01-Nov-2020, 12:34
@alandbush - I have owned a Umik-1 for many years!
Perhaps some explanation is required here as to why I found the AMcoustics Room Mode tool so interesting. If I measure using REW it does pick up that I have some room induced peaks and nulls in the sub 150Hz range. Nothing too unusual about that. Using REW, it tells me that I have a room mode at 27.4Hz, which ties up nicely with the AMcoustics tool which shows me both visually and aurally that I have an issue at 28Hz, so far so good.
Again using REW, this tells me that my most offensive room mode is at 54.5Hz, this too has alignment with the AMcoustics Room Mode tool, which indicates a room mode at 56Hz.
Now this is the bit that I find interesting. Using the AMcoustics Room Mode tool, the 28Hz tone sounds horrific, hugely overblown bass sound and offensive to my ears, whereas the 56Hz tone sound like moderately enhanced bass, and actually rather pleasant. So aurally the AMcoustics Room Mode tool tells me the 28Hz mode is a big problem, whereas the 56Hz tone is less of an issue and maybe something you could happily live with.
So maybe a case of the subjective influence of the room not matching the objective measurement of the room? This is why I found the AMcoustics Room Mode tool interesting, as it provides some insight into what REW is showing related to how this actually sounds in the room.
@ogs - Doing a REW/Sweet Room config first and then using the AMcoustics Room Mode tool to verify by ear is a good idea. I am also wondering if there are other approaches. For example, I could use the room mode tool and Roon to kill the highly offensive 28Hz mode, then measure with REW to judge the impact of this on the overall in room frequency response curve, then work out the overall correction needed to get near to the "house curve" sound of choice. Ah, if only I had more free time at the moment. I think I will give this some more thought and spend what is left of my limited free time to actually listen to music.
As an aside, REW used to work fine on my old lowish spec i5 PC. Running on my current i990K machine, with much higher resolution graphics etc., REW is very buggy, with many of the GUI's displaying incorrectly when playing around with settings. I am sure there must be an easy fix in the settings somewhere, but I tend to lose interest in software when it plays up like this, often you can waste a huge amount of time sorting issues like this, which I find very frustrating.
@Axel - I have just tried the Audio Function Generator you recommended. A nice tip, thanks! It is simple and works a treat, I really like the way it allows you to play a test tone, then toggle the frequency up / down by 1dB. Ideal for hunting down those pesky room resonances.
Perhaps some explanation is required here as to why I found the AMcoustics Room Mode tool so interesting. If I measure using REW it does pick up that I have some room induced peaks and nulls in the sub 150Hz range. Nothing too unusual about that. Using REW, it tells me that I have a room mode at 27.4Hz, which ties up nicely with the AMcoustics tool which shows me both visually and aurally that I have an issue at 28Hz, so far so good.
Again using REW, this tells me that my most offensive room mode is at 54.5Hz, this too has alignment with the AMcoustics Room Mode tool, which indicates a room mode at 56Hz.
Now this is the bit that I find interesting. Using the AMcoustics Room Mode tool, the 28Hz tone sounds horrific, hugely overblown bass sound and offensive to my ears, whereas the 56Hz tone sound like moderately enhanced bass, and actually rather pleasant. So aurally the AMcoustics Room Mode tool tells me the 28Hz mode is a big problem, whereas the 56Hz tone is less of an issue and maybe something you could happily live with.
So maybe a case of the subjective influence of the room not matching the objective measurement of the room? This is why I found the AMcoustics Room Mode tool interesting, as it provides some insight into what REW is showing related to how this actually sounds in the room.
@ogs - Doing a REW/Sweet Room config first and then using the AMcoustics Room Mode tool to verify by ear is a good idea. I am also wondering if there are other approaches. For example, I could use the room mode tool and Roon to kill the highly offensive 28Hz mode, then measure with REW to judge the impact of this on the overall in room frequency response curve, then work out the overall correction needed to get near to the "house curve" sound of choice. Ah, if only I had more free time at the moment. I think I will give this some more thought and spend what is left of my limited free time to actually listen to music.
As an aside, REW used to work fine on my old lowish spec i5 PC. Running on my current i990K machine, with much higher resolution graphics etc., REW is very buggy, with many of the GUI's displaying incorrectly when playing around with settings. I am sure there must be an easy fix in the settings somewhere, but I tend to lose interest in software when it plays up like this, often you can waste a huge amount of time sorting issues like this, which I find very frustrating.
@Axel - I have just tried the Audio Function Generator you recommended. A nice tip, thanks! It is simple and works a treat, I really like the way it allows you to play a test tone, then toggle the frequency up / down by 1dB. Ideal for hunting down those pesky room resonances.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
