Room correction room system vs ears….

No preamp? Dac straight to amp I’m guessing? 

@mesch I am with those recommending to treat the room 1st.  I made my own panels using rockwool 60 in 2x4' sheets 2" thick framed with 1x2" pine and covered with fine burlap fabric.. To start I would place them at the 1st reflection points on side walls, behind speakers and behind the listening chair if the back wall is close. another 1+ regarding room treatment and locating speakers in the room before buying DSP or whatever.

+1 with Mesch regarding building your room treatments on your own. Much less expensive and you build just what is needed for your individual hearing. 

+1 on working on speaker location. Never had a perfect room that fit with a golden triangle, etc. You can google this stuff and it is just a place to start. Would recommend checking out Zu Audio speaker placement. They have a slightly different approach and I thought it helped me. Right now, one of my speakers is within two feet of the side and front walls. The other speaker is further out in the room and actually closer to my listening position. The sound is balanced with a wide soundstage. Small tweaks until it is "perfect". 

Thanks for listening

Dsper 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I've used digital room correction for years, first as a plug-in to Foobar2000, and now with Minidsp's Dirac Live box. I rent and am a fixed-income. The former means I deal with rooms that are sub-optimal, acoustically. The latter restricts how much I can spend. The Dirac Live box corrects both frequency and time domains, and for my application, it's well worth it.

The weakest link in most stereos I've heard has been the room. I'd do room correction before I upgraded anything else, but budgets and rooms vary, so YMMV.

The goal in room treatment should be a reflected flat response. Yes, absorb the bass but don't also absorb the high frequencies. Just disperse them so they can't ring. I really like racks of LPs as my main treatment. Bookshelves can also help.

In my custom listening room, I have built in bass traps.  I end with a live room, treated on walls, ceilings and floors with absorptive materials.  Trying the same on front and rear walls decimated the dynamics and high frequencies.  I chose to use Synergistic HFT system throughout the room which are rather inconspicuous and tame the high frequencies in front and rear adequately by dispersing them.  So no ringing and a delayed response from hard wood reflective surfaces.