Best Room correction Method for External USB DAC-Stereo Listening ?

RssL

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Hello AVF Members,

This is my first post in here.

So my question is what as the title says for what is the "Best Room correction Method for External USB DAC-Stereo Listening ? "

FYI, My gear goes like this :-

PC(USB Isolated)>F2K>ASIO>Topping E30-USB DAC + LPS>AVR(Onkyo TX-NR5007) with Audyssey ARC & D-EQ>Acoustic Energy AElite1 Bookshelf's with SVS SB1000 Pro (X over 100Hz @ AVR).

My Concerns :-

1- Introducing a dedicated DSP (Eg: MiniDSP) in between introduces additional A/D to D/A conversion which I am not comfortable with.
2- Want to improve the audio on my current gear as I am not going to add/replace any major components soon.
3- Apart from stereo listening, don't wanna give up on Gaming and Movies as well as I want best of both worlds.


And lastly if I am going with some sort of Room Correction( Eg : REW) should it be with Audyssey + REW or REW alone with Audyssey OFF ?

So far I have narrowed it to MATHAUDIO ROOM EQ for F2K for stereo listening as the DSP Correction happens before the DAC. Makes sense ?

Anyways Thanks in Advance for all your valuable inputs.
 
Welcome to the Forum.

Room correction will certainly help with film and TV but for stereo music listening you will still be at the mercy of the performance of the Marantz which is in no way as good as an integrated stereo amp for music. Best of both worlds would be to introduce a stereo amp that has HT by-pass to run your front left and right speakers. All your music sources should then run through that amp and thereby cut the Marantz out of the equation.

It's the best solution I found to improve my stereo music listening enjoyment.
 
Welcome to the Forum.

Room correction will certainly help with film and TV but for stereo music listening you will still be at the mercy of the performance of the Marantz which is in no way as good as an integrated stereo amp for music. Best of both worlds would be to introduce a stereo amp that has HT by-pass to run your front left and right speakers. All your music sources should then run through that amp and thereby cut the Marantz out of the equation.

It's the best solution I found to improve my stereo music listening enjoyment.
Thanks @gibbsy for the warm Welcome :)

Guess you got confused with My ONKYO as MARANTZ. Haha never mind.
But please do note that this was the flagship receiver from Onkyo at that time. These are rated at 2 -Channel's Driven @ 145 Watts RMS.

And TBH, I don't really understand what an integrated stereo AMP would bring something new on my table other than, my already powerful Onkyo-5007 ? Mind to be honest and elaborate some ?
 
Sorry, got Marantz on my brain.

Forget the power output, it's the Onkyo's (got it right) pre-amps performance that counts. AV amps from the majority of manufacturers, certainly the main protagonists such as Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Sony, et al are poor in the portrayal of stereo music. AV amps are not designed for music and there are a lot of amps and electronics stuffed into a small area giving noise and interference.

I've been an advocate of HT by-pass stereo amps for those that have a heavy music use for many years. The stereo amp is designed with one thing in mind and that's good music. I have a high end Denon AV amp yet it's performance with music is flat and uninspiring, muddy mid range and the bass response is poor.

Not having the room for a second pair of stereo speakers I decided to purchase a stereo amp that could be used as a single entity for stereo and then perform as a power amp for home theatre, hence the HT by-pass capability needed.

The front speakers are connected just to the stereo amp and the AV amp connected to that amp via pre-outs. Both AV amp and stereo amp are fired up for watching films, TV and just the stereo amp is needed for music. It's simple to connect and use and the stereo amp can be EQ'd into the system by Audyssey for film and TV. It will not be EQ'd though for music as it will basically be back to it's standalone duties.

If you think that you're music performance is below par then that's not the fault of the lack of EQ but more likely the Onkyo itself.
 
Th main issue is that you are going digital to analogue (e30) to digital (onkyo input ADC) then dsp (in the onkyo) and back to analogue (onkyo inbuild DAC) so you loose all of the e30 goodness (and you are already doing what #1 on your list says you do not want to do) and rely on the ADC/DAC chips in the Onkyo. Add into that the Onkyo preamp circuits which will be biased towards surround than stereo. Using the E30 directly into a stereo integrated amp uses a dedicated stereo preamp which will not mess with the sound too much (compared to the Onkyo).

If your PC is your main music source then maybe best to do any DSP at source using the PC. This can be done with something like the Equilizer APO which has a nice gui called Peace. If you have a mic then you can use with REW to calculate the filters to add in Eqilizer/Peace. This would be free to try before you splash the cash.
 
You could get a power amp that has a switch between 2 xlr/rca inputs.

PC - E30 - power amp - (high level sub) for stereo

PC - onkyo - pre out - power amp - rca sub for surround.

