Room Correction Beta firmware for WiiM Pro, Pro Plus and Amp - User Testing Experience

[slartibartfast]

What is the moving microphone method?

I hadn't heard of it until last week.

Help with REW RTA measurement using the MMM method

Greetings, I have recently acquired a UMIK-1 and started learning how to use REW for measurement and correction. First I did the swipe based measurement in a single position, using the excellent guide at and the measurement curve made a lot of sense, in terms of levels and slopes. Then I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[harkpabst]

I did a quick test this morning with the improved release and initial impression is that RC has been vastly improved. Awesome work Wiim Team!

I did *not* adjust my freq settings yet - I simply retested exactly as things were to get a comparison against the old not-so-great algorithm (50hz - 20khz, Harman Curve, Max gain 6dB). In room response for my speakers (Focal Theva No1) is around 50hz, hence the seemingly arbitrary choice for low end).

As shown in the attached screen shots, MUCH improved gain choices and subjective listening was great - very solid bass response, near perfect sound staging. Verdict out on high end sparkle but that may be due to test music (Only Human by Rag n Bone, Proud by Welshly Arms) - no time right now to into classical and see how instruments sound. Will do that tonight.

Edit: forgot to ask - @WiiM Support - will there be some kind of volume level normalization in the final release? I noticed RC uses whatever volume you manually set on the Amp, which definitely seems to affect results. I’ve settled on somewhere around 2 dots on the front panel, which I guess is probably around 30%, but not really consistent unless you’re doing an external SPL calibration before running RC. I can use REW for that this weekend, but just wanted to ask if it’s a feature being considered, or if the backend algorithm is accounting for different volumes.

Two (relatively) massive corrections at 40 Hz when RC has been configured to EQ from 50 Hz upwards? That looks strange to me.

Also, there's no correction above 2.2 kHz, so the upper limit of 20 kHz didn't really play any role here.

 

[BoilerCS]

Two (relatively) massive corrections at 40 Hz when RC has been configured to EQ from 50 Hz upwards? That looks strange to me.

Also, there's no correction above 2.2 kHz, so the upper limit of 20 kHz didn't really play any role here.

Actually you’re right…to be honest I didn’t study the results this morning. I saw it at least wasn’t doing -6dB across the board like it was before and moved on to listening as I was in a bit of a rush to get out the door. Definitely agree it’s concerning to see corrections applied outside the specified range, especially since it should know from the sweep my speakers fall off quickly below 50hz.

@WiiM Support - any insight about why corrections are being applied outside the frequency range…bug or intended?

 

[Raphaellus_GC]

Hi Team,

The iOS App version 2.9.7 includes improvements to the MIC measurement and enhancements to the RC algorithm. If you're on the Beta list, please try the Room Correction feature and let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you all again for helping us to improve this feature.

Hi there,
I am trying to upgrade to 2.9.7 on my IPhone but this version doesn't show up.
Is the room correction already available?

 

[Smartplug]

Hi there,
I am trying to upgrade to 2.9.7 on my IPhone but this version doesn't show up.
Is the room correction already available?

No but you can sign up to be beta tester.

 

[Raphaellus_GC]

No but you can sign up to be beta tester.

Thanks!

 

[GrayJ]

Latest version using app 2.9.7 is considerably better than last weeks. Out the box you get a much better sound far less muffled (IOS) however I’ll do more testing tomorrow. I’m facing issues with the Wife complaining about the noise each time I do a test so testing is on hold for the evening. One thing that would be useful is being able to gauge what kind of volume levels should be used. Different levels give different results. Decided to test using ‘normal’ listening comfortable listening levels.

 

[BoilerCS]

You shouldn't be applying any boost, instead just cut peaks.

I've seen comments like this and it broadly makes sense, but I haven't played with it much. Dirac, Wiim RC, and GEQ presets all seem to favor boosting so I assumed it was best practice within reason (e.g. not going crazy / limiting gain to around 6dB). I spent a few minutes just now to invert my preferred custom GEQ and it (predictably) sounds the same once the volume is turned back up...maybe a touch less bass presence but hard to say since I'm not be scientific, just shooting from the hip. A few questions for you or anyone who favors cuts only...

I would assume not boosting means lower distortion? But it also lowers the volume so by time you turn it back up to compensate for the negative gains does it more or less wipe out any distortion advantages? Does it also mean you're pushing the amp harder to hit a particular SPL, or does it take the same watts to hit a given SPL regardless of EQ settings?

For Wiim Room Correction to work like this do I just set the Max Gain slider to zero or is there another setting I'm missing?

 

[rccarguy]

I've seen comments like this and it broadly makes sense, but I haven't played with it much. Dirac, Wiim RC, and GEQ presets all seem to favor boosting so I assumed it was best practice within reason (e.g. not going crazy / limiting gain to around 6dB). I spent a few minutes just now to invert my preferred custom GEQ and it (predictably) sounds the same once the volume is turned back up...maybe a touch less bass presence but hard to say since I'm not be scientific, just shooting from the hip. A few questions for you or anyone who favors cuts only...

