HAF - Home Audio Fidelity (Room Correction / convolution filter creation)

So Thierry will do 2 sets of filters, that’s a good idea I’ll need to ask him when I get round to re-doing my measurements.

As it’s very easy to swap the HAF filters around in Roon that would be a simple choice :+1:

Okay. Let’s just say it. I’ve been hesitating for months. Thierry’s been enormously helpful. Really, can’t say anything else. But my filters just were so disappointing. Took the life out of everything I played. Replayed, replayed, replayed. Thought it had to be me, because of all the raving reviews here. But sorry, when it sounds like #$@!, it probably is just that.

Bottomline: trust your own ears. I’ll wait for this to mature some more. That’s just my opinion. Sorry about that. I’m just not a believer. Yet. Perhaps the measurements weren’t done right. But that was my point all along the way. Then just make it happen: provide some fool proof way of measuring that can’t go wrong. Whole in the market. Roon team anyone? :wink:

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Hi @Grump!

Absolutely! Just because measurements tell you everything should sound better now, doesn’t mean your ears agree. Ultimately, we should always listen to what our ears tell us, because it’s our EARS (and not frequency graphs etc.) we listen to music with.

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That’s a common complaint about room correction. The “life” you talk about is probably some bass notes that play to high and give extra warmth, and when you are used to them it feels very thin and empty when they are gone.

Hi @Magnus,

what’s the point in forcing yourself to like something you really don’t like? @Grump explicitly stressed the fact that he’d been trying this out for months before he arrived at this conclusion. (I’m saying this as someone who strongly believes that both room correction and above all acoustic room treatment can lead to excellent results.)

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No need to force anything, but if you get used to a balanced sound you get to listen to how its supposed to sound (i.e. as the artist intended). But in @Grump’s case it also might be bad measurements or something else, so its impossible to tell.

Feel free to experiment with the guide I wrote, it wont produce as good results as Thierry does (no phase/time correction), but you can certainly improve the sound and in the process learn how you like it to sound: A guide how to do room correction and use it in Roon

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Strictly speaking, the term “room correction” is extremely misleading. It actually should be called “speaker calibration software”. Quite obviously, the room itself isn’t changed (let alone “corrected”) in any way. I’m saying this because you can achieve much better results with (properly installed) acoustic room treatment…

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That’s true. However, experimenting with software-based solutions can be a good choice, too. The thing is effective room treatment can be very expensive and doesn’t always look very good (in a living room etc.)…

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Not every system needs filters. There has to be a sliding scale of effectiveness from essential to not required so there are bound to be examples where the filters don’t bring anything useful or rob the system of something the owner enjoys. So insisting that someone persevere is the very definition of forcing things. They tried it, it didn’t work for them, move on!

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You’re right, of course, @HWZ. But YOUR acoustically tuned listening room looks absolutely stunning. Congrats!

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Your listening room is the only one I’ve seen that looked really good to me (instead of awful and without any atmosphere)! I could live there… probably with some windows, but I guess that would destroy the entire effect of your careful design :wink:

That’s why I would love to be able to have some software do the math instead. Of course realising, it will never 100% approach a room like yours. That’s okay. But as it currently works with me, it doesn’t work for me. Yet. :slight_smile:

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Room treatment is definitely the best option, but unless you build the room for audio from the ground up (double walls, slanted roof, etc) you are not going to get it 100% perfect. In fact, even then there are likely some improvements to be made.

A typical setup scenario would be something like this

  1. Setup the speakers as good as possible (lots of guides on the net for this).
  2. Treat the room as much as possible (or as much as the wife allows you to), of until you feel it can’t be improved any more.
  3. Fix the fine-tuning (including a house curve you like) with digital room correction.

Of course, only do this if you want a neutral “correct” sound, if you are happy with what you have now, go away from this thread and listen to music instead :slight_smile:

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FWIW the biggest difference for me when I took my measurements was to use a proper microphone stand and point the mic towards the ceiling. Again everyones room/equipment is different. I wish you luck

Larry,

Thanks for pointing out this site. Their products look great and reasonably priced…even has artwork…what’s not to like? I have a 75" screen between my speakers and always assumed that the REW measurements and Theiry’s filters took that reflection into consideration…but what the hell do I know…

Thanks again!

You’re welcome. The measurements and filters do take the reflection into account but there’s only so much one can do in software. Attenuating the energy is much more effective, then create the filters for the last bit of fine tuning or to compensate where you can’t easily treat like the ceiling and floor.

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Nice article about Home Audio Fidelity filters:

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@extracampine lets continue here so we don’t steal the other thread.

Another option is to try the stuff discussed in this thread. Do measurements in REW and send to Thierry at https://www.homeaudiofidelity.com/

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Updated my DAC a few weeks back and have updated the filters accordingly. Also decided to give the crosstalk reduction another go - I’ve been blown away by what this can achieve on some recordings. Stringed instruments and percussion sound so much more realistic - by comparison the ‘normal’ sound just feels very unfocused. To my ears and in my setup the filters definitely give the best HiFi ‘bang for buck’ that I’ve had.

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I find xtalk to make instrument position more precise, but it also makes the sound stay between the speakers so a more narrow soundstage. Not sure what I prefer.

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My assumption, based on limited knowledge, is that the nature of the effect probably depends quite a bit on the room, speaker positioning and equipment - in fairness I don’t get a very wide or deep soundstage at the best of times so don’t notice any reduction there - if anything it’s perhaps wider. Like you, though, I do notice instrument positioning as more precise.

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