Room Correction - Roon + REW (Room EQ Wizard)

My preamp/headphone amp in the office is the incredible Benchmark HPA4.When I play the 2 channel system the Convolution files are enabled. When I play the headphones I must turn off the Comvolution on ROON since the files were optimized for my speakers and not my Meze Empy headphones.

I outsourced the creation of Convolution files to AccousticSound.ca.
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/what-is-accurate-sound-r923/

They gave me instructions on creating the room measurements using REW (free) and the miniDSP UMIK-1 ($100). The cost of the service was $500 for the file creation work and $200 for a one time usage of Audiolense (or Accurate). I went with these guys because of the complexity of learning and properly using Audiolense (or Accurate). They do that work not me.

This is my office system.
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7605

A big Thiel CS3.7 speaker in a small acoustically treated room. The system was sounding pretty good but I was getting fatigue during some listening sessions. I would sometimes doze off. Not ear fatigue but just fatigue from a bigish speaker in a small room.

Now after the convolution files was added to my ROON server the improvement in the sound is stunning. I would say today I have my system at a 10/10 and prior to the convolution files it now feels like a 5/10.

So far, I only have 1 convolution file created and it sounds amazing, I have paid for 5 more so I am trying to figure out what I would like changed for a new file. Rather difficult to complain about anything. There are some industry standard curves, like Harmen, that I will likely get created for me. I just plug whatever convolution file I want to use into the ROON DSP engine.

Another amazing reason for me to have a lifetime subscription to ROON (since 2015).

I've given REW 2 tries so far. The first time was pretty bad because I had no idea what I was doing. The second time was much better - it's a complex piece of software and there are lots of things you can play with. Something still seemed "off" the second time, but it did show that is has a lot of potential.

I have some bad room modes here, so I still prefer to not use it, because I currently, have some acoustic treatment on the way that should help tame some of the room problems - it's a room with sharp corners, hard surfaces (one wall is mostly glass), and high ceilings. Once that's in place, I'm going to give REW another run and am very optimistic of the results.

Long term, I'm probably going to upgrade my DAC. The one that I'm looking at has DSP capabilities and can run Dirac Live. Will likely A-B that against my REW convolution filters just for fun to see who did a better job.

I implemented Roon convolution filters developed from REW; sounds fantastic.  Most cost effective room correction you can do.

I have run a convolution with REW and used it, but it is subtle and I really don’t use it. I suspect my room needs treatments that EQ alone won’t fix

Hi 1markr,

I'm in the same situation, main system in our living room, some room treatment (absorbers) at the far end (and a Xmas tree now :).

Actually quite satisfied but always wonder about how to maximize potential under given circumstances.

Thanks for your response.

PAH

Absolutely have to say that Roon and REW are a game changer for me in my family room. I’d love to be able to treat my room properly, but because my system is in a main living space, physical treatment options are limited. Using REW to generate a convolution .wav file to reduce a few nasty bass peaks (btw, never use it to boost any frequency ramge), along with a nasty 3k to 4KHz peak, has made my system tremendously enjoyable and addictive! I can’t see moving away from this setup!

I have not, but all of my experience shows that room acoustics + EQ are better than EQ alone. :)

Good luck!