Is DEQX a game changer?

Just read Kal's review of the DEQX and a few things stood out.

For those of you concerned about 24/192, it looks like the DEQX downsamples (right word?) it to 24/96. As for the other DAC measurements, looks like there is room for jitter improvement. Might be worth looking into a reclocker like the Wyred4Sound Remedy, or a pricier one.

I was very interested to read that the speaker correction and calibration seemed to make a larger impact than room correction in Kal's set-up. Though Kal also suggested that with more time and effort, better room correction and EQing could be achieved. Of course the smaller impact of room correction could also be because Kal has a well treated room already.

Oddly enough, Kal decided not to rip the crossovers out of his speakers to evaluate the DEQX ability to replace passive crossovers. Huh, go figure. :)

This thread and Kal's review certainly have me intrigued. I came to this looking at DEQX as quite similar to my DSPeaker Dual Core 2.0 as a DSP room correction device, but it seems to offer considerably more than that (Kal I'd be most interested in your thoughts on the DEQX relative to the Dual Core if you'd care to share them). Though I also felt grateful for the ease of interface on the Dual Core, after reading about the steep DEQX learning curve.

From other threads and forums, it also seems that the manual EQing possibilities can potentially change the character of a speaker, allowing home users to tweak the voicing of the speaker. Still hoping to somewhere find a useful tutorial on what bumps and valleys at what points on the frequency spectrum have what impacts on a speaker's sound. But it may be possible to have presets that equate to a more forward or laid back sound, etc. Very intriguing. For example, wonder how much Kal's Brystons could be made to sound like his B&Ws or vice versa by using something like the DEQX.

^I'm both surprised and a bit disappointed that it doesn't maintain native 24/192.
Would be great if they could offer high powered, high current mono amps with direct digital inputs.

Responding to Roscoeiii - using the 4 DEQX presets as part of the setup process, this has been my experience over the past 2 1/2 years:

1. With DEQX processing switched out of the system, I thought music sounded OK but imaging was rather flat and 2 dimensional. The subs were blended pretty well but occasionally a particular low frequency jumped out or there was some boxiness or a dip. The speakers didn't cope so well with the different frequency wavelengths and room reflections, as well as imperfect time alignment between the drivers themselves

2. With just DEQX speaker correction (I use active crossovers sub-mid-treble) the system sounds very different, images become much more pin-point and the soundstage sounds more natural. Music starts to sound 'realistic'

3. With time correction added (set manually after measuring) it is like turning the focus on a lens and at the right setting the difference is quite stunning, even from the last stage above. Images sit in a believable 3D soundstage (if on the original recording). The acoustics of the recording venue become very apparent for the first time. Vocals sound like the performer in front of the listening seat and even in a complex passage you can hear all the instruments individually and clearly. This is not like being at a live venue however (which I do A LOT), I guess it must be more like being in the original recording studio

4. Room equalisation becomes almost unnecessary even though at stage 1 there were dropouts and humps, especially in the bass. At most I have only needed +/- 2db in a few of the lower frequencies. Switching room eq in/out actually makes relatively little difference. With this in place, I have a system that betters anything else I have heard in over 40 years of trying. Not to say that there isn't something better of course

I use 3 of the 4 preset settings to subtly alter bass response to accommodate different recordings (some albums are bass light, others heavy) - listening most of the time to setting 2 of 4 which is 'flat'. The final preset (same settings as preset 1) uses very steep crossover slopes which give faster dynamics and transient attack on an appropriate recording or when I feel like it!

Time delays have a very marked impact on a speakers' output and in fact you can tailor the sound quite dramatically using this alone. Delaying mid-treble to sub-bass slightly longer than 'correct' will create a quite pleasant 'growl' to bass guitars if that is what you want. Likewise it is worth tweaking the sound slightly beyond 'flat' to give exactly what you prefer...always retaining a smooth response, unaffected by the room in any way. That is a real benefit of DEQX - you only hear the recording via natural sounding speakers, not the room you are in. If you use low order crossover slopes, music is generally more laid back whereas with the steepest slopes, transients can become quite spectacular. Yes, a more forward or laid back sound can easily be produced from any given set of speakers, in fact I have discovered that you can tailor to EXACTLY what you want. For me, DEQX combined with Open Baffle speakers and subs does that

Answering the final point about different brands of speakers, I tried that too back in 2012 (B&W, Shahinian, Royd, Castle, some floorstanders, some not) and in 3 different rooms. All end up sounding remarkably similar which makes sense I suppose because you start the process measuring (outdoors in my case) and calibrating 'flat' and then again in the room. DEQX creates a set of filters that replicate the same 'flat' response, adjusting driver phase and timing accordingly for each type so the end result is much closer than you would expect

I implied it previously in this thread but I will repeat it again - DEQX repays the effort you put into understanding it fully as long as you take advantage of everything it has to offer. This is as near to ideal as I could possibly hope for and in the past few years I tend to just listen to the music itself. Isn't that the whole point of this?

Thanks for that very informative post on your experiences. Super helpful.

Drewan77
Your post makes me want a DEQX. Thanks for pulling all your experiences into one here.