[jaylevine]

Hi All,

I wanted to run what I'm doing by to this crowd to see if it makes sense.

I'm just learning how to use REW with AUParametricEQ. As I expected, the 40-200hz measurement is all over the place. My room is 40' by 30' by 14'--all concreate and glass, very little dampening material expect a heavy 12' by 16' throw rug that my Maggie 1.7s stand on (four feet off the wall with two Rel Strata III sub woofers sitting off to the left/right and slightly behind each speaker plane.)

My thoughts are to try to smooth out my room at the 40-400 level. What I've done is insert Hijack with the AUParametricEQ plug in between my Line In/SPL/REW so I can use AUParametricEQ to flatten curve.

Once I get some good AUParametric settings, I plan to replicate the settings using Pure Music with the same AUParametricEQ plug (I use Pure Music to drive my iMac).

Does this make sense? Or am I missing some fundamental piece of the puzzle.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Jay

[kip_]

The fundamental piece you are missing is that you're only addressing frequency response. EQ does nothing for standing waves, time domain issues, or decay times.

You need broadband absorption - namely bass traps, and 2-4" traps covering a reasonable surface area of the room to make a serious dent. All rooms can benefit from bass trapping and broadband absorption.

[InfernoSTi]

There is a thread on what to do first....I'm don't run EQ so I can't comment.  What I can say definitively is that broadband absorption and bass trapping makes a huge difference in your sound quality.  Oddly, it affects how you hear the entire spectrum...almost like removing background noise (think a diesel truck idling outside your listening room window and then it drives off: you can hear everything more clearly). I'm a big fan of 4" 2x4 703 panels or equivalent as a basic investment.  I would not enjoy an untreated room having lived with a treated room in my last three listening rooms.  It's as big an improvement as any of the major components. 

John

[bpape]

Agreed. While you may not get all the FR issues tamed with treatment, that coupled with careful placement experimentation can go a long way.  As has been said, EQ cannot deal with phase issues, excessive decay times, comb filtering from the rear wave of the maggies, reflection issues, etc.

Bryan

[Ethan Winer]

My room is 40' by 30' by 14'--all concreate and glass, very little dampening material expect a heavy 12' by 16' throw rug

I'm with the others on this. In a room that large, reverb is the main problem, even at bass frequencies. EQ isn't very appropriate in such a large room, even from the perspective of someone who would otherwise suggest EQ to supplement bass traps and other treatment.

--Ethan

[jaylevine]

Thanks everyone. I'm a novice at this so all of the advice is most welcome.

I'm meeting with the folks at Acoustic Surfaces next Monday (these are the guys behind the CURVE System that was reviewed in Stereophile last month).  Until I get through that phase I'm going to stand down on mucking with the electronics per everyones input.

Jay

[JLM]

EQ should always be the last step.  Start with decent room size/shape (your's is) and decent equipment.  Then do treatments.  Finally tweak with EQ (realizing that EQ only can be set for a single place in the room).

[max190]

Jay,
Thats a BIG room. You need at least the 3.7's...better still the 20.7's... but you will need lots of power.
+1 to what everybody is saying here regarding the bass.
Maggie's like diffusion on the sidewall reflections.

[jaylevine]

You're right on both fronts--the room is big (actually 50' by 30') and I do need a set of 3.7s

 Power is not a problem as I have a Bryston 4BSST2...the challenge is how to convince my wife let me buy new speakers while I'm still looking for a new gig!