Room Correction App

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bluegrassphile

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Southeast Iowa
Is there a "decent" room correction phone app? Do they really work? Which one do you recommend? I have a dB meter app but was wondering if there is such thing as a room correction phone app that works?

My audio system will consist of a Pass Labs int 250 integrated, Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary Model speakers, MSB Discrete with optional second power supply, Roon Nucleus, AQ Rocket 88 speaker cables and Mackenzie interconnects.

The listening room is 27' x 14'. The surfaces are all hard (wood paneled walls and painted, perforated, peg board ceiling) except the carpeted concrete floor. We cover the opening of the listening/family/music room with a bed sheet to help hold the heat in from the small wood burning stove. I think the sheet also helps with the bass frequencies. The room has been "mildly treated" with acoustic tile squares. The opposite end of the room is a home recording/music studio.

Anyway, I was just wondering if there was a particular phone app for acoustic room correction that you use? How do they work? Does it have to be specific to the brands and models of your components?
 
I'm not sure why I'm even asking about ARC. Most of the variables are fixed in my listening room. I could add a few more absorbent tiles, move my listening chair a couple inches in either direction. One corner of my listening area has a small wood burning stove. The other corner has a 2' x 2' x 7' (tall) closet that houses the general house water shut off valve. But I think that's a good thing as it provides for irregular corners that might help with bass control. The other corner has the wood burning stove. My listening chair is about 8' from the speakers with the speakers about 7 1/2' from each other.....almost an equilateral triangle. Directly behind my listening chair is the recording/music studio area which comprises the other 1/2 of the room, the listening area being the other 1/2. I have virtually no options for moving things around due to the room size. It's pretty tightly packed with furniture that the wife doesn't want moved.

We did sell a couch and replace it with a recliner (my listening chair) and that freed up a little bit of room for the cabinet that will house the amp and digital hardware. The wall behind and "between" the audio speakers houses a 55" flat screen TV. There is a brick pad for the wood burning stove that measures approximately 5' x 14'. That is what limits and locks in the speaker positioning. They are on stands that are butted up against the outer border of the brick pad. The speakers are in line with one another. The right speaker is about 2' in front of the corner of the wood burning stove. The stove is in the right hand corner of the room and it has a heat shield positioned around it which effectively protects the speaker and TV from heat.

So, as you can see, what I can do is very limited. It will most likely be limited to what I can attach to the walls. Any comments or ideas?
 
Another way to effect room correction is through the roon DSP (digital signal processing) engine. Essentially, you use specialized audio software and a compatible microphone to take sound measurements, the results of which are processed and then input into roon DSP. From there roon makes the corrections during playback.

you can find much more information at the roon links below:

https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Speaker_Setup

https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Convolution

you can also learn more and access the collective experience of the roon user community here:

https://community.roonlabs.com/search?q=room correction
 
bluegrassphile said:
Is there a "decent" room correction phone app? Do they really work? Which one do you recommend? I have a dB meter app but was wondering if there is such thing as a room correction phone app that works?

My audio system will consist of a Pass Labs int 250 integrated, Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary Model speakers, MSB Discrete with optional second power supply, Roon Nucleus, AQ Rocket 88 speaker cables and Mackenzie interconnects.

The listening room is 27' x 14'. The surfaces are all hard (wood paneled walls and painted, perforated, peg board ceiling) except the carpeted concrete floor. We cover the opening of the listening/family/music room with a bed sheet to help hold the heat in from the small wood burning stove. I think the sheet also helps with the bass frequencies. The room has been "mildly treated" with acoustic tile squares. The opposite end of the room is a home recording/music studio.

Anyway, I was just wondering if there was a particular phone app for acoustic room correction that you use? How do they work? Does it have to be specific to the brands and models of your components?
Click to expand...

Since you are using Roon, I highly recommend that you take advantage of its DSP functions.

You can use a computer with appropriate software (I use REW which is free) and a calibrated microphone to calculate your room response. Then you use that data to create convolution filters that work with Roon. (There is a company that you can send your REW data and they can develop the DSP filters for you).

You start with a set of speakers and do the best you can to properly set them in your room. That may include adding some room treatments. Then you take the measurements. For a fraction of the cost, you will get MUCH more value from using properly developed room correction filters than spending tons of money on cables, interconnects, and other digital accessories. Just remember that your room and your speakers are the most important “components”.

PS. I know of no phone app to do what I am talking about.
 
The phone apps with Studio 6 mentioned above would let you measure room response as you change room variables via trial and error.

You could use REW (Room EQ Wizard) to make a room correction profile for your room that Roon implements.

I used REW to measure my small room, and consulted with the helpful folks at GIK acoustics to treat my room. I use Roon, and Vinyl, so using room correction in Roon would not affect the vinyl playback. I tend to do more serious listening when I’m playing records.

If you are serious about using digital DSP for room correction, look at the miniDSP site. They sell, not expensive, gear for this purpose. The free REW is used to create the filter.

Good luck, and have fun, in what can be a confusing, yet gratifying, project.

There are, of course, more expensive options.
 
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