versions. These can be used in conjunction with other studio software, and some of IK Multimedia's monitors for room correction, where EQ settings can be uploaded to the monitors themselves, in a similar fashion to some Neumann and Genelec monitors.
Thinking about it, it would be nice if we could have an industry standard for uploading room correction settings to DSP based subs and monitors.
The hardware box, to which you can upload EQ settings is a new addition. The box can then be placed between the analogue XLR output from your DAC, or audio interface and the analogue input of either your sub, monitors, or power amp, depending on your set up.
Count Arthur
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The "box" operates at line level, so it can't be used on the speaker outputs of an amplifier.
It could go between a DAC and a preamp or integrated amp, or between a preamp and a power amp if you wanted.
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Thanks, it doesn't really matter which to me. For some reason the promo material kept speaking of connecting to to the monitors, so I questioned that. I understood that it operated in the analog domain.
So you have an additional analog-digital-digital-analog conversion in your chain.
Yeap. That's why I did not go with it. What's the point of using a good measuring DAC just to mess with the ADC after that?
The tool is marketed for studios, whatever that is. As we all know now, 'professional' means making money out of it, not SOTA.
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In fact, this Arc Studio seems to have been designed to be used primarily as the last element in the chain before amplified monitors in a recording studio. For the use I was thinking of (for listening to music at home) it would have been very useful if it also had an optical or spdif input, so as not to subject the audio signal to a double AD-DA conversion. (and if I am listening to a high resolution file at 192Khz passing through Arc Studio unfortunately there will be a deterioration in the quality of the signal.)
I hope IK Multimedia realizes that there would be a lot of interest in a "version two" of ARC Studio that has digital inputs (and a good DAC on board).
Yes, this would be the case. I created profiles, using the analysis software and saved it to the hardware, so everything that I route through the hardware is treated. That's a nice addition to me, since from time to time, I listen to music outside of the DAW I use for creating original music. In earlier versions of ARC, this was not the case, as I have used them all since ARC 1. They were all plug-in software and I utilized them by putting them on my master bus in the DAW. This is still possible with ARC 4, but now you have the flexibility of not using the plug-in on the master bus.
Count Arthur
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In my set-up, my subwoofer uses DSP: 24bit 96kHz and my monitors also use DSP: 24bit 48kHz, so I'm never going to get the benefit of a 24bit 192kHz file.
However, unless you're a bat, with speakers that can reproduce sound up to around 100kHz, neither are you.
I take your point though, it would be nice to have the entire signal chain remain digital, with digital from the audio interface or DAC then on to the subs and/or monitors, where any necessary DSP is applied then converted to analogue within each sub or monitor.
I think some manufacturers may be heading in this direction, but thus far, they seem to be proprietary implementations, requiring a single brand set-up. It would be nice if this went in the direction of an open-source, industry standard implementation (something like Ethernet or USB?) such that it will work with many brands of audio interfaces, DACs, monitors and subs.
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