A typically excellent summary by Amir, who knows what he is talking about.
Just a few added points from my perspective:
- there is always only one sweet spot with/without treatments or EQ even if one just considers symetric speaker imaging.
- improving across a wider area by treatments or EQ as to frequency and time domain response gets considerably more complex and expensive, e.g., multiple subwoofers, etc.
- I am happy to just try to optimize at the sweet spot, but my impression is that the sound is also improved at adjacent seats across my 3-seat listening area. I use only EQ and no treatments. The difference is remarkable and I am not tempted to go down the much more difficult and expensive path of room treatments. For one thing, my wife would have a heart attack. And, the time investment with proper measurements would be huge as a DIY project.
- I mentioned Dirac Live, which I now use with great success after having been an Audyssey Pro Kit user for many years. One of Dirac's advantages is ease of use in addition to high quality and careful design for the time domain and impulse response. But, there are many other high quality EQ packages that run on different platforms - stand alone, in a PC, in a digital Mch or stereo prepro, etc. Some of these include the JBL Amir favors, Trinnov, Lyngdorf, Acourate, Anthem ARC, etc. Even the common Audyssey in many inexpensive AVRs is not bad, though now somewhat dated in this fast moving field. There are other third rate "pretenders" available, typically proprietary ones in AVR/prepros, like Krell, Yamaha, Pioneer, Onkyo/Integra, etc.
- the biggest amplitude room issues and payoff from EQ are in the bass, but I find that tailoring full range response even above the transition frequency via the target curve also highly beneficial, both measurably and audibly. A gently downward sloping target curve and smooth measured response, as opposed to flat, delivers a better replica to me of the live sound I hear in the concert hall. That has been true for me in several rooms, and my concert going friends agree in their rooms with different EQ systems. This is consistent with Sean Olive's research findings. Gordon Holt and others also said so decades ago, long before DSP EQ.
Just a few added points from my perspective:
- there is always only one sweet spot with/without treatments or EQ even if one just considers symetric speaker imaging.
- improving across a wider area by treatments or EQ as to frequency and time domain response gets considerably more complex and expensive, e.g., multiple subwoofers, etc.
- I am happy to just try to optimize at the sweet spot, but my impression is that the sound is also improved at adjacent seats across my 3-seat listening area. I use only EQ and no treatments. The difference is remarkable and I am not tempted to go down the much more difficult and expensive path of room treatments. For one thing, my wife would have a heart attack. And, the time investment with proper measurements would be huge as a DIY project.
- I mentioned Dirac Live, which I now use with great success after having been an Audyssey Pro Kit user for many years. One of Dirac's advantages is ease of use in addition to high quality and careful design for the time domain and impulse response. But, there are many other high quality EQ packages that run on different platforms - stand alone, in a PC, in a digital Mch or stereo prepro, etc. Some of these include the JBL Amir favors, Trinnov, Lyngdorf, Acourate, Anthem ARC, etc. Even the common Audyssey in many inexpensive AVRs is not bad, though now somewhat dated in this fast moving field. There are other third rate "pretenders" available, typically proprietary ones in AVR/prepros, like Krell, Yamaha, Pioneer, Onkyo/Integra, etc.
- the biggest amplitude room issues and payoff from EQ are in the bass, but I find that tailoring full range response even above the transition frequency via the target curve also highly beneficial, both measurably and audibly. A gently downward sloping target curve and smooth measured response, as opposed to flat, delivers a better replica to me of the live sound I hear in the concert hall. That has been true for me in several rooms, and my concert going friends agree in their rooms with different EQ systems. This is consistent with Sean Olive's research findings. Gordon Holt and others also said so decades ago, long before DSP EQ.