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

It's why I don't really bother with room correction or damping; I optimize speaker positioning and go directly to enjoying music. I'm far less interested in tweaking about than I used to--I'm a red giant in astronomical terms, at the end of my long audiophile life.
Kristian85 (Reviews | Answers)

What I'm having trouble understanding is this statement taken with your previous statement about the desirability of a flat in-room response.

04-23-10: Kristian85
In-room response is absolutely desirable. What I cannot abide are speakers with messy FR and dispersion curves as that can only worsen in-room FR.

How do you know after you have positioned your speakers that you have attained the desired flat in-room response?

Do you measure the in-room response to verify that it's flat, or do you go by ear?

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

So you did EQ to flat and it does not sound good, I would agree with that statement. Then you said "the oppurtunity to A/B the options"

What are the options? If you do not want a flat response, what do you want?

Bob

Tvad said, "How do you measure your room to determine if you have a flat response? I am interested to learn from your experience."

Try REW at the Home Theater Shack. It is free. A Radio Shack SPL meter can be used for 20 to 2000hz, or you can go full range with a clibrated mic. The meter is around $40 or a calibrated mic around $100. Then it is the free progam and a laptop.

Bob

Bob,

If you do not want flat, what do you want?

Output gently falling as frequency increases from app 100hz to 8 or 10khz, flat above that. Flat to gently rising below 100hz to the lowest limit of system response (app. 25hz in my case). Tricky to achieve without multiple and/or EQ'd subs.

Simply a personal preference. We're talking a couple a three db spread over just over 6 octaves (with something vaguely like a 2 db offset rising in the bottom 2 1/2 octaves) for the most "natural" sound in my room (and, actually, the other two rooms that I've measured extensively) to my ears. All of the listening rooms I've measured strike me as just a touch bright when response is perfectly flat - so I chalk this up to personal preference.

Marty

So you did EQ to flat and it does not sound good, I would agree with that statement. Then you said "the oppurtunity to A/B the options"

What are the options? If you do not want a flat response, what do you want?

Bob
Acoustat6 (Threads | Answers)

The option at the time I owned the Audio Control C-101 (with calibrated mic) was to press a bypass switch that took the EQ out of the system, thereby enabling me to hear the music with and without the EQ...hence the statement about the opportunity to A/B the options.

Bob, I own a Radio Shack Db meter as well as a Stereophile test tone CD and the Rives Audio test tone CD with corrected test tones for use with the RS meter.

See Almarg's post earlier in the thread with his explanation of why the RS meter is not useful for measuring in room response.

In any case, I'm no longer interested in measuring frequency response in my system. I've been there, done that, and much prefer setting up my system and speakers to produce sound that I find pleasing rather than what might be more technically correct for an objectivist, which I am not.