Room Mode + Speaker Anechoic Measurement Correction

[lempogi]

Hi all. I'm a silent reader in this forum and I'm learning a lot especially from @dominikz and @harkpabst.
I just bought a Wiim Amp Ultra and I would like to use Room Fit for my budget Polk XT20 speaker and SVS SB-1000 Pro subwoofer.
I would like to have your advice if my plan is in the right track or not. Or if you have an additional or better idea or tips I'll appreciate it so much.

1. Do a Room Fit correction for 20-400 Hz.
2. Pick the most needed frequencies to be corrected for 5 slots of PEQ. (If you can teach me how to compute or pick from the 10 suggested correction by Room Fit)
3. Add the other 5 from corrected frequencies in Spinorama AutomaticEQ (714 Hz to 11882 Hz).

Also, there's a positive gain adjustment for 714 Hz and 8694 Hz. I'm thinking that it will messed up the recommended gain adjustment from Spinorama if I will mix the Room Fit correction. What I also learned here is that I can use REW to manually input those mixed 10 frequency corrections and it will show the new computed gain adjustment. Am I correct? I'm sorry this is my first time for room correction and I have also no experience on REW software.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Burnside]

Re REW and computed headroom, see this and the following post
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/peq-talk.1500/post-27059

 

[lempogi]

Re REW and computed headroom, see this and the following post
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/peq-talk.1500/post-27059

I'll read that one, I appreciate this much!

 

[dominikz]

1. Do a Room Fit correction for 20-400 Hz.

Sounds good! Make sure to optimize loudspeaker placement and subwoofer integration before running RoomFit. IMHO REW is really helpful for this!

2. Pick the most needed frequencies to be corrected for 5 slots of PEQ. (If you can teach me how to compute or pick from the 10 suggested correction by Room Fit)
3. Add the other 5 from corrected frequencies in Spinorama AutomaticEQ (714 Hz to 11882 Hz).

There's no need to do this anymore, since recently you can use both EQ and RoomFit at the same time (so you get 10 bands of PEQ per channel in "RoomFit" plus an extra 10 bands of PEQ per channel in "EQ").
You can therefore use RoomFit to correct the room resonances, and in addition to that you can configure the Spinorama AutomaticEQ filter parameters into EQ (but only configure filters above 400Hz where RoomFit no longer applies) - when enabled both sets of filters will be applied at the same time!

Also, there's a positive gain adjustment for 714 Hz and 8694 Hz. I'm thinking that it will messed up the recommended gain adjustment from Spinorama if I will mix the Room Fit correction. What I also learned here is that I can use REW to manually input those mixed 10 frequency corrections and it will show the new computed gain adjustment. Am I correct? I'm sorry this is my first time for room correction and I have also no experience on REW software.

That is correct, but note that if you use RoomFit in the new "No-Boost Mode" (meaning no pregain adjustment needed) you could then just use the preamp gain value from Spinorama AutomaticEQ directly in WiiM Input pregain view (which is already given in dB), without additional calculations in REW.

But to be honest I wouldn't worry about pregain compensation with WiiM Amp Ultra unless if you plan to run it at full volume (i.e. output volume set to 100). At lower output volume levels you are anyway not reaching 0 dBFS so there's no fear of digital clipping.

BTW that is a nice system you built - good luck and enjoy!

 

[lempogi]

Sounds good! Make sure to optimize loudspeaker placement and subwoofer integration before running RoomFit. IMHO REW is really helpful for this!

Yes sir! 5cm/2in from the wall for speakers and corner placement for the subwoofer. My wife is laughing at me when I'm doing the measurement but I said to her that it's scientifically proven.

There's no need to do this anymore, since recently you can use both EQ and RoomFit at the same time (so you get 10 bands of PEQ per channel in "RoomFit" plus an extra 10 bands of PEQ per channel in "EQ").
You can therefore use RoomFit to correct the room resonances, and in addition to that you can configure the Spinorama AutomaticEQ filter parameters into EQ (but only configure filters above 400Hz where RoomFit no longer applies) - when enabled both sets of filters will be applied at the same time!

Really? That's a good news to me then. I thought what Wiim did is you can combine only the RoomFit plus GEQ and not the EQ. If only Wiim can have a better documentation for this so that beginners like me can easily understand the new updates.

That is correct, but note that if you use RoomFit in the new "No-Boost Mode" (meaning no pregain adjustment needed) you could then just use the preamp gain value from Spinorama AutomaticEQ directly in WiiM Input pregain view (which is already given in dB), without additional calculations in REW.

But to be honest I wouldn't worry about pregain compensation with WiiM Amp Ultra unless if you plan to run it at full volume (i.e. output volume set to 100). At lower output volume levels you are anyway not reaching 0 dBFS so there's no fear of digital clipping.

Good point. If I'm using the HDMI input for TV, the max volume we only use is up to 45. For Wifi/BT/USB is around 35 max.

BTW that is a nice system you built - good luck and enjoy!

I'm not a rich guy and also it is very hard to request my wife to have an expensive speakers . So I have to research for a good budget one, and Erin recommends the Polk XT20, just have to correct the high frequencies of it. For the subwoofer, I'm initially targeting Speedwoofer 10E but it's out of stock for a long time. I found an open box SB-1000 Pro so I just bought that one. I'm happy for what I have so far!

 

[dominikz]

Yes sir! 5cm/2in from the wall for speakers and corner placement for the subwoofer. My wife is laughing at me when I'm doing the measurement but I said to her that it's scientifically proven.

Really? That's a good news to me then. I thought what Wiim did is you can combine only the RoomFit plus GEQ and not the EQ. If only Wiim can have a better documentation for this so that beginners like me can easily understand the new updates.

Both GEQ and PEQ variants work, but it is true that WiiM documentation is often not very clear about such things

Good point. If I'm using the HDMI input for TV, the max volume we only use is up to 45. For Wifi/BT/USB is around 35 max.

In that case I wouldn't bother with pregain compensation for EQ presets at all, if I were in your shoes.

I'm not a rich guy and also it is very hard to request my wife to have an expensive speakers . So I have to research for a good budget one, and Erin recommends the Polk XT20, just have to correct the high frequencies of it. For the subwoofer, I'm initially targeting Speedwoofer 10E but it's out of stock for a long time. I found an open box SB-100 Pro so I just bought that one. I'm happy for what I have so far!

IMHO you made really smart choices, all really good performing gear in general - but especially so for the price. I'm quite sure it will sound wonderful once you finish tuning the system!

 

[lempogi]

Both GEQ and PEQ variants work, but it is true that WiiM documentation is often not very clear about such things

In that case I wouldn't bother with pregain compensation for EQ presets at all, if I were in your shoes.

IMHO you made really smart choices, all really good performing gear in general - but especially so for the price. I'm quite sure it will sound wonderful once you finish tuning the system!

Well, thank you so much for guiding me on this one. I'll update you what's the result of the corrections. Thanks also @Burnside for that thread link. I'll still read it for additional learnings.