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Room Correction Device for Khorn setup?


Ki Choi

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  • 2 months later...

No, but FWIW, I use a TacT RCS 2.2XP room correction preamp and S 2150 digital power amp with RF-7's and a sub.

I consider it a "killer" combination and one of hifi's best-kept secrets. Most TacT users wouldn't consider Klipsch and vice-versa, so I think I'm just lucky to have stumbled on this very synergistic combo.

I won't change until I can afford Avantgardes, and then only if a careful listen convinces me it's worth the $$ involved in that upgrade.

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Just curious.... It seems like these RCS devices adjust to single listening sweet spot position. If so does the system sound better or worse everywhere else? One of the things I appreciate about the Khorn is that the reproduction sounds great everywhere. When in a different room it sounds as though there's a concert going on in the music room. Other systems sound beamy. They're great sitting in just the right place but leave that and they go flat.

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A parametric (not graphic) EQ can sometimes help alot; Old SAE's were pretty good in their time.

I'm looking into this unit below for my Christmas present.... I'm trying to get with a dealer to get a "loaner" to test.

Kosmos® V2 Generator-Processor
MSRP: $299.99

Second generation sub harmonic and stereo enhancement system drastically improves the listening experience in any space-with any sound system. Replace lost atmosphere and stereo separation as well as that kick in the gut bass that gets lost in the normal system chain.

Features

Second generation sub bass generator/audio processor

Controls for sub harmonics, low frequency, high frequency, output level and sub output level

Damping, crossover disable, cut subs from main switches

Mono sum switch

Ins/Outs XLR & TRS

Sub out TRS balanced

1RU
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The thought came to me reading about the RCS device driving two corner subs with mid/high drivers out in the room being the recommended setup. The Khorn bass bin had to be the one of the best best performer living in the corners but I had no control over the room acoustics and the time variables between the bass driver and the rest of the speaker systems. It would be ideal if I can keep the Khorn bass bins in the corners and place the best mid/high combo such as Trachorn 400/K55V+CP25s with the AA crossovers positioned for the best imaging possible and let the RCS device manage the delays, phase shifts, and all the other anomallities associated with disjointed speaker drivers.

Although I don't own a TACT device to confirm but the software measures different parts of the room responses as well as the sweet spot to come up with the numerous curves to choose from.

I believe whenever one manipulates the source, there are losses and unwanted gains to the signal in comnparison to the simpler setup with best transparency possible. Thus, I was hesitant to add it to my system but I guess I won't know for certain, until I give it a try in my own room.

Ki

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Hmmm...

People believe what they want to believe.

"Equal loudness curves" huh?

Bottom line. You cannot EQ non-minimum phase signals. EQ does not correct room anomalies. You can only EQ direct signals.

Also, measuring the frequency response of a room at a particular point, inverting the phase and re-applying the signal does NOT correct for non-minimum phase based anomolies appearing in the frequency domain caused by superposition! You cannot correct for comb filtering with an EQ! And I don't care HOW good the EQ is!

FIR filters are being employed in a very limited fashion in DSP equalizing minimum phase regions of the frequency response. Beyond that, EQ CANNOT be used to correct for time based superposition of direct and reflected signals.

But don't argue with me, debate Dick Heyser and Don Davis - the originator of the 1/3 octave EQ!

Let's see, we can choose to do audio via physics, or we can do it via marketing. One is easier to do - and as you don't have to actually justify it via rigoraous analysis, its easier to sell too! Oh, BTW, I have some directional wire for sale I can let you have for an excellent price! And it makes bi-wired speakers just sing!!

But I will admit, that it provides for a great marketing gimmick. And it happens to be the hot ticket being pushed right now! Many companies need some strategic advantage to differentiate their product and their marketing departments have hit on this gimmick! After all, thats where the money is! Just look at the interconnect niche! And unfortunately this I precisely the basis for a few firms that many like to trash so easily without even understanding why! I fear that here we are witnesing the opposite effect! We are here embracing FM (as I can't call it legitimate technology) without understanding why as well!

Sarcasm? Not me! I read it in a marketing brochure! It must be true! [:P]

Sorry folks, I wish it were true.... I wish I could keep a straight face and charge for recharging crystals too! And I will even keep them under a pyramid for an extra day or two! And I even have the degrees to add legitimacy! It must be true!

I hate to be the resident curmudgeon, but hey, someone has to do it! [:P] [;)]

Have fun...

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Ah! the resident curmudgeon! Love curmudgeons.....

Joking aside, help us a bit with the education process:[8-|]

"Equal loudness curves" huh?

Bottom line. You cannot EQ non_minimum phase signals. EQ does not correct room anomalies. You can only EQ direct signals.

Also, measuring the frequency response of a room at a particular point, inverting the phase and re_applying the signal does NOT correct for non_minimum phase based anomolies appearing in the frequency domain caused by superposition! You cannot correct for comb filtering with an EQ! And I don't care HOW good the EQ is!

Superposition being the overlaying of the phase inverted signal?

FIR filters are being employed in a very limited fashion in DSP equalizing minimum phase regions of the frequency response. Beyond that, EQ CANNOT be used to correct for time based superposition of direct and reflected signals.

