[alanford69]

Hello, I was wondering if Bryston had any plans to support room correction (e.g. Dirac) on 2 channels preamplifiers/dacs.
I would love to have it on BR-20 for example. What do you think?

[James Tanner]

Hi Alan - no sorry - we are not a fan of room correction unless it is for very low frequencies - below 120Hz - like with our Active speakers and BAX Active Crossover - see attached.



Also if you are using room correction we highly recommend you only reduce the Peaks - do not increase the Dips.

Here is a white paper I did a few years ago on my thoughts about EQ.

HI Folks,

One area of speaker design that is recognized by most speaker designers (not just Bryston Speaker designs) is the flat ‘’on and off axis’ frequency response (Sound Power) a critical component of a successful speaker design.  There has been a lot of research over the last 20 years that supports this edict.

The problem I see with Digital room correction through ‘EQ’ is that it totally screws up the direct sound vs. the reflected sound coming from the speaker.

When you listen to a speaker in a room you are listening to what we call the ‘power response or sound power’ and you hear all the direct sound as well as the reflected sound mixed together.  So the listening experience is a combination of all the direct and reflected sound waves in a given room with a given speaker. When you alter the ‘direct sound’ at the speaker using ‘EQ’ it totally changes the relationship between the direct and reflected sound and is a disaster when it comes to ‘time smear’.  So the speaker designer has spent years attempting to get flat frequency and phase response from his speaker and we come along and force the speaker to do anything but accurate signal transfer. Also if you are going to use ‘EQ’ try and only ‘reduce’ the ‘peaks’ in the room and not ‘amplify’ the troughs.  Amplifying the troughs can play havoc with your speaker drivers power handling.

A lot of these newer types of ‘EQ’ products try and average a group of curves taken from many different locations in the room as they are attempting to reduce the negative effects of the single listening chair dilemma. Having a single spot in the room which measures flat but everywhere else in the room measures like crap is not a good result in my opinion. I think you are much better off adjusting the speaker location and using proper room treatments.  If all else fails maybe some ‘EQ’ can be used but I would recommend keeping the correction only for the very low bass frequencies and stay away from upper bass, mids and higher frequency ‘EQ’ where room affects are not an issue due to the shorter wavelengths involved.  I am hopeful that we will see many more Subwoofers with built in room ‘EQ’ which would be the better solution in my opinion if you are forced to use room correction.

I realize that some people will totally disagree with my assessment of the downside of EQ.  That’s OK as you are free to use whatever feature you deem necessary for your particular but rather cautioning our customers on its judicious implementation.

Hope this helps.

James Tanner
Bryston

[alanford69]

Thanks @James very interesting point of view, which I almost 100% subscribe since my main point is about optimizing low frequencies without adding bass traps or any other kind of panels to my room without a criteria.

[TJ-Sully]

Thanks for sharing this James. Totally agree with your perspective on EQ. 

In relation to speaker placement, it would be amazing if we had the ability to remotely control the physical position of subwoofers in the room…….subwoofer placement is so important and hard to dial in.   

[James Tanner]

Using multiple subs is a good way to even out the bass response in your room without having to resort to bass traps.

[TJ-Sully]

Interesting…that we’re not adding (much) SPL to the very low frequencies…and improving the response in other areas of the bass region.

This is the exact issue in my room. A big dip in the 50Hz range. I can’t work around it.   
For example, in the song “I’m Gone” by Alison Krauss - I know there is a couple nice bass notes….in the car, and with headphones this note is super clear.  On my rig, it’s almost non-existent.   Kills me!

[James Tanner]

Hi TJ - it works really well and it is one of the reasons I designed our new T10 Series of speakers the way I did.  With woofers close to the floor and ceiling it drives the bass response in the room from 4 separate locations which really helps reduce standing waves throughout the room.

[TJ-Sully]

That’s trippy James - and makes a lot of sense! Double up the in-room response.
My ceiling is 8’ - what T10 model would you recommend for this ceiling height.
Other room dimensions are 15x32.   My system is setup to play towards the long axis.

[James Tanner]

Th T-10 for sure in that room

james

[TJ-Sully]

I had a feeling you might suggest the mighty T-10. 
I was thinking the Trim T10 active might be the ticket - assisted with a couple subs.

I only say this - as I once had a big tall pair of speakers and they overloaded the room.

[James Tanner]

Hi - room overload can be a problem and it is one of the reasons that accurately measuring the 'Sound Power' (all the energy radiated from the speaker over 360 degrees) is important when designing a speaker.

best
james

[alanford69]

Using multiple subs is a good way to even out the bass response in your room without having to resort to bass traps.

That’s very interesting but my partner would not allow for an extra box in the room 😅

[gbaby]

Thanks James. I'm with you 100 percent. I don't like Atmos either because I am still trying to hear "object based" in the normal day. I can't hear it. To me, Atmos is a gimmick. Please give my regards to Stan. 

[alanford69]

Hi Alan - no sorry - we are not a fan of room correction unless it is for very low frequencies - below 120Hz - like with our Active speakers and BAX Active Crossover - see attached.

Also if you are using room correction we highly recommend you only reduce the Peaks - do not increase the Dips

That’s exactly my case: this weekend a friend came to my place, we measured the room response using REW and we found a peak between 40 and 60Hz, bigger on left channel probably due to the asymmetry of my listening room. We generated a filter using Dirac and we tried it using a laptop with JRiver connected to my BR-20 via USB.

The result was amazing… better focused voices, more clarity overall in the midrange and a tighter bass, eliminating the boom I had on some bass-heavy recordings. We were able to play louder than usual and with less ear fatigue. Too bad I cannot do it using the built-in BR-20 streamer, I truly believe this would be a fantastic option.