Digital Room Correction: Where in the chain?


I’ve been contemplating the purchase of the McIntosh MEN220. I have a challenging room, and I’ve done my best with equipment placement, furnishings, and room treatments. My listening is 80% digital (streaming and discs), 20% vinyl. My digital chain is Roon/Qobuz, Lumin U2 Mini, Denafrips Pontus II 15th, McIntosh C-53, MC312, B&W702 S3 and REL T/7x. Transport is the MCT500 to the C-53 via din connector.


My hesitation is that the MEN220 requires an analog to digital to analog conversion. It seems like it would be best to apply any and all DSP in the upstream digital before my respectable DAC does the conversion.  Is this midstream ADA negating my digital front end? Is there inherent loss in the extra conversion cycle?  Or am I thinking about this wrong?

mattsca

Showing 1 response by drkenl

If you have Roon you can use the DSP engine called Muse.  REW and rePhase can be used to create filters that implement room correction.  However, there is a steep learning curve to do this well, but you can create free custom filters to better the sound.  There are online tutorials on Roon and YouTube.  Good luck!