Your subjectivity of "Room" type of corrections

[alaios]

So this is a very subjective topic by nature and we can keep it like that.
Assume that you have used some room correction software for your room and your specific setup how much in percentage would you rate that your listening experience has improved?

I know, I get it, it is very subjective but still, think that we are around drinking beers and someone asked this.

So my experience with room correction software was around 10% improved listening experience.

So what would be your percentage?
Regards,
Alex
P.S I can explain bit later why I am asking but lets focus on the "beer" part of this discussion first.

 

[Rednaxela]

Would it be an idea to make this a poll? Maybe with 11 options: 0%, 1-10%, 11-20% etc. ?

 

[alaios]

not sure how to do it. Lets get your opinion and see your number

 

[Rednaxela]

20%

 

[Purité Audio]

Reducing room derived bass gain in the minimal phase region of the Far ( boomy bass) is almost certainly the single largest improvement to sound quality you will ever make.
Completely full-range bass with no overhang.
Keith

 

[Waxx]

It totally depends on the room and the speakers used. It can be a dealbreaker, but it can also be very minimal or no gain. DSP is a good tool when done right in the right circumstances and if you have bass problems or room modes that mess up your sound, it's certainly worth the try (but study it well, it's easy to use it wrong). But it's not the magic bullet to good sound like some say. I use it in some setups with big gains, and in others where i tried i took it out as it was not giving gains.

 

[Bjorn]

Correcting low frequency peaks generally works well and is almost always an overall improvement, though reducing very large peaks with many dB will also lead to less dynamics. Correcting room related (or other non minimum phase behaviour anomalies) peaks and dips in especially the midrange and treble generally leads to a worse result. Those auto-correction softwares that does a lot of the latter, has the result of really weird and unatural sound to my ears.

 

[Purité Audio]

It totally depends on the room and the speakers used. It can be a dealbreaker, but it can also be very minimal or no gain. DSP is a good tool when done right in the right circumstances and if you have bass problems or room modes that mess up your sound, it's certainly worth the try (but study it well, it's easy to use it wrong). But it's not the magic bullet to good sound like some say. I use it in some setups with big gains, and in others where i tried i took it out as it was not giving gains.

I have never known it not to ‘work’ you have a big reinforcement, gain added entirely by the room, you measure with REW, start off with maybe half the -gain value the software recommends and go from there.
Keith

 

[Keith_W]

How much of an improvement you get depends on how sorted your speakers, subs, and room was before you started!

For me, closer to 50%, and I came up with this number like this:

- Bass (weighting: 33%): before DRC, there were peaks and dips in the FR everywhere. With subjective listening, "one note" bass was obvious, and the subs sounded disconnected from the speaker (most evident with big bass drums) and seemed flabby. With DSP/DRC, the bass response is flattened, I have flat bass down to 20Hz, and there is real impact with transients involving bass frequencies. Improvement is 100%.

- Mids and top end (weighting: 66%): before DRC, the top end was a little too hot. My target curve has tamed it a lot. There was also a 0.5ms time difference between the tweeter and mids, which I did correct, but I am not convinced it has made a difference to the sound. I have also implemented steep crossover curves. Improvement: maybe 20%.

So, (100 * 33%) + (20 * 66%) = approx 45%.

 

[tw99]

Once you get tuned in to the one or two note bass that many rooms suffer from, it's hard to un-hear it, so I'd say that room correction that fixes this gives me a 80% improvement.

 

[fpitas]

Once you get tuned in to the one or two note bass that many rooms suffer from, it's hard to un-hear it, so I'd say that room correction that fixes this gives me a 80% improvement.

Yeah, I've tried removing those EQ points, but I put them right back. I guess I'm at 100% on specific tracks. Other tracks, closer to 10%.

 

[Bjorn]

Speaker and room correction are two different things. I assume many will combine these in their reply.

There's little doubt the many speakers, and especially passive ones, will benefit greatly from speaker correction.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Correcting low frequency peaks generally works well and is almost always an overall improvement, though reducing very large peaks with many dB will also lead to less dynamics. Correcting room related (or other non minimum phase behaviour anomalies) peaks and dips in especially the midrange and treble generally leads to a worse result. Those auto-correction softwares that does a lot of the latter, has the result of really weird and unatural sound to my ears.

I greatly appreciate your contribution. Firstly because you are an acoustics professional and secondly because you shed light on an aspect that I hadn't thought of myself. I have emphasized this.

 

[fpitas]

reducing very large peaks with many dB will also lead to less dynamics

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning.

 

[Geertidow]

50% with REW and PEQ, 70% with DIRAC.
However percentage dependent on components. So assume decent (not perfect) gear.

 

[alaios]

Speaker and room correction are two different things. I assume many will combine these in their reply.

There's little doubt the many speakers, and especially passive ones, will benefit greatly from speaker correction.

interesting point. Can you elaborate a bit more on this?

 

[alaios]

50% with REW and PEQ, 70% with DIRAC.
However percentage dependent on components. So assume decent (not perfect) gear.

why do you think Dirac took a higher score

 

[Geertidow]

why do you think Dirac took a higher score

Dirac does the job better than I can. I think it is because dirac does more than peq alone.

 

[alaios]

So some more comments:
1. I am very happy to see how people contribute to the discussion feeling free to add their input.

Now bit more from my side, without being able to give an answer to the question I have asked.

This is my room

I am not going very low on the lowerfrequencies, since I have small subs.

Then my music is like piano, or music like this

then Arias,

I would not think that these songs go too low (I would like to hear your opinion on this). At the same room correction might cost me up to 700-800 euros more so I would expect to benefit the lower ranges of my "whole system" which is not probably i am really using.

Please keep your input coming
Regards,
Alex

 

[Purité Audio]

Did you move the position of the microphone between measurements?
Keith