Roc Doc
New Member
Nothing like a diversity of opinion on a topic.
I'd tend to side more with the crowd that would rather follow best practices to adjust room acoustics than try to use someone else's algorithmic solution, where sonic samples taken with a microphone are then subjected to equalization that I may or may not ultimately like.
Kind of like making a stew: I'll add or subtract from a recipe based on my tastes. If I buy someone else's stew, I might like the way it tastes at their house, but if I bring some home and reheat it, it might taste different at my house. I might not like how it tastes at my house, but by then I'm stuck with it.
A lot of it has to do with current decorating ideals. In the pro world often it's decorators that win out over designers. I was involved in the design and build of a few nightclubs, obviously not an audiophile listening room, but sound quality is important and the designs showed hard floors, hard walls, glass, sometimes things like fish tanks (!), or glass fireplaces, with the only soft surfaces being the seating areas so I urged them to use materials behind the decorative sheer curtains on the perimeter walls, and distributed PA to keep from having the dance floor as the only source. This is something that is impossible to do without DSP. All that being said, the adjustments were all subtractive no boost of any frequencies was required.
Homes are also favoring hard surfaces these days, it can be corrected but so many homes you go into now are just loud. No carpet, no drapes or just blinds, it all adds up to a big echoey room. Restaurants too, and they do it on purpose, a loud restaurant turns its tables over faster.
