Vote

Without a doubt. I just purchased the TacT RCS 2.0; it arrives on Wednesday. Drooling just thinking about it!

Absolutely! It is a perfect application of digital technologies. And imagine - a great sounding listening room without the dreaded, ugly 'room treatment.' The cost should become reasonable soon, too.

Absolutely! The best is still to place your speakers as best you can, then let something like this clean up the remaining nasties that plague even the most dedicated of rooms. The room correction will be the most transparent when doing the least required. The foundation, of course, must be high-quality hardware with the most carefully implemented algorithms. Are we there (or close ) yet? Perhaps when more manufacturers enter the fray, we will see. Maybe even lower prices,too.

I don't think there is perfect listening room, so these products are needed.

I want to listen to the music, not what my room makes of it!

Sure, but I'll wait till it costs about one tenth the going rates.

In Europe, where I live, listening rooms tend to be quite smaller than those in the US, so acoustic problems are extremely important. In such a case, I am convinced that the best way of dealing with this (other than using headphones) is by using some kind of digital correction. Some time ago I had the opportunity to listen my own system (in a rather small room) corrected with a SigTech product, and I was truly impressed by the results (but the price also impressed me a lot).

I would be interested if the price were within reason and there were programmable modes to accommodate different qualities of recordings; e.g., tone down overly bright or hard CDs.

The minute the price is within reason, I buy. It's certainly a much better approach than spending $1000s on speakers.

I am skeptical of additional digital processing. However, if it can be done without deleteriously affecting the signal, then more is better.

the way to go(and some good equipment exists alraedy ) is to equalize at the source not to bend the speakers output,too problematic already. The problem is that what the market offers is extremly expensive.Let's see some good affordable equalizers.

Though it seems like a good idea- it scares the hell out of me to alter my source to match my output.

Not just yet . . . Hey, I'd much prefer to spend my hard-earned cash on all manner of physical room-control devices to nail on the ceiling and walls, stand next to (and behind) my speakers, prop in the corners. At least they're a visible presence, and add to the perception of my insanity for non-audiophile visitors . . . and keep an understanding smile on my long-suffering wife's lips.

For those of us who listen to our main speakers not only at the optimal position but also in the kitchen, at the dining table, etc., having the ability to program several equalization settings would be great. How small can these devices be? Can they be single, programmable chips that can be included in a wide range of products at a reasonable cost?

Not interested because it's bullshit. Check out www.audioperfectionist.com Issue #1 which debunks this myth.

If there are problems with your speaker in your listening room, you have the wrong speaker.

I'm interested, but near as much as I am in getting better gear. Stuff that would do that job right has to cost a mint.

Hell, yes! Why wouldn't it?

There are some reviewers who swear by it to correct even the most accurate speakers to dead flat within a +/- 1db. There arguments that a perfectly flat response is definitely not the way to go since human hearing is anything but flat. Even TacT takes this approach in their correction software. I am not sure about this one myself. Room acoustics are a very dynamic thing. It takes a certain amount of energy to stimulate room modes. If you calibrate at one volume level does that correction get applied to all material at all volume levels? If you are using it to correct room modes what happens if there in not enough acoustical energy in the material to excite the problem mode? Does this mean there is now a huge suck-out? Is the same true for a room treated with "pressure zone bass traps" aka ASC Tube Traps at the room boundries and node peaks? Also some digital volume controls degrade the sound at low volume settings - are these corrections applied in the same manner, or is that not an issue here? It leads me to believe the calibration is only good for one volume setting assuming the material being played has the same acoustical energy as the calibration signal - either sine swept or pink noise. If a semi- anechoic measurement were possible from 20-20kHz with the calibratrion software then maybe, just maybe the speaker correction would be valid (with a flat microphone), but with room modes and other artifacts in the measurement I am skeptical. JA articles on Speaker measuresments (Nov 98, Dec 98, Jan 99) gives a little insight to this word of making acurate semi-anechoic measurements. I would like somebody with a little more practical expertise in acoustics (that is not selling anything) to chime in. This would make a good technical article in Stereophile - "The Science Behind Room Correction." Time Alignment is a whole other issue....

As I indeed listen to LPs most of the time, I find odd to convert this wonderful medium in digital, process it, and then back convert it in analog. It's nice, however, to use it in a full digital system, since the quality is most depending only on the ADCs and DACs performances. The last audio chain, however, is analog, i.e. the speakers are. True digital amps are by the way an utopia, until one finds a way to digitally excite the air molecules in such a way that our ears (and our brain) can understand. The last Meridian digital system tested in the February issue seem to be the current state-of-the-art, but the ticket price is not for anyone yet ! If your wallet is rather flat (pun intended) I think you can better spend your time in speakers placement, room treatment and so on. You wont have the flattest response (anyone knows an instrument showing a flat frequency response ?), but sure it will be far less expensive, it wont need costly upgrades and the "human factor" will remain. Robots don't play music (not yet)... Herv

This powerful and transparent technology is here to stay. The results are convincing. With prices coming down, I'd recommend that all enthusiasts investigate what's on offer.

Ideally, you should rebuild the room, but this could be a temporary solution while you are waiting for the workers to show up.

Most presently available products are too expensive for me. Make it affordable and I'll be in line to buy one.

The idea of digital room correction sounds interesting. However, it seems that the most efects with the less side-effects this promise to give with digital amps, like TacT Millenium. At the moment, I do not have the one, hence I won't buy any digital RCS; yet after new SACD or DVD-A standard would set it's position on market and new digital amolifiers and RCS' will be developed, why not to try them in this combination?

Gentlemen: Initially motivated by an interest in the analytics of sampled signal systems, I developed a speaker and room quasi-adaptive EQ system that runs on a $200 Motorola DSP56002 EVM, after setup on a PC. Much to my surprise, I have encountered positive results. I'd be delighted to share my techniques and algorithms with anyone willing to reciprocate.

Anyone worthy of being called an "audiophile" knows that the listening environment is as important as the rest of the equipment in the room. What does concern me is how well these digital tweaks can improve sound over properly placed room treatments.

SigTech provides the best quality!!

In what could be a much less expensive alternative in order to achieve optimal sonic performance in your room which otherwise is impossible without extensive remodeling the entire room acoustics.

THIS SOUNDS VERY GOOD. WHO WOULDN'T BE INTERESTED.

I would love to be able to use a digital system to fix the problems in my room. I just can't afford any of the systems that are on the market right now.