Speaker / Room Interaction




Speaker Correction Example A

In Example A, an expensive speaker with exceptionally linear response is ruined when placed in a real room environment (Blue trace). The broad midrange dip from 125Hz to 500Hz is created by room interaction, which will cause the chest portion of a vocalist to sound thin and lacking in foundation. An adjacent Bass peak at 88Hz is also evident, creating a 12dB peak-to-peak anomaly. The Spatial HD Correction process has restored the speaker to the linear response intended by the speaker designer (Green trace).

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Most loudspeakers on the market today do nothing to counter room interaction when used in a domestic environment. Generally, the larger and more complex speaker designs fare the worst in real rooms. This presents a serious problem for the audiophile, since the traditional means of optimizing a speaker in his room have been of limited value in practical terms. The 3 main optimization tools have been:
01. Move the speaker around the room and try to find a location with decent Bass quality.
02. Employ acoustic treatment products in an attempt to "civilize" the room.
03. Employ outboard room correction processors to equalize the speaker to the room.

Methods 01 and 02 can be very helpful, but the listener is working blind and relying on assumptions and experimentation. This process is usually accompanied by frustration and a failure to fix the real issues.

Outboard room correction processors can offer a concrete solution, but the better processors are usually much too complex to operate for the home audiophile. Plus, the addition of another box in the signal path brings with it numerous sonic penalties in terms of transparency to the source.

The Solution - Spatial has developed a unique approach that optimizes the sound of your speaker in your listening room:

• Remote Measurement - A Spatial Engineer logs on to your Spatial Computer remotely via internet connection to measure your room and speaker separately. Modal response analysis allows us to determine if the chosen speaker location is suitable. FFT analysis allows us to see how the room is altering the speaker's response across the sound spectrum.
• Correction applied - Based on the measured data, correction filters are built and saved in the Spatial system software that offset the changes the room has introduced to the speaker's response at the listening position. The sonic performance of any loudspeaker can be greatly improved with this method.
• No sonic penalty - The correction algorithm is applied to the digital music file directly with 64 bit accuracy, eliminating the quality degradation associated with outboard processors and cables.
• Complete Solution - Combining the finest 24/192K music file playback engine with invisible signal processing to control the speaker create a simple and enjoyable listening experience with advanced online support. Its like we moved into the spare bedroom.
• Firewire and USB DAC Support

Click on HOW to learn more about the Spatial system