Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

I remember one time using an Audio Control C-101 equalizer to EQ my system's room response so it measured flat. The Audio Control unit came with a microphone and automatic EQ software to enable this to be done.

The funny thing is the results absolutely sucked, and the Audio Control manual (which is perhaps the best manual I've ever read...helpful and humorous at the same time) said they'd probably suck.

I'd be very surprised if most listeners would really prefer flat room response given the opportunity to A/B the options.

Good hearing does not have a flat response.
http://www.engr.uky.edu/~donohue/audio/fsear.html

a setup that produces measured flat frequency response at the listening position is wrong "a priori."

Best regards,
-- Al
Almarg (Answers)

By *set up* are you referring specifically to the EQ I used, or by *set up* are you including any system that measures flat at the listening position?

By *set up* are you referring specifically to the EQ I used, or by *set up* are you including any system that measures flat at the listening position?

Any system, unless the measurement equipment is extremely sophisticated and has response characteristics in the time domain that closely correspond to those of our hearing mechanisms.

In other words, a system that produces measured flat frequency response at the listening position, based on test tones, will give equal weight to sound that arrives via the direct path from speakers to listening position, and sound that arrives via reflected paths from walls and furniture.

But our ears don't work that way -- consider the Haas Effect, for example, which describes the fact that, within certain limits, our hearing mechanisms give greater emphasis to early arriving sounds than to later arriving sounds (which are presumably reflections).

And adding to that is the fact that even in the frequency domain the directional characteristics of our ears are unlikely to match those of the measuring microphone. So the microphone will "hear" reflections from side walls, for example, differently than our ears will.

Best regards,
-- Al

Its true our ears are sensitive detectors of sound.

Try the old test of listening normally and with hands cupped behind the ears to see how much difference can be heard in response to a small change.

Al, what you describe seems to me to be an argument against the goal of a system that measures flat in-room since the measuring is inaccurate, unless there's some measurement device that avoids or compensates for reflected sound. Otherwise, the measuring exercise seems futile.

Why do we bother with our Radio Shack decibel meters and test tone CDs?

Personally, I haven't bothered with mine in more than a year. I just listen and go with what pleases me.

I'm an anti-audiophile, I suppose.