Beta Test: Room Correction for Android

[Smartplug]

Has anyone received an acknowledgement of any tickets submitted yet?

Yes and no. If it’s important question then yes. I ask silly question like “when” that I don’t get answer.

 

[slartibartfast]

I’ve never not got one when I’ve used the settings/feedback section in the WiiM home app and entered my email address in the ticket header. It’s usually a pro-forma which I’d cut and paste here on my iPad if I hadn’t already archived them on my pc. I’m sure @Wiimer etc can provide the boilerplate response

I did include my email address and it is automatically filled in so still a mystery.

 

[slartibartfast]

Have you checked in the "WiiM Audio Help Center" ? Here you can view and check the status of your Tickets.

It is "Pending Eng Review"

 

[jmudrick]

Try to find hard facts about this on the Internet and don't forget to report back if you found any.

There are some measurements of very old iPhones to be found (no info how theses were obtained) but in general we simply don't know how good or bad the measurement results really are. My understanding has always been that the sheer number of different mics used in Apple devices is limited compared to Android phones and that Apple provides some sort of generic calibration info for the class of mic in use (not the individual item, of course).

The question mainly is: If we disregard absolute SPL (which we can for RC), are those built-in microphones still linear enough (over frequency and sound pressure!) to handle the range between roughly 40 Hz and 400 Hz?

The ridiculous humps we have seen from many internal mics in the 8 to 10 kHz region clearly show how limited there quality really is. And this is nothing, even a calibration file can resolve. In the end, for really useful RC we need a good quality microphone in the first place and the ability to handle calibration files, indeed.

There's a large body of literature suggesting automatic room correction be limited to below the Schroeder transition frequency or around 300hz. I wouldn't worry about mic performance on the 8-10khz range for an application not designed to address speaker peculiarities (rather than room issues) at high frequencies.

 

[QuarryHunslet]

It is "Pending Eng Review"

My DLNA Beta Ticket has been "Pending Eng Review" for 26 days now.

 

[Smartplug]

My DLNA Beta Ticket has been "Pending Eng Review" for 26 days now.

Hmmm, could it be they hit brick wall?

 

[QuarryHunslet]

Hmmm, could it be they hit brick wall?

It's all gone very quiet.

 

[slartibartfast]

It's all gone very quiet.

I have one from May 14th pending review but I think it has been fixed anyway.

 

[harkpabst]

There's a large body of literature suggesting automatic room correction be limited to below the Schroeder transition frequency or around 300hz. I wouldn't worry about mic performance on the 8-10khz range for an application not designed to address speaker peculiarities (rather than room issues) at high frequencies.

Since the default range for RC is currently 40 Hz to 4000 Hz (and I expect a number of users to not even find those settings) I dare to worry, still. Those who did find the settings during the original beta period usually increased the frequency range or sometimes it appeared that like WiiM Home was correcting stuff outside the range. I've been repeating like crazy that the correction cannot be correct if the measurement is completely off, but hardly anyone wanted to listen.

Correcting to a target curve is not necessarily correcting room effects, only. It's certainly debatable if this makes sense or not, but it's a fact that many will be using this feature and I'm not all against it.

There is no obvious lower border for useful room correction, but the lower frequency limit of built-in smartphone mics is another thing I personally would worry about.

 

[Emiyanez]

Hi there! I also gave it a shot with an IMM-6C USB microphone and compared the suggested EQ with my measurements with REW. As previously reported by other users, I am not sure which microphone was finally used for WiiM RC.

I set the target to Harman and selected a range from 30 to 300 Hz with a max gain of 6 db. The WiiM RC suggested filters in the whole frequency range (not only within the interval that I selected). I got rid of everything above 300 Hz but it does not sound good. The filters are clearly different to the ones calculated by REW (first image) and they do not address the main resonances in my room, which REW efficiently corrects.

I also tried RC today in my garage with the WiiM Amp and the results were not good but, at least, I can confirm that the WiiM RC does not recognize my USB mic.

