Another room/speaker correction program: Dirac RCS

So kinda like ARC, but more advanced, and expensive. Same idea: Measure sound, make FIR filter, profit :D. They use a different algorithm, their own of course (ARC is Audyssey's MultEQ XT32). However the bigger difference is this is universal and surround compatible. It runs as a program that makes a virtual sound card on your system. So you have programs feed in to that, and it feeds to your actual output. Hence correction for all things, not just something you stick a VST on. Also the full version (the more expensive one) is 8 channel and so works with surround setups no problem. Supposedly does frequency and time domain corrections, customizable curves, all that jazz.
 
More infos on their site.
 
I wish I had heard of this, because it just like just the sort of thing I want. I use a home theater receiver since I want room correction on 8 channels and want it in all programs. Thing is, that precludes using most pro audio interfaces which is a pain.
 
I very much has a interest. Wish I had known about it back when I was buying my receiver. :P
 
Worth checking out (they have a free trial) if you are looking for room correction. Rather pricey, like $900, but then I don't know of anything that can do what it says it does without getting hardware.
 
Speaking of hardware, supposedly the Emotiva XMC-1 uses it Dirac RCS.

I haven't tried or know anyone who has, can't comment either way.
I don't think they're trying to compete with anyone. These prices have been the same for several years now.

Ya the cost is the biggest issue for sure. I still think I might go for it, because it replaces a receiver for me. On the other hand I might look at getting an Emotiva XMC-1 since it works as a preamp/controller, room correction, and soundcard.
 
I dunno.

The thing is I've been dissatisfied with parametric EQs when I've tried them. I think the issue is more time domain than frequency domain and EQs don't deal with time domain issues, for the most part.
 
Right now I don't have powered monitors either, though I'm debating changing that.

Ya, maybe a good PEQ could do as good as an FIR filter, but in my experience I've never seen it :/. I've tried EQ based room correction technology and never liked it. However MultEQ (which is a FIR filter) I like very much.

bitflipper
But I see no reason why a many-band hardware equalizer can't do as good a job as ARC, which ultimately is just a parametric equalizer, albeit with some fancy software to set it up for you. Take the compensation curve that ARC creates and smooth it to remove the dips and peaks that are too narrow to be significant, and you're left with a handful of broad corrections that can be easily recreated with any equalizer.

You might want to consider phase response and reconsider that statement.

bitflipper
You're thinking that group delays are significant, Drew? I'll concede that minimum-phase equalizers can never be truly transparent, but whatever coloration phase shifts cause is orders of magnitude less-significant than the effects of room resonance.

If you just use an EQ, you are applying whatever phase response that particular EQ gives you. They are at least attempting to correct for both phase and frequency response in the room. That's why they can say it addresses the time as well as frequency issues.
 
Having said that, I can't really say how much audible difference it makes one way or the other.

I know you know this, but if you add 2 sine waves of identical frequency but different amplitude and phase you output a sine wave of the same frequency but different amplitude and phase from the inputs.

The direct and room reflections add together at different levels and phases, simple as that. 
 
The impulse response of a filter in the time domain equates to the frequency and phase response of the filter in the frequency domain, so the room's IR can be thought of as an FIR filter that modifies frequency and phase response at the listening position. All an FIR filter does is convolve the signal with the filter's IR, just like (in theory) a convolution reverb does with it's IR.
 
So if you think of the room as a filter, you just need another filter to undo its effects at the listening position without screwing things up too much in the process.