RoomFit and Housecurve

[NickC9]

I have been experimenting with RoomFit and have never really obtained a good sound unless I tweaked EQ afterwards.

So my calibration process has been:
- run a sub sync first
- then run a Roomfit correction (I use BK curve)
- fine tune EQ/PEQ to your liking or to get the measured sound curve as close to the target curve as possible

Following this gives good results, but then I thought, what would happen if I then used Housecurve to run another calibration to give me what it thinks the final PEQ filter setting should be. Housecurve performs a very similar calibration to obtain PEQ filter settings (but is easier to use and see the curve responses) then I manually copied these over to the Wiim Ultra app into the Parametric EQ settings.

The resulting sound is amazing and far better than just running RoomFit and tweaking manually.

Is this accidental or is it a case of whatever works for you?

I would be interested in your views on this. Thanks in advance...

 

[hgo58]

I have been experimenting with RoomFit and have never really obtained a good sound unless I tweaked EQ afterwards.

The purpose of RoomFit is to fix room (and speaker) issues. Not to get your preferred sound profile.

So my calibration process has been:
- run a sub sync first
- then run a Roomfit correction (I use BK curve)
- fine tune EQ/PEQ to your liking or to get the measured sound curve as close to the target curve as possible

Yes. Use EQ on top of RoomFit to get your preferred sound profile.

Following this gives good results, but then I thought, what would happen if I then used Housecurve to run another calibration to give me what it thinks the final PEQ filter setting should be. Housecurve performs a very similar calibration to obtain PEQ filter settings (but is easier to use and see the curve responses) then I manually copied these over to the Wiim Ultra app into the Parametric EQ settings.

You could also copy them to a RoomFit profile. Just edit an existing one

The resulting sound is amazing and far better than just running RoomFit and tweaking manually.

RoomFit works great for me. Just have to try several different settings to find the one that fix most room issues.

 

[slartibartfast]

The purpose of RoomFit is to fix room (and speaker) issues. Not to get your preferred sound profile.

In that case why have three different target curves?

 

[hgo58]

In that case why have three different target curves?

Because the room response may be different depending on the target and several other parameters.

 

[canard]

Because the room response may be different depending on the target.

That's not the idea...
and the question asked is fair ;-)

 

[dominikz]

The target curves in RoomFit are definitely one way to change the overall sound balance.
Sound balance will also change by using stereo vs individual channel RoomFit (i.e. individual channel will have about +3dB more bass with the same target as stereo).

So just by choosing a different target curve and RoomFit type we can get up to 6 different tonal balances, with all other settings staying the same. Consequently, for sure a choice here will be largely dictated by personal preference.

Note that there's really no such thing as a single target for "accurate" or "neutral" bass level. The amount of bass in a room will depend on several factors and there are no clear standards.
Even the preference research done by NRC and Harman found that different populations prefer very different amount of bass (even if most seem to prefer the same kinds of speakers under controlled tests).

So while I personally agree with @hgo58 that RoomFit should be used to 'calibrate' the system for a smooth response and then use EQ to tune bass level to taste, it is equally valid to just select a target curve with preferred amount of bass in RoomFit from the start.

Somewhat related to this, for non-expert users I feel the number of exposed parameters in RoomFit must be very confusing.
E.g. I'm sure that people who haven't spent years studying audio science will for sure have a hard time understanding why "flat" isn't a good target for room correction in most cases.
I also find the default RoomFit parameter values are far from optimal - e.g. upper limit of RoomFit correction range is 4kHz (!) by default.

 

[hgo58]

The target curves in RoomFit are definitely one way to change the overall sound balance.
Sound balance will also change by using stereo vs individual channel RoomFit (i.e. individual channel will have about +3dB more bass with the same target as stereo).

So just by choosing a different target curve and RoomFit type we can get up to 6 different tonal balances, with all other settings staying the same. Consequently, for sure a choice here will be largely dictated by personal preference.

Note that there's really no such thing as a single target for "accurate" or "neutral" bass level. The amount of bass in a room will depend on several factors and there are no clear standards.
Even the preference research done by NRC and Harman found that different populations prefer very different amount of bass (even if most seem to prefer the same kinds of speakers under controlled tests).

So while I personally agree with @hgo58 that RoomFit should be used to 'calibrate' the system for a smooth response and then use EQ to tune bass level to taste, it is equally valid to just select a target curve with preferred amount of bass in RoomFit from the start.

Somewhat related to this, for non-expert users I feel the number of exposed parameters in RoomFit must be very confusing.
E.g. I'm sure that people who haven't spent years studying audio science will for sure have a hard time understanding why "flat" isn't a good target for room correction in most cases.
I also find the default RoomFit parameter values are far from optimal - e.g. upper limit of RoomFit correction range is 4kHz (!) by default.

I can't find a target curve that always fits what I need anyway. So I use the flat.

Then applying EQ depending on loudness and music style.

The applied EQ may change the room response a bit but it works perfectly for me.