Room correction changes what your speakers send into the room. Room treatment changes the room itself. They solve different problems, and the best results usually come from using both.
What treatment does that correction can’t
- Reflections. Sound bouncing off walls arrives at your ears after the direct sound and blurs detail and imaging. Electronic correction can’t remove a reflection. Absorption or diffusion can.
- Lingering sound. Equalisation can’t shorten how long a room keeps ringing across the whole listening area. Absorption can.
- Bass at more than one seat. Correction can smooth the bass at one seat, but other seats hear different bass. Treatment, subwoofer placement and multi-seat systems like Dirac ART help across the room.
Two useful ideas
- The transition frequency. Below roughly 200 to 300 Hz in a typical room, room resonances dominate and bass behaves very differently from the rest of the range. Above it, reflections matter more.
- Decay time. Broadcast listening-room standards (EBU and ITU) aim for about 0.2 to 0.4 seconds, depending on room size. Too much decay sounds boomy and blurred. Too little sounds dead.
In this section
- Room Treatment: Absorption
- Room Treatment: Bass Traps
- Room Treatment: Diffusion
- Room Treatment: Where to Put It
Measure before and after you add anything. See Before and After Checks.