New loudspeakers & room digital correction service

[Hifi_swlon]

I missed the cables question : no need to perform measurements when changing cables. Almost all cables have flat frequency response and even if there is a slight deviation it is of much lower order compared to loudspeakers & room

Yeah, good luck to anyone trying to spot cable differences in measurements of this type. Might need to get Cern involved for that.

Thierry, I suggested some questions in post12 if you have any time and inclination to give us more insight. Will probably all be good info for your website. Specifically, can you go into more details about costs - should one want to try different house curves or other parameters, or move speakers, would it all be charged at the lower rate? Is the higher cost more the 'new customer' fee?

One question ive always wondered even using something like Dirac (and I've read most of their papers) - how much tolerance is there for speaker movement? Mine being in the lounge means they are subject to the odd bump (cleaner hoovering, toddler bumping). Not ideal but I assume a few mm can mean invalidated filters? Question is, are they still useful or not? With simpler PEQ type filters my guess is movement is not much of a problem, but when dealing with reflections and phase and more advanced temporal type filters, a few mm could mean everything becomes out if bakance with the existing filter? Or not? (Apologies if I didn't explain that too well).

[GuillaumeB]

Specifically, can you go into more details about costs 

No offence to homeaudiofidelity (who I'm sure provides a great service) but I'd rather not we had him going into costs on here. Perhaps you can PM him directly? 

Guillaume

[homeaudiofidelity]

Yes you can contact me at info@homeaudiofidelity.com for costs questions, just a few words to say that the first iterations to adapt the tonal balance to personal taste are included in the package.

About the tolerance to loudspeakers position, you have 2 options : either you make the measurements with a single position of the loudspeaker and then the correction will be valid for loudspeakers movements around 5 to 10 cm. The other option is to not only move the mic but also the loudspeaker between the different measurements, so that the potential variations will be covered during the filters generation process.

[Hifi_swlon]

5-10cm more than covers me, it would be a cm at the most. I'm pleased but also surprised by this, I can't quite get my head round how the filters can deal with it.

[Confused]

Thierry, many thanks for the answers to my earlier questions.  All were completely clear, except for the one relating to the 'sweet spot'.

This was my earlier question:

Your website details taking measurements, one at the 'sweet spot', others around the 'sweet spot'.  OK, this makes sense, but I would like to clarify exactly how the sweet spot should be defined.  For example, I can sit exactly equidistant between the speakers, in the classic triangle formation.  So this is my 'sweet spot'.  However, if I walk forwards and backwards in my room, I can hear that the bass increases and decreases, almost as a wave, depending on where I am.  This is entirely normal, and I think I understand the basic reasons behind this phenomenon.  They key point I want to clarify is that my preferred 'sweet spot' does correspond to the point where the bass reinforcement or bass level is subjectively more or less at the maximum.  So in other words, I like to listen where there is more bass not less.  This is my choice, but I do know of another person who more or less does the opposite and has set up his room so he sits where the bass reinforcement or level is more or less at it's lowest.  This is personal preference, but if we both used your service I would be providing measurement where the bass peaks, and the other guy where it drops.  My question is, does this matter?  If it does matter, where should we measure, at max bass, min bass or somewhere in between?

Your response:

sweet spot definition might be confusing : by sweet spot I mean the place where you usually sit for listening. The purpose of DRC is to minimize the negative effects of the room once you have chosen a configuration (or have been forced for different reasons...)

