Equal loudness contour

Feedback Feature Suggestions
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Hello @brian,

If you may, I would like a second chance to state my* case. :nerd_face:

(*And there are obviously more like me and the OP, observed here and recalling my days at the JRiver community.)

TL;DR:
Loudness good. DSP Volume not the worst compromise for those who want it.

Why:

  1. I want to use Roon for all/most of my DSPā€™s needs
  2. Loudness contour is a major DSP need, and its contribution to SQ and perceptual FR is substantial!
  3. I find myself at night lowering the volume, find the FR lacking and then subsequently raising and playing with the bass manually. Annoying and nonideal.

How:
The case for good enough in our limited world.
It is entirely sensible (and even technically obvious) for this function (Equal Loudness) to be available only with DSP Volume and require SPL measurements (Which are very short and easy to follow btw)

JRiver clearly states that:

To use Loudness, you must also use Internal Volume.

About the DSP Volume requirement if wanting to use Loudness:

  1. I donā€™t mind using DSP Volume full time. Really donā€™t and I bet many donā€™t as well.

  2. Besides - do some quick to switch ā€œNight modeā€ and ppl could switch quickly between their otherwise preferred volume choice and DSP Volume + Loudness for listening at night or below reference level (talk about deviceā€™s volume in a sec).

  3. Or even better - allow multiple zones (as profiles) per device (i.e. multiple zones for the same device, or introduce ā€œprofilesā€ for zones) which would allow us to have one zone with Loudness and DSP Volume and one with a different Volume control (or any other zone/DSP settings we want to easily switch between with minimum interruption to currently playing music) by simply using the current zone transfer functionality (image). Multiple Wins. How about that? :slight_smile:

  4. Deviceā€™s volume - When I want to listen to below reference level and still have good perceptual frequency response it is up to me to set my deviceā€™s volume accordingly. Very reasonable. It is easy to remember the level I took the reference measurements with.

  5. Why hold up on important functionality which does make a lot of sense to have in Roon for a lot of customers just because other customers might prefer using their endpoint volume? Not to mention that with the ideas described in item 2+3 we all can have easy access to both worlds!

So what do we achieve?

  1. With the basic implementation (no quick switch): Help the customers who appreciate warm sound and good frequency response at all SPL levels and donā€™t mind using DSP Volume for it, or are already using DSP Volume anyway for their reasons.

  2. WITHOUT impacting in any way those who donā€™t care for it or care for their preferred volume choice more.

  3. With the quick-switch functionality: A nice workaround which practically allows both worlds to be available to us quickly, as needed.

  4. With the multiple zones per device -or- ā€˜Zoneā€™s profilesā€™: Another post I need to write in the Feature Requests section :stuck_out_tongue:

Roon is all about music, SQ, flexibility and un-obstructive advanced options right? If anything, missing Loudness is a Roon anomaly considering all the other expert functions it exposes for those who appreciate it.

Case. Rest. I.

:heartbeat:

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