How many of you use DSP processing w Phantoms - room correction, EQ, etc?

[MountainGuy]

Curious if any here use DSP processing to correct for room, EQ and such with equipment such as the DSpeaker Anti-Mode Dual Core or the DIRAC based system such as that from miniDSP. 

If you do, what do you do?  What improvements have you experienced? 

And did you check for phase and or timing?   I'm assuming that the Phantom is already optimized so that this is not a factor in the DSP correction? 

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[Rodney Gold]

I use DIRAC .. and its effects will work on any speaker , not only the phantom.
I cannot live without it.. tames the bass big time (room nodes etc) , and also sees to some reflections and other room/speaker abberations
The effect is that the bass taughtens up , becomes tuneful and has amaziung definaition , imaging is way better as the programs measure speakers individually (some placements might make one speaker more prominent than another) and using Target curves , you can tune for taste..
highly recommended ...
I have used many DRC devices and programs .. the 2 that are reasonably priced and really work are the miniDSP openDRC di (acourate and a parametric)
and the DDRC22 .. dirac

You MUST also measure the room .. so a UMIK1 is indispensible .. normally comes with the DIRAC setup .. but also useful for REW measurements (Room eq wizard ..free)

[MountainGuy]

Rodney. Thanks. Have you used the Dirac with Phantoms? I see that you list the Vivid Audio Giya (nice!) but wondering if you tried with the Phantoms.

Thanks!

[Rodney Gold]

I have not used it with phantoms..I heard the phantoms recently , amazing bass .. Im pretty sure it would work for them , prior to my G1's I had meridian dsp6000's (like phantoms but a lot bigger) combined with 2 SVS subs and it worked brilliantly

[JohnnySix]

I'm currently using a MiniDSP 'nanoDigi 2x8' with my Phantoms, and it does seem to do a better job than implementing the EQ filters in JRiver. However, it's way too much faff with all the interconnections (because it doesn't have Optical Out to the Dialog), and I don't see how one can avoid the fact that room correction must surely be critically dependent on how well you've measured the room (I used REW s/w + UMIK1 mic).
I've always found that too much correction gives me an uncomfortable feeling of over-processed sound, and I usually have to spend some time finding which of the filters are the key ones and omit the ones I'm not sensitive to.
Could be I've not spent enough money... but I'm not willing to take the gamble!

[ondastar]

Curious if any here use DSP processing to correct for room, EQ and such with equipment such as the DSpeaker Anti-Mode Dual Core or the DIRAC based system such as that from miniDSP. 

If you do, what do you do?  What improvements have you experienced? 

And did you check for phase and or timing?   I'm assuming that the Phantom is already optimized so that this is not a factor in the DSP correction? 

Thanks in advance for any comments.

MG.. I use the Dspeaker AM 2.0 specifically for the Dialog/Phantoms via the Dialog optical in. This has been useful as I have done a lot of placement variations, with the Dspeaker 's easy sweep characterization curves and  qualitative listening....this tool is a tweakers dream.

My audio sources (Bluesound node 2, Oppo BDP 105 D, Marantz AVP 8801, Apple TV) are switched opto-electronically to the Dspeaker. 

The bypass feature makes A/B comparisons easy. You can compare the Spark streamed Tidal versus the Roon Tidal through the Dspeaker optical... And adjust for your preference.

I use a Goldline DSP 30 real time analyzer as an independent cross reference, and for tweaking my reference Wilson Grand Slamm S3/ Levinson 33 stereo gear.

Sonically, my listening room is an acoustically isolated Golden Trapagon with high cubic volume. The Devialet gear compares favorably with my reference gear, at a fraction of the cost.

There is another thread with measurement graphs you may want to check out.

[bitsnbob]

This is my first post on this forum.  Be advised that I dabble in this stuff, I am far from being an expert.  I'm happy to share experiences though.

I have embarked on setting up and using speaker EQ (or is it room EQ?)  My system comprises a Windows 10 Dell tablet with docking station which is connected to my Devialet 120 via direct Ethernet.  The Devialet then drives my Tannoy DC10's.  I tried 3 separate trial VST EQ plugins using JRiver, and settled on Mathaudio, which conveniently was the cheapest of the bunch (I also tried DIRAC and Sonarworks and preferred the sound of Mathaudio).
  
To be honest, I use it, and I don't use it.  Let me explain:
In measuring my room response, I found that each of the packages gave very consistent results for the frequency response in my room.  I had a very boomy bass (which you didn't need to measure to notice, but it was identified right around 80Hz), and then the measurement process highlighted a couple of troublesome peaks around 3 - 4kHz.  I have used that information to set the tone controls in my 120 to rein the bass in, and also tame the sparkle at 3.5kHz.

I'm currently trying to decide whether to use the EQ plug-in with the tone controls flat, or simply use the measurement info I have and adjust with the tone controls but no EQ.  Either way brings a marked improvement over a non adjusted system, I just can't decide which I prefer, but I'm inclined towards using the tone controls with no EQ (of course I benefitted from the EQ measurement process to do this effectively).

As a further note, I managed to use EQ with Roon as a front end for the JRiver driver.  It didn't seem too happy with 24/192, but I didn't spend too much time fiddling with the settings, so it could be that it would work okay, or perhaps these plugins only operate up to 24/96.  I don't know.

My suggestion would be to measure your room, and adjust your bass response as a minimum.  Time will tell you whether the rest is okay.  If you use JRiver, the EQ trials can be had for free and you have 2-4 weeks to work out how they work, and whether they work for you.  I used a Dayton UMM-6 USB microphone which wasn't expensive as these things go.

There is a very good article on Archimago's Blog about EQ, and for a definitive, and somewhat technical run through, check out the article by Mitch on Computer Audiophile.

Good luck and regards.

Bob