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 mapman

Yes looks like that particular device is analog in and out only, so that’s how it works. You will have to try it and assess the results.  

Room correction is a must tweak for most any case where one expects best results with given acoustics, so doing it is a no brainer IMHO.   I’m confident the Mac device will do it well including A/D and D/A conversions needed. 

If you have analog  sources (phono, tape) this is pretty much the only way to roll!

I think you are on a good path, just do it right.  Good luck!

FWIW I have both analog and digital sources but do almost all my playback via streamer.  I convert analog vinyl and tape to digital using Audacity freeware (play once, stream many) and have no issues with the results compared to original analog source. The digital conversion captures all the nuances of the analog source perfectly.    Then I use Roon DSP for 1) room correction + 2) tweak the sound to my personal preference in each of several rooms in my house.   So been there done it and the results are beyond anything practically achievable in lieu of DSP.  I get every room tuned in perfectly to my ears which is a wonderful thing.