More > Media Center 14 (Development Ended)

New speaker DSP in Media Center 14.0.127 [Room Correction]

<< < (6/11) > >>

Audionut:
I'd be more than happy to give all the input I have for a working solution  ;D

When you say "played with convolution", can you tell me what you do? Are you using downloadable room response filters or are you measuring a response, creating a target response and then claculating a FIR filter to use in the convolution engine? I guess since you used Headphones this time it is more like an effect plugin to add or remove reverb? Those I would agree, are mostly more entertaining then really useful in the context of regular listening.

I use convolution with a measured response and calculated filter baesd on a target curve for the frequency response, it is quite a journey to get something that sounds excellent. But, if you have a room that has significant bass problems (typically room modes) or less than perfect speaker placement, even a fairly automated correction filter sounds better to me than the orginal unprocessed sound. The software I use for that calculation also provides group delay correction of the speaker signal, so there is additional potential for improvement.

There is some analogy to parametric equalization, just that IMHO it is comparing a butchers knife to a scalpel. To stay in this idea, with convolution you need the tools and experience of a brain surgeon to really optimize the result. Doing this for a 7.1 home theatre setup would most certainly require the "Ueber" Professor, I am glad if I don't mess up my 2 channel "patient"  ;)

I also had very well tuned setups with dedicated rooms where I could not manage to improve the sound. So for me the key to get something that sounds good lies in how much are you able to specify the target response and how much do you know about how to relate this to the sound you hear with the speakers to optimize for the best result.



--- Quote from: Matt on January 21, 2010, 11:23:21 pm ---Convolver

Perhaps someone who is a fan of convolver could help us get something set up in a way that sounds good.

I spent some more time tonight playing with convolution.  I was using a Sennheiser HD600 headphones, but have also used it with my surround sound theater system.  I haven't found anything that seems really interesting.

It feels like an overly complicated way of doing equalization.  Speaker reverb correction might also be neat, although it seems like it's easy to do more harm than good with heavy processing for this.

Thanks for any tips.

--- End quote ---

Audionut:
Another experience I have with room correction with convolution filters is that quite often a filter that sounds close to perfect to me is difficult to get used to for others when they hear this kind of room correction the first time. Quite often, they have been listening to a setup that produces a certain sound signature due to the bass resonances that they are now used to. A good filter makes this almost linear and it can be "diasappointing" at first and perceived as "loss of bass", "not as loud or dynamic" etc. Usually in those cases it takes an hour or so to get used to the new sound and then starting to appraciate the positive results. The good results that are achievable which you can listen for when you try it are:

- Bass is not always there booming as one note in the background, it can be abesent, go very deep, have different texture that changes according to each recording. There will still be recordings that sound overly fat and boomy in the bass, but it will be only those that were actually mixed that way
- You don't have to "hunt" or concentrate on the stereo image, it is locked in and very stable. You can distinguish very clearly intermediate location cues like a bit left of center or so and not just left-middle-right (but also with room correction, for this one needs to be in or very close to the famous "sweet spot"
- The general tonal balance of the whole system does not change as much with output volume as without correction (this also confuses people in the beginning). You can turn up the volume more before getting the feeling it is too loud and have to turn it down. The cleaner response in the room makes this possible
- Depth of the image is usally improved. Also the feeling of listening fatigue is removed, sounds tend to be finer and less aggressive (precise cuts rather than jigsaw edges)

Ok, I hope this is somehow making sense to you, it is all coming from my "audiophile" stereo perspective and preferences.

Joerg

)p(:

--- Quote from: Audionut on January 22, 2010, 02:14:18 am ---The good results that are achievable which you can listen for when you try it are:


--- End quote ---

Great list...very similar to my own experiences with drc.


peter

audunth:
I'm also very interested in being able to use DRC FIR filters with MC. I haven't really started setting it up yet (I know once I get started it'll eat up all my free time for at least a few weeks  :-\), but I've done some measurements using a free program called Room EQ Wizard (http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/) and the results are terrible and in big need of correction. I've done some manual corrections with the parametric eq of my Yamaha receiver, and even those simple corrections makes a huge difference. I'm going to use a program called Audiolense (http://www.juicehifi.com/) which makes it pretty straight forward to set up the correction filters. Now, if it would be just as easy to set up those filters in MC instead of having to use external plugins that don't really work 100%, requiring various workarounds etc. it would be perfect :)

Those who don't know what proper correction can do to the sound can read this review http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-accessories/acoustics-eq-room-tuning/audyssey-sound-equalizer.html . This $2500 unit uses the same type of FIR filters that we're talking about here.

flac.rules:
Yeah, but the audessey technology does multiple measurments positions and uses som kind of fuzzy logic to weigh them and create a total responce. It seems a bit more advanced. And room correction seems to be pretty dependant on a good implmentation, I recently saw a blind-test of room correction systems done in harman kardon labs, some scored better than than no correction, one scored the same, and some scored worse.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page