First of all, I am really pleased with all the new features in 1.3. Finally a product I could use for all my needs. One thing I miss in the parametric eq section is to be able to set values below 20Hz. I understand that this is beyond normal human hearing but between let say 14 and 20Hz there is a lot of information on spacial clues etc. and it is also an area sensitive to room modes that have to be addressed. One other thing, It would nice to see which EQ preset is active.
@Sander_Kattenbelt: I too, would like to eq below 20hz. In addition to the reasons cited by Sander_Kattenbelt, the LFE channel spec goes well below 20hz. There are a number of movies that go down there and Iāve got useful response below 20hz in my system.
@NOA: It does seem that way. Perhaps itās down to the folks at Roon having higher priorities. Iām fairly certain few Roon customers have useful response below 20hz and also use the built-in eq.
FWIW, Iāve been mightily impressed with the effectiveness of Dirac. Itās pulled me away from correcting the sound as I had been doing, which was to use Omnimic to tell me what numbers to enter into Roonās eq. One of Diracās main strengths is that it not only addresses eq, it addresses timing. Dirac makes the point that a system with clearly audible (i.e. damaging to realism) timing issues can yield a flat frequency response, so that achieving a flat frequency responseāas Iād been trying to do with Omnimic/Diracāis not a satisfactory approach. More to the point, my best results results with Dirac clearly sound more āright,ā more natural, than my best results with Omnimic data entered into Roonās eq. I say this realizing that Roon has audio correction capabilities beyond the eq I was using, but when I looked into how I might take advantage, it seemed too challenging for my present skill set.
Also, the way Dirac is made available (e.g. in preamps sections, standalone preamps, separate processors) it can be applied to more sources than the limited number of sources that Roonās eq touches (i.e. just the sources within Roon).
At least I know that Dirac exists and Iāve heard some reviews about it. Unfortunately I do not use a device that allows me to use Dirac for a try, and because apart from a stereo system with a lot of boxes already Iām dealing with the added 7.2.4 system. So I struggle to go for another box / system solution.
I basically can agree from my experience that ANY EQ in place degrades organic sound performance, but especially āautomatedā ones like measuring some points and using convolution. Full range also is a no go.
Iām using REW for basic measurement and apply EQ (quite many bands) but exclusively manually while respecting excess group delay phase issues as well as the most important measure- the ears- with going back and forth over weeks when something changes in m system, until itās satisfying. Mainly to address room modes im my concrete bunker, and nothing above 200 Hz. This way the upsides are greater than the downsides. A good compromise, as most of the time. Important is a very good power supply and cable for a capable Roon server once DSP gets it into higher CPU usage.