I would assume not boosting means lower distortion? But it also lowers the volume so by time you turn it back up to compensate for the negative gains does it more or less wipe out any distortion advantages? Does it also mean you're pushing the amp harder to hit a particular SPL, or does it take the same watts to hit a given SPL regardless of EQ settings?

For Wiim Room Correction to work like this do I just set the Max Gain slider to zero or is there another setting I'm missing?

Yes boosting means driving your amp harder using twice the power with 6db. More distortion also.

My processor tonewinner at-300 applies multiple boosts for its auto eq. It looks flatter but boy does it it ruin the sound. It sounds best with Eq disabled. I only use the subwoofer peq channels manual entry.

If possible plot response in rew and see where peaks are. I bet mostly around 300hz so I'd avoid full range correction.

 

[Wiimer]

I've seen comments like this and it broadly makes sense, but I haven't played with it much. Dirac, Wiim RC, and GEQ presets all seem to favor boosting so I assumed it was best practice within reason (e.g. not going crazy / limiting gain to around 6dB). I spent a few minutes just now to invert my preferred custom GEQ and it (predictably) sounds the same once the volume is turned back up...maybe a touch less bass presence but hard to say since I'm not be scientific, just shooting from the hip. A few questions for you or anyone who favors cuts only...

I would assume not boosting means lower distortion? But it also lowers the volume so by time you turn it back up to compensate for the negative gains does it more or less wipe out any distortion advantages? Does it also mean you're pushing the amp harder to hit a particular SPL, or does it take the same watts to hit a given SPL regardless of EQ settings?

For Wiim Room Correction to work like this do I just set the Max Gain slider to zero or is there another setting I'm missing?

Certainly I don't want to use PEQ's boost too much, but that's not the most important thing for me. I don't know if my method is correct, but I turn off unnecessary bands in the final adjustment of PEQ.

1. Based on the measurements, make as many PEQ adjustments as possible along the ideal curve.
2. Move the gain of each band up and down while listening to pink noise and sine wave.
3. Listen to the sound by ear and re-adjust or turn off bands that have little effect (or sound strange).
4. Play sweeps or music and check with my ears.
5. After listening to it for a few days, compare the sound before and after PEQ and re-measure.

Also, consider whether problems that could not be adjusted with PEQ can be physically solved (by changing the speaker placement, installing sound absorbing or diffusing materials, etc).


I have been repeating this process over and over again, trying to get closer to the ideal audio environment little by little.
(I'm very happy with my current audio. I'd happily use WiiM's RC if it could be better, but otherwise I wouldn't use it.)

I think the most important thing is to not just accept someone else's method at face value, but to use the information as a reference to establish own methodology. This requires a lot of comparative verification.

I'm still in training, so I'm very grateful to be able to learn so much here.

Edit;
Needless to say, the ideal option for me would be to not have to use PEQ.

 

[Smartplug]

What happen on third beta room correction that was stated last week to be updated this week?

 

[Brantome]

It was delivered as an app, not firmware upgrade - iOS app v2.9.7 as I recall. When you think on it, all the computation and algorithms are done by the app, not the device itself so it makes sense that the improvements have been brought to the app rather than firmware.

 

[Wiimer]

It was delivered as an app, not firmware upgrade - iOS app v2.9.7 as I recall. When you think on it, all the computation and algorithms are done by the app, not the device itself so it makes sense that the improvements have been brought to the app rather than firmware.

Is the WiiM amp firmware still 615252 ?
I received an update notification on my email address, so I thought there was a new firmware. .

 

[Brantome]

Is the WiiM amp firmware still 615252 ?
I received an update notification on my email address, so I thought there was a new firmware. .

Yeah, still on that firmware on the Amp

 

[Wiimer]

Yeah, still on that firmware on the Amp

Thank you.
I've been hitting the update check button repeatedly since yesterday.

 

[harkpabst]

(Moved from WiiM's poll to the appropriate thread)
It's quite impressive how few posts it takes to divert just about any topic to Room Correction. I see a pattern.

 

[Brantome]

It's quite impressive how few posts it takes to divert just about any topic to Room Correction. I see a pattern.

I’m not overly fussed if “off topic” comments creep into some threads - the forum is like a conversation between regular contributors. But now that you’ve raised it, I’ll move the comments

 

[harkpabst]

I’m not overly fussed if “off topic” comments creep into some threads - the forum is like a conversation between regular contributors. But now that you’ve raised it, I’ll move the comments

I know and I never ever question your moderating wisdom. Just thought a poll is a poll is a poll ...

 

[Smartplug]

Yeah, still on that firmware on the Amp

The version they have if you sign up on Centercode is different on what we have. It has subwoofer latency adjustments that we don’t on our version.

 

[Brantome]

The version they have if you sign up on Centercode is different on what we have. It has subwoofer latency adjustments that we don’t on our version.

I don’t think that’s indicative of anything other than them setting up that beta code environment with typical entries I.e. I don’t think it accurately reflects anything out in the field.