OK, if I am honest, that did not really answer my question!  Also, I have been thinking about this a little more.  Taking my own specific case, the 'sweet spot', that is the exact point I sit when listening, is chosen in part because this is the point in the room where I can locate a sofa and the system sounds at it's best to my ears, due in part to a degree of room reinforcement of the bass.  However, in some respects I would like to locate the sofa, say half a metre or so back in the room, a little further away from the speakers.  In many respects this would be a better location, but it is backwards from what is now my 'sweet spot'.  My room allows some options, the 'sweet spot' can move backwards if I want it too.   What I suspect is that the point in the room that I like, with the degree of bass reinforcement, will remain the point I like even with room correction, that is after room correction it will remain the point with slightly elevated bass.  Or maybe not?  This is part of my question and is what I am trying to understand.  One solution to all this that I can think of is that I make two sets of measurements and get two filters, for 'sweet spot #1' and 'sweet spot #2', try both and see what I think.   (I would probably do this iteratively.)  There is nothing like trying stuff for yourself, and it's a bit more business for yourself!

[Confused]

I also have a slightly mischievous question for SwissBear...

In an earlier post you stated:

If you are listening to classical/acoustic music, this correction technology is an absolute must have IMHO.

For me, the vast majority of what I listen to is not classical or acoustic, does that mean that for me this correction technology is not so much of a must have?

[Hifi_swlon]

I also have a slightly mischievous question for SwissBear...

In an earlier post you stated:

If you are listening to classical/acoustic music, this correction technology is an absolute must have IMHO.

For me, the vast majority of what I listen to is not classical or acoustic, does that mean that for me this correction technology is not so much of a must have?

I can't speak for Swissbear or these specific filters obviously, but I listen to mostly electronic and bands and DRC on these genres makes a huge difference. I rarely listen to classical or acoustic but I do like picking out multiple layers of overlapping bass lines and strange electronic effects.

[petrik]

For me, the vast majority of what I listen to is not classical or acoustic, does that mean that for me this correction technology is not so much of a must have?

It works just fine with any good music that you like, in my humble opinion. These filters unfortunately don't make bad music any better

OK, if I am honest, that did not really answer my question!  Also, I have been thinking about this a little more.  Taking my own specific case, the 'sweet spot', that is the exact point I sit when listening, is chosen in part because this is the point in the room where I can locate a sofa and the system sounds at it's best to my ears, due in part to a degree of room reinforcement of the bass.  However, in some respects I would like to locate the sofa, say half a metre or so back in the room, a little further away from the speakers.  In many respects this would be a better location, but it is backwards from what is now my 'sweet spot'.  My room allows some options, the 'sweet spot' can move backwards if I want it too.   What I suspect is that the point in the room that I like, with the degree of bass reinforcement, will remain the point I like even with room correction, that is after room correction it will remain the point with slightly elevated bass.  Or maybe not?  This is part of my question and is what I am trying to understand.  One solution to all this that I can think of is that I make two sets of measurements and get two filters, for 'sweet spot #1' and 'sweet spot #2', try both and see what I think.   (I would probably do this iteratively.)  There is nothing like trying stuff for yourself, and it's a bit more business for yourself!

I can only comment my own personal, non-scientific/non-technical, view on this. So, I took one measurement on the sweet spot (in the middle of the sofa) and 4 other measurements around the sweet spot, covering basically the whole sofa. The measurements clearly showed that there are significant differences between the measurement points. Anyway, I'm happy with the results. Music sounds nice where ever I sit on the sofa. I don't feel like needing to have different filters for each listening position (left/center/right side of the sofa).

Perhaps you should give it a try, at least the free trial?

[Confused]

For me, the vast majority of what I listen to is not classical or acoustic, does that mean that for me this correction technology is not so much of a must have?

It works just fine with any good music that you like, in my humble opinion. These filters unfortunately don't make bad music any better

 I was rather hoping it would make my bad music sound even badder.....

[homeaudiofidelity]

@Confused : if you have the choice for your listening position, then you should pick the one giving the maximum bass as it will be easier to correct.

The comment from Swissbear on classical music is linked to the crosstalk reduction. There is a higher interest in reducing crosstalk for recordings made on the simple 2 mics principle, and usually such recordings are classical or jazz music. My experience is that the xtalk reduction is not detrimental for other type of recordings but the effect is less predictable (it depends on how the mixing was done)