Used power amps should be reliable.
 
The easiest, and best way would be to swap the Onkyo for a Anthem MRX.

Anthems ARC is excellent and better than Audyssey imo.

Then, instead of the E30 simply use one of these as a USB to optical output and use the very good dac in the Anthem.



The Anthems are renowned for great stereo music performance. Mine is excellent.
 
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Ps, trying to mix Dirac with Audyssey (or ARC, or RoomPerfect) will not work.

I’ve tried it using the Minidsp 24 (with Anthems ARC and Lyngdorfs RP), and there’s has never been a more awful final sound.
 
Sorry, got Marantz on my brain.

Its alright gibbsy.

Thanks for your advice and, an AMP with 'HT bypass' is something new to me for considering in the future.

If you think that you're music performance is below par then that's not the fault of the lack of EQ but more likely the Onkyo itself.
No, i dont think my music performance is below par. Not at all, but trying to squeeze even more if in case if I am missing something or if i can improve furthermore in certain areas, if the technology allows it then why not.
Because always in the back of mind i feel like i am missing something especially in the room acoustic correction area.
 
If you want the best correction for stereo music then the Lyngdorf streamer/amps that have Room Perfect come highly recommended. You can run this alongside the Onkyo by using Audyssey Left Right By-pass and use RP to EQ the front speakers. It is another HT by-pass amp and many people swear by them.

It's something I've never used for stereo music and I'm lucky that my room is pretty benign. It will never match the perfection of good headphones but I'm more than happy with home my room sounds but dare say it could be improved upon.

There's an owners' thread here.

 
Th main issue is that you are going digital to analogue (e30) to digital (onkyo input ADC) then dsp (in the onkyo) and back to analogue (onkyo inbuild DAC) so you loose all of the e30 goodness (and you are already doing what #1 on your list says you do not want to do) and rely on the ADC/DAC chips in the Onkyo. Add into that the Onkyo preamp circuits which will be biased towards surround than stereo. Using the E30 directly into a stereo integrated amp uses a dedicated stereo preamp which will not mess with the sound too much (compared to the Onkyo).
Yes @Ugg10 , you are absolutely right and I am very much aware of that. Unfortunately I cant avoid Onkyos AD-to-DA conversions this time, because I very much need the Audyssey's ARC (EQ and Dyanamic EQ) in-between or else my AElite1 speakers sounds garbage with out Audyssey EQ mainly. And this is how i came to know in fact that the "Audyssey" stuff is a no-joke thing that it can even bring a bad sounding speaker to live to a different level.

Before AE1 speakers, I had the Def-Tech Pro Monitor 1000's(1st gen-built solid) and those speakers sounded great right out of the box, except that it was too bright (Aluminum Dome Tweeters) and a little bit fatiguing for long session listening. And i had never even bothered to use Audyssey with those at all, as listening in Pure-Direct Audio mode on my AVR sounded great.


If your PC is your main music source then maybe best to do any DSP at source using the PC. This can be done with something like the Equilizer APO which has a nice gui called Peace. If you have a mic then you can use with REW to calculate the filters to add in Eqilizer/Peace. This would be free to try before you splash the cash.

Yes my PC is my main source and yes I'll definitely look in to "Equilizer APO". Thanks for that.
But any thoughts on the "MATHAUDIO ROOM EQ for F2k" ? as I'll be using only foobar as the media player as well. No i do not have the mic yet, but seriously thinbking of getting a miniDSP UMIK-1 as i feel it would be a good investment and the next best thing to add to my audio gear's collection.
 
You could get a power amp that has a switch between 2 xlr/rca inputs.

PC - E30 - power amp - (high level sub) for stereo

PC - onkyo - pre out - power amp - rca sub for surround.

Used power amps should be reliable.
Any known brands for suggestion ?


The easiest, and best way would be to swap the Onkyo for a Anthem MRX.

Anthems ARC is excellent and better than Audyssey imo.

Then, instead of the E30 simply use one of these as a USB to optical output and use the very good dac in the Anthem.



The Anthems are renowned for great stereo music performance. Mine is excellent.
Unfortunately not planning to change anything currently in my setup anytime soon. But trying the best to improve anything within and was narrowed to Room Correction stuff.

Ps, trying to mix Dirac with Audyssey (or ARC, or RoomPerfect) will not work.

I’ve tried it using the Minidsp 24 (with Anthems ARC and Lyngdorfs RP), and there’s has never been a more awful final sound.
Haha yeah i was thinking about the same. So the only option would be an ARC @ the source level i.e. on PC in my case and then use pure-audio/direct(All DSP's off in AVR) method on AVR and then high-level the sub ?? Grrr.. why this audio thing is soo much complicated ?!+##
 
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