[davidc1]

I'm curious what Brian would have thought about room correction programs such as Audyssey MultXT32? He as very concerned with flat response and accurate phase response. I'm sure he would have said to try to fix the speakers and the room acoustics first...but do you think he would have approved of Audyssey use?

[oldhvymec]

I'm curious what Brian would have thought about room correction programs such as Audyssey MultXT32? He as very concerned with flat response and accurate phase response. I'm sure he would have said to try to fix the speakers and the room acoustics first...but do you think he would have approved of Audyssey use?

Fact of the matter was Brian didn't measure much.  In the early days, not at all.  His OXO 2494 were out of the box crossovers set. No correction of any kind.
He knew how to make his speakers sound the best, with some of the worst room, amp, preamps, receivers, Valve amp, SS amps you could imagine. You name it, he could tune it (the best it could be).  It may not sound great, BUT, it will sound the best it can in that environment.. The reason a few people, continually bad mouthed him, and some still do, pure envy.

Regards

[davidc1]

Well, to answer my own question...I came across a post of Brians from 5-10 yrs ago where he mentioned a new (at the time) external automatic room compensation system. I can't remember the name of it though, but I don't think it's around anymore. But he found it very interesting. So, my feeling is he would have been OK with Audyssey MultiXT32. Except that for all practicle purposes, you can only get it in an AVR, which I'm sure he wouldn't like.

[GeorgeAb]

Brian may have given us an idea with the first word in the name of his speakers, Veritone.  He designed his speakers so they could be tuned to the room with the ability to adjust midrange and tweeter energy and bass dampening. This would lead me to think he would be OK with additional sophisticated tuning after you did the basic acoustic room treatment which he spoke of often in articles.
 
I personally use digital signal processing all the time. For two channel I use Roon Labs (streamer and holds my entire music library, beautiful intuitive interface, music magazine, Qobuz and Tidal (hi-rez music services) supported and sophisticated DSP thrown in) to control low frequency room acoustics.  Before Roon I used a Behringer Ultracurve in the digital domain between source and DAC.  It is cheap and powerful.  For home theater I use Audyssey in a AVR.

For headphones I also use DSP to make my headphones sound more like speakers sound in a room using parametric equalization and then on top of that also add crossfeed (a significantly attenuated and slightly delayed signal from opposite side is input to other side of headset as you would get from a speaker). I love headphones for late night listening, but I want them to sound like real life and not like headphones, yet get all the details, and dynamics headphones offer.  Another example is a designer who developed "Out of Your Head" software that make your headphones turn into virtual speakers to include 7.1 surround system (the demo is pretty amazing) or the headphones can be tuned to sound like different speaker manufactures such as Wilson Sasha, Magico Q7 speakers, etc.

It is a great time to be an audiophile with the sophisticated DSP tools available to us in two channel systems, headphones, and home theater.   

[John Casler]

Yes, Brian had interest in various equalizations and corrections.

He was however very realistic in his expectations.

As mentioned, his first efforts would be to adjust the speaker itself, before any electronic means.

I remember a trip we made at one of the SHOWS in Vegas.  The designer of the Emerald Physics Speakers was all excited about his Speaker Correction/Room Correction System and invited us over to his Room after hours.  He said he wanted to hear what a real Speaker Designer thought.

Brian sat in the sweet seat, and Clayton went about excitedly explaining how it worked, to which Brian said, "Just play something".

I know Clayton expected Brian's jaw to drop, but it didn't happen.

First thing he said was "Where's the High End"?  "you've got no High End".

Well, things went downhill from there, and we soon left.

Brian and I discussed this, and let me assure you while he was not impressed, that does not mean he was disinterested.

But, back then the "equalization/correction area" was just getting started and Brian was keeping his options open.

That said, he was not going to abandon his analog means and driver performance means.

Later on, we also were also looking at the Lyngdorf Systems, but it was difficult to acquire a unit to play with.