I tried to compare WiiM's results with REW's but I have to say that REW was not really successful either. It's a really small room with a climbing wall and the speakers at both sides and it creates really crazy resonances that are super hard to correct. I measured post PEQ with both REW and WiiM suggested filters and, although the results were completely different, none of them improve the measurements at all.

I will stick to my living room for the beta testing because I know that REW suggested filters have really positive impact in the measurements.

 

[slartibartfast]

Since the default range for RC is currently 40 Hz to 4000 Hz (and I expect a number of users to not even find those settings) I dare to worry, still. Those who did find the settings during the original beta period usually increased the frequency range or sometimes it appeared that like WiiM Home was correcting stuff outside the range. I've been repeating like crazy that the correction cannot be correct if the measurement is completely off, but hardly anyone wanted to listen.

Correcting to a target curve is not necessarily correcting room effects, only. It's certainly debatable if this makes sense or not, but it's a fact that many will be using this feature and I'm not all against it.

There is no obvious lower border for useful room correction, but the lower frequency limit of built-in smartphone mics is another thing I personally would worry about.

Those frequency range settings don't work either in the Android Beta.

 

[Smartplug]

RC beta on android not getting good feedback on their experience. I hope wiim would step in acknowledge the team forum. Communication between forum team and wiim team is vital to keep buyers and potential buyer singing to its glory.

 

[harkpabst]

Those frequency range settings don't work either in the Android Beta.

Pretty sure the lower limit did make a difference when I tried it. But that was with the built-in mic and I didn't save any of these measurements.

 

[slartibartfast]

Pretty sure the lower limit did make a difference when I tried it. But that was with the built-in mic and I didn't save any of these measurements.

The high one didn't work for me.

 

[harkpabst]

The high one didn't work for me.

Somehow the filters are changing but there's no clear pattern. In no case do the limits work as shown.

 

[jmudrick]

I also tried RC today in my garage with the WiiM Amp and the results were not good but, at least, I can confirm that the WiiM RC does not recognize my USB mic.

I tried to compare WiiM's results with REW's but I have to say that REW was not really successful either. It's a really small room with a climbing wall and the speakers at both sides and it creates really crazy resonances that are super hard to correct. I measured post PEQ with both REW and WiiM suggested filters and, although the results were completely different, none of them improve the measurements at all.

I will stick to my living room for the beta testing because I know that REW suggested filters have really positive impact in the measurements.

Does your phone recognize the USB mic in other apps?

 

[jmudrick]

Since the default range for RC is currently 40 Hz to 4000 Hz (and I expect a number of users to not even find those settings) I dare to worry, still. Those who did find the settings during the original beta period usually increased the frequency range or sometimes it appeared that like WiiM Home was correcting stuff outside the range. I've been repeating like crazy that the correction cannot be correct if the measurement is completely off, but hardly anyone wanted to listen.

Correcting to a target curve is not necessarily correcting room effects, only. It's certainly debatable if this makes sense or not, but it's a fact that many will be using this feature and I'm not all against it.

There is no obvious lower border for useful room correction, but the lower frequency limit of built-in smartphone mics is another thing I personally would worry about.

Of course it's on WiiM to some extent to establish reasonable expectations. But anyone with any experience with RC and Auto EQ knows that systems that do full range EQ involve multi point measurements , individual speaker measurements and repeated sweeps. This is not that. Wiim does correctly identify the issues my room has at 40hz and 120hz as identified by my vastly more sophisticated Anthem system, and corrects them pretty well. That meets my personal expectations for a beta release.

 

[slartibartfast]

Does your phone recognize the USB mic in other apps?

Mine does, and also the iMM6 3.5mm jack connected mic.

 

[jmudrick]

Mine does, and also the iMM6 3.5mm jack connected mic.

I'm guessing Wiim is gonna start asking for phone and OS information

 

[krsfun]

I downloaded the beta and was about to test it out, but the permissions request surprised me.
The app asked for complete access to the phone's storage, and the small print indicated that, if permission were granted, the app could access storage without notifying the user.

Is all of that necessary, just to allow the app to record audio?