Does either the Bluesound 2i or mini have its own room correction built in? I know the Flex does not.
I want to replace a Sonos 5 that I like SQ wise but hate that it can’t synch music with the rest of my system. I’m happy with the 2 Bluesound Flex’ I got to replace it in the kitchen, but they don’t sound quite as good and definitely could use some EQ. I haven’t delved into how that might be done yet, but I like how the Sonos does its own tuning with its app.
Thx
Since you’re in a Roon forum, I assume you are using Roon as the source and control for your Bluesound 2i. If so, you can use Roon DSP to do whatever room correction or EQ you want. There is also the ability to upsample via HQPlayer but that is probably not useful since I believe the Bluesound DAC is limited to 24/96.
I have Flex 2 and Pulse Mini 2 and used to have Node 2 and PowerNode 2. Although they are version 2 and not 2i I think that the only change for 2i was the addition of Airplay.
The ‘DSP’ in all of these is the same - just basic bass and treble controls - which are set, by default, to be bypassed.
There’s nothing like the Sonos auto tuning feature.
The simplest way to do a more sophisticated EQ would be to use the Parametric Equaliser features in Roon. This allows for much more flexibility than the Bass and Treble controls in the Bluesound app.
The best way (IMHO) would be to use software like REW to create filters which could then be imported into Ron. You would also need to get a calibrated measurement microphone. Using this method you would measure the actual response of the speaker in the room and correct it to whatever response you wanted. More work than the Sonos method - but you see what;s happening and you get to choose the sound balance that you want.
Thanks both of you!
A simple or parametric EQ would be enough for the kitchen speakers. I haven’t explored the DSP aspect of Roon. I just use the defaults. My main home theater/audio receiver uses Arc and I usually turn it off for music anyway.
But the kitchen speakers end up being kind of boomy.
Unsurprisingly, I had a similar problem with a wall mounted BS Flex in the kitchen - I ended up with the following adjustment from a combination of measuring and listening. Obviously your environment and therefore measurements will likely be different but perhaps it might be a starting point:
Frequency = 135Hz, Gain -6.5dB, Q=1.2 (Type Peak/dip)