Can you explain a little bit about FIR & DSP.

But don't argue with me, debate Dick Heyser and Don Davis _ the originator of the 1/3 octave EQ!

No argument from me; help again,... Of what use, even if minimal, would an EQ be to us? If any, what kind? This is assuming we cannot afford to remodel or "treat" the room at this point?

BTW, I have some directional wire for sale I can let you have for an excellent price! And it makes bi_wired speakers just sing!!

Nah, thanks though! I just got some.......[;)]

Sorry folks, I wish it were true.... I wish I could keep a straight face and charge for recharging crystals too! And I will even keep them under a pyramid for an extra day or two! And I even have the degrees to add legitimacy! It must be true!

Extra for the pyramid? No way!...........[:^)]

I hate to be the resident curmudgeon, but hey, someone has to do it!

At least we have a curmudgeon of Dickensian proportions to beat us about the head and shoulders on occasion.... [:D]

Have fun...

That, I can assure you, we are doing (moving speakers, rugs, etc., around) and with all due attention and speed to re-connecting things properly (in phase...)[<:o)]

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I work for a company that supplies probes and instruments to acquire eddy current signals beyond audiable frequency range for non-distructive inspection of nulcear steam generator tubes using only the best physics. Fortunately, we haven't need to resort to the directional pure gold wires with high tech geometric braiding yet. ;-) But then again, may be I am discounting the need to use the best technology to protect all of us from the next nuclear accident due to neclear steam generator tube leaks...

On the other hand, the Room Correction System is more than the typical marketing hype I believe.

There are many info on the Net but try this one as a starter.

http://www.roomcorrection.com/

I think we need curmudgeons with reality check here and elsewhere. I am lucky and can depend on my teenage daughter to tell me the truth...

Ki

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Yikes, if that roomcorrection site doesn't read like an ad, I dunno what does. I agree with most of their "physics", even impressed by them measuring the impulse responses, but they fail to explain how their technology works. I already know PEQ doesn't work. [6]

Here's a really good source on room acoustics... [;)]

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/thread/796165.aspx

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My 11th grade Physics teacher was a really cool guy from Ecuador that made me tapes of Gerry Mulligan and Pauls Desmond and Chambers all the time after he heard me try to play jazz at a school assembly the year before. He was in his 60's, drove an RX-7, was rich from publishing Chemistry textbooks in Latin America, and had adopted my Granny's Siamese cat that was destroying her house.

I'll never forget his first lesson of the course. I can still hear him with his accent, "Mr. Clarke, there is no such thing as a free lunch!!"

His lesson was meant to apply to a broad concept (a freeish Klipsch bumper sticker to the first to guess what that concept is), but it has stuck with me for years and applies to room acoustics problems among many other things in life.

If the room's wrong, you have to fix the room. Or compensate the system to one position, then don't move when you listen. At all.

JBL's pushing this pretty big time with their LSR monitors. I'm sure it can help, but even Harman wouldn't claim it cures all...

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Superposition being the overlaying of the phase inverted signal?

This is how it was explained to me...

So you've got the direct sound of a speaker and the reflected sound.

You CAN EQ the direct sound. However, all of the dips and peaks you see

as a result of the reflected sound CANNOT. For a very simple analogy,

you have a speaker sitting 3 feet from the side wall playing a 90Hz

tone. The sound eminates from the speaker in all directions causing a

reflection off the side wall to arrive at the listening position -

about 6ms late and 180 degrees out of phase (since the wavelength of 90Hz is 12 feet). You end up with a dip in

the measured frequency response. Looking at the measurement, it would

seem logical to add 6dB of boost at 90Hz to get rid of this dip.

However, by increasing the direct sound you are also increasing the

reflected sound by the same amount...no matter how much boost you

apply, you won't get rid of the dip (in this overly simple analogy

anyway).

But you also need to take into account that the dip is only going to

happen during the steady state; not during the first 6ms, nor the last

6ms. By adjusting for the steady state response, you are completely

ignoring the transient response - and we all know how important

transients are in music. By adding 6dB of boost, you're essentially

boosting the first and last 6ms by 6dB while doing nothing to the sound

inbetween (except adding distortion)

No argument from me; help again,... Of what use, even if minimal,

would an EQ be to us? If any, what kind? This is assuming we cannot

afford to remodel or "treat" the room at this point?

EQ is best left for tailoring the direct response of the speaker - as would be measured in an anechoic chamber.

mas will probably hate me for saying this, perhaps rightfully so

considering the huge amount of misinformation out there, but some EQ

can be used to improve the sound in a room where the acoustics can't be

treated. Is it ideal? Heck no. But it's certainly something that can be

employed. The annoying thing about it is that you'll find yourself

wanting to tweak things slightly for every CD. What you will also find

is that rarely will good sounding EQ's measure well. To think of it

another way, you're basically tailoring the direct sound of the

recording to excite your room in a less annoying way.

But to stress the point - though EQ might subjectively improve the

sound quality, you're going to realize much much much much larger

improvements by properly treating the room. Think of EQ as just

changing the color of car, whereas proper treatment is moving to a

better car altogether.

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