Hi all,
I have been using ARC in my studio for a number of years and it's helped dramatically with mixing in my less than perfect control room. I have been wondering if the Sonarworks Reference 4 is better for the job. Just wondering if anyone has used both and if there is a difference. I have Sonarworks headphone calibration which is also pretty helpful.  Thanks for the replies!

As user of both products,I Say SonarWoks Reference 4 beats IK all the time.
Easy setup,easy,more precise calibration,better sound because you can switch between minimun phase to linear phase eq.
Filters are better implemented and....
A lot of improvements in the next comming soon free updates.
 
That's all
 
:)
 

i use arc2...
sounds good...
easy to edit curves to suit your needs.
 
it's not hard to setup, it uses the Audyssey MultEQ® XT32 technology---audyssey uses time domain measurement and correction and the resulting filters are not based on bands.  Instead they operate on the amplitude and phase of the signal simultaneously to avoid any such anomalies.
 
haven't used sonarworks.
 

I don't have Sonarworks, but ARC 2 has a lot going for it.  My favorite thing about ARC 2 are the speaker emulations which I use all the time.

I've been happy for the most part with ARC II but I have a major project that is about to enter post production and I was wondering if Sonarworks was better in terms of accuracy. I have ARC profiles for all the monitors and although precision is very much recommended, it was fairly easy to set up and implement.

Sonarworks compensates for magnitude changes, although there seems to be some evidence that phase compensation is coming. The various filters are nice.
Arc2 compensates for both magnitude and phase and has various speaker playback emulations that are handy.

I believe sonarworks sounds better than arc. I have both. Sonarworks makes it easier to mix bass frequency. Arc is a way too unfocused in the low end. At least this is  my experience. Plus sonarworks headphone mixing is superb.

Hi Southpaw
 
I started with ARC and had good results in an untreated room. After designing and building a small studio, tested and treated it, I switched to SW3. I have Adam A77X monitors. Both programs are easy to set up and don't add any appreciable latency but I found SW to be more accurate in the low end. In a small studio (< 1500 ft^3) you need to be able to trust the correction software to compensate for room issues. Last week I mixed and mastered an EP (Black Keys/Artic Monkeys style) and I was very unsure about it but the client loved it so much he gave me 5k to produce the next album. This week I mastered an EDM track and the client said the bass was was "absolutely fantastic". In other words, without SW3 I don't believe I would be having these results. I hope this helps.
 
However.... I'm assuming your room is treated adequately?? If not, analyse your room and update the treatment first - grab a free copy of Room EQ Wizard here  and a flat omni mic. Monitor correction software only really works with an already treated room...   
 
Hope this helps!
 
Gary

Thanks Gary! My control room is treated but it's small and nearly square. If I run into problems it always seems to be in the lows, say from 80 or so down. I just might try the Sonarworks and see if there is a significant difference.

I agree that the bass is more controlled with Sonarworks. The bass is a little flabby (woolly?)  with Arc.
 
The Sonarworks setup is easier than Arc. An on-screen graphic shows you where to move the mic, then it starts the measurement automatically when it has sensed that the mic is in the requested position.
 
Sonarworks: Having one plugin in your master with the ability to switch between headphone curve or speaker curve
is great.
 
Arc:  A little more flexible with setting up a user-defined EQ. I like to boost the highs a little for my aged ears.
Sonarworks needs a little improvement in the user-defined EQ options. 
 
Sonarworks: The new zero-latency mode is an excellent feature.
Sonarworks says that it may use more cpu in that mode but I have not noticed this (yet).