How do I use Room EQ Wizard to position speakers? Or: Come throw rocks at the idiot

Discussion in 'Measurement Techniques Discussion' started by NationOfLaws, May 12, 2020.

  1. NationOfLaws

    NationOfLaws Friend

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    I built my new Bottlehead Jägers which are far and away the nicest speakers I've ever had and probably the last pair I'll buy for my main system in the next decade. I'd read previously that you could use software like Room EQ Wizard plus a microphone to determine the best place to position the speakers. So I bought a MiniDSP UMIK-1and downloaded Room EQ Wizard.

    Here's the problem: I have no f'ing clue what I'm doing.

    Here are some details that might help you help me (if you want): Room EQ Wizard is running on a 2008 Mac Pro tower, which is feeding a Bifrost 2 Multibit. That same tower runs iTunes/Spotify/Tidal/Qobuz. The Bifrost is hooked up to a Bottlehead BeePre, which in turn is connected to a Bottlehead Kaiju running the woofers and a Stereomour II running the tweeters. This entire system is listened to by me, an idiot.

    Can anyone explain to me, the idiot, how to use the setup I have to get meaningful data on my speakers and then uh do stuff to make things better?
     
  2. Dr J

    Dr J Friend

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    There are a couple of threads on this, but not necessarily with a 101-type walkthrough. Searching room equalisation, room acoustics, speaker placement and room treatment should scare up a few threads.

    MiniDSP has a really simple application note on using UMIK and REW. REW help explains a fair bit also. But you need to understand basics of acoustics.

    Couple of quick staring pointers from me, and the questions and responses around these are on the topic:

    Links to basics of acoustics:

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...eatment-soundproofing.1359/page-3#post-125400

    Basics of acoustics and measurements and speaker placement:

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...purpose-advice-thread.19/page-241#post-152718

    More stuff

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/acoustic-treatment-soundproofing.1359/

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/digital-room-correction-drc-discussion.4772/
     
  3. NationOfLaws

    NationOfLaws Friend

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    Cool, thanks for that. I did a cursory search but was mostly looking at thread titles. I'll start with these.
     
  4. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    Me too!!!

    seriously though, what you will be able to do with that measurement setup will be (realistically keeping things simple) two big things in speaker placement:
    • identify room nodes
    • correct frequency response to match a predetermined response curve (house curve)
    By moving the speakers around and measuring and re-measuring (and re-measuring, and remeasuring) you'll begin to see what affect the interaction between the speaker position and (mostly) bass response at the listening/measurement position. Using the REW room calculator, you can then estimate where the constructive and destructive modes will least affect response. Otherwise, you can just move the speakers around bit by bit until that massive 16db hump at 70-ish Hz calms down. (Hint, it might not, no matter where you move the speakers since some room modes are based on woofer height and floor-to-ceiling height and listening seat height).

    The next step is to generate an EQ curve that corrects the measured response to be your desired "house curve" or, the fancy name for it in DSP-land "convolution". Google for "Roon REW convolution" and follow Roon's instructions, they're really, really great for folks who have never done stuff like this before.

    Now, given your chain, you're going to need something hardware- or software-based to apply the EQ settings, or convolution. Personally, I used Roon's built in DSP convolution for eq curves to manage bass below 120Hz in my room. I don't touch anything above 120Hz, but I also adjusted some of the filters to taste. Every room is different, and you're going to need to experiment with where in the frequency response you do or don't EQ. Another option is to export the convolution filter as text values and manually apply the Hz, dB, and Q of each parametric EQ band to some hardware or software based PEQ.

    I'm sure that probably sounds confusing, but it's really not too bad.
     

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