03-Jul-2021, 12:42
I have been running the Focus Fidelity convolutions for over a month now.
The short version of this post is that I am absolutely delighted by the results. I am hearing a significant increase in clarity, the improvement in sound staging is stunning, plus in very many ways everything is just plain nicer to listen to. Listening fatigue is pretty much banished, when I start listening now it is getting very difficult to stop. I feel more like I have completely upgraded my system, improved amp, better speakers and so on, rather than adding a software tweak.
So what are the negatives? There were mentions earlier in this thread of room correction DSP giving a "dead" sound, in the past I have seen many similar comments about RC "sucking the life out of music", reducing dynamics, reducing detail, killing the bass, and so on. Indeed, in the past I have made comments like this myself. I have dabbled with a number of RC solutions but had always given up on then, preferring the more purist approach of playing direct and being DSP free.
With Focus Fidelity I not experiencing any of these negatives. With the bass cleaner than ever, dynamics are subjectively improved. I'm hearing details in the music I have never heard before, again resulting from the ultimate clarity I think. Bass itself is superb, and I am finding more life than ever in music.
It is perhaps worth mentioning bass a little more. With my previous RC experiments, I always found that I lost something with bass. Maybe bass was clearer, some room resonances eliminated, and so on. So some positives but it was always a trade off. Yes, there were improvements, but the end result tended to end up sounding a bit thin, somehow less satisfying and enjoyable to listen to. This is not the case with the Focus Fidelity convolutions. I stuck with my plan to get a convolution that worked OK, then spend a few weeks just listening. This I did for about a month, after which I made a set of six new convolutions, fine tuning the roll off, level of bass, this kind of thing. It is very early days with me trying these slightly revised convolutions, but I have a couple of convolution options now where there is simply too much bass. Of the six, I can see that there is one I prefer over the others. If this view holds out over the next month or so of listening, I guess I could fine tune some new convolutions, similar to my preferred choice. That said, I am more than happy listening to what I have now.
In terms of the value proposition here, last week I tried a little experiment. I tried running my system with the convolutions, but in Roon ready mode direct to the Devialet, so taking the Mutec and SOtM kit out of the chain. I then compared this to listening with my preferred method of HQPLayer / SOtM / Mutec, but switching the convolutions off. Of these two configurations, Roon Ready direct to Devialet with DSP was by far the best to listen to. So in a way, £185 worth of software and a little effort beats £7k's worth of hardware in terms of what you can add in front of a Devialet amp. Although it is not quite that simple, the sound quality improvements offered by the SOtM / Mutec kit are different to that offered by the DSP, and ultimately the best results are obtained by using both together. But if it came to it, and I had to choose one or the other, I would take the Focus Fidelity software and lose the SOtM / Mutec kit.
As a final point - customer service. I had posted on AS about my plan to stick with the initial convolutions I made, then see how things sounded for a few weeks of long term listening, then try fine tuning the convolutions in whatever direction I thought appropriate. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Focus Fidelity, advising that if I was about to try making new convolutions then it might be an idea to wait a couple of weeks, the reason being that they were maybe one or two weeks away from issuing an updated version of the software. I received that email on June 20th, I was sent a link to the new software June 26th. A nice touch I thought.
The short version of this post is that I am absolutely delighted by the results. I am hearing a significant increase in clarity, the improvement in sound staging is stunning, plus in very many ways everything is just plain nicer to listen to. Listening fatigue is pretty much banished, when I start listening now it is getting very difficult to stop. I feel more like I have completely upgraded my system, improved amp, better speakers and so on, rather than adding a software tweak.
So what are the negatives? There were mentions earlier in this thread of room correction DSP giving a "dead" sound, in the past I have seen many similar comments about RC "sucking the life out of music", reducing dynamics, reducing detail, killing the bass, and so on. Indeed, in the past I have made comments like this myself. I have dabbled with a number of RC solutions but had always given up on then, preferring the more purist approach of playing direct and being DSP free.
With Focus Fidelity I not experiencing any of these negatives. With the bass cleaner than ever, dynamics are subjectively improved. I'm hearing details in the music I have never heard before, again resulting from the ultimate clarity I think. Bass itself is superb, and I am finding more life than ever in music.
It is perhaps worth mentioning bass a little more. With my previous RC experiments, I always found that I lost something with bass. Maybe bass was clearer, some room resonances eliminated, and so on. So some positives but it was always a trade off. Yes, there were improvements, but the end result tended to end up sounding a bit thin, somehow less satisfying and enjoyable to listen to. This is not the case with the Focus Fidelity convolutions. I stuck with my plan to get a convolution that worked OK, then spend a few weeks just listening. This I did for about a month, after which I made a set of six new convolutions, fine tuning the roll off, level of bass, this kind of thing. It is very early days with me trying these slightly revised convolutions, but I have a couple of convolution options now where there is simply too much bass. Of the six, I can see that there is one I prefer over the others. If this view holds out over the next month or so of listening, I guess I could fine tune some new convolutions, similar to my preferred choice. That said, I am more than happy listening to what I have now.
In terms of the value proposition here, last week I tried a little experiment. I tried running my system with the convolutions, but in Roon ready mode direct to the Devialet, so taking the Mutec and SOtM kit out of the chain. I then compared this to listening with my preferred method of HQPLayer / SOtM / Mutec, but switching the convolutions off. Of these two configurations, Roon Ready direct to Devialet with DSP was by far the best to listen to. So in a way, £185 worth of software and a little effort beats £7k's worth of hardware in terms of what you can add in front of a Devialet amp. Although it is not quite that simple, the sound quality improvements offered by the SOtM / Mutec kit are different to that offered by the DSP, and ultimately the best results are obtained by using both together. But if it came to it, and I had to choose one or the other, I would take the Focus Fidelity software and lose the SOtM / Mutec kit.
As a final point - customer service. I had posted on AS about my plan to stick with the initial convolutions I made, then see how things sounded for a few weeks of long term listening, then try fine tuning the convolutions in whatever direction I thought appropriate. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Focus Fidelity, advising that if I was about to try making new convolutions then it might be an idea to wait a couple of weeks, the reason being that they were maybe one or two weeks away from issuing an updated version of the software. I received that email on June 20th, I was sent a link to the new software June 26th. A nice touch I thought.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
