first REW measurements

[Cadmobile500]

New to this and looking for advise as far as what looks good and what needs to be improved and how to do it.
I am using Audyssey MultEQ-X.
Attached is a graph with REW measurements (1/6 smoothing) of my left and right speakers with my subwoofer crossed at 80hz.
Sounds pretty good but a little bright on some music recordings.
Any advise would be apreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Doodski]

Nice nod to Steely Dan in your pic!

 

[Cadmobile500]

Nice nod to Steely Dan in your pic!

thanks. no static at all...

 

[alex-z]

Pretty good response, although the way one channel drops after 4kHz is unusual. I would recommend making them both the same for the sake of stereo imaging.

Your bass region looks pretty flat, which doesn't typically align with listening preference. Most people prefer some bass boost, starting in the 100-150Hz, and ramping up 6-12dB as you approach 30Hz. The quieter you listen, the more bass boost you want. The lack of bass is probably contributing to why you perceive the speakers as bright.

Equal-loudness contour - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It is also important to look at your decay times, not just frequency response. Ideally you want an even decay rate at all frequencies, and for the decay rate to be the same across both channels.

 

[Cadmobile500]

I'm having trouble understand the decay times. Can you explain them to me?
i use Dynamic EQ when listening at lower volumes.

 

[Hexspa]

I'm having trouble understand the decay times. Can you explain them to me?
i use Dynamic EQ when listening at lower volumes.

Hi, it’s me.

I use spectral decay below 300Hz and enable the direct signal as well as 140 and 160ms. My target, taken from a site linked to from the REW site and coupled with an EBU recommendation, is 20dB decay within 150ms above 63Hz with a smooth taper.

Let me note that the low end in rooms is likely to be largely minimum phase but only per-spot i.e. different locations will have different decay times. I’m talking a little above my understanding here but what I can guarantee is that measurements in my room bear this out.

When measuring, a best practice (there are several best practices for room measuring) is to take a number of individual measurements within the listening radius. Even if it is one place where you sit like a vegetable, measure in the radius where your head will likely be. You may then average these responses in REW for a different look at your SPL. You cannot generate decay nor group delay “GD” or other graphs from this averaged response so consider this simply as a measure of general tonality.

The point I’m making is that you need to observe the decay behavior of your listening “area” and not just a single point.

Remember that VAR smoothing is for “responses to be equalized” (per the REW) help and 1/6 octave smoothing is ok but not necessarily representative of anything other than our hearing frequency acuity (critical bands) around 2kHz. No smoothing-48th octave smoothing is best below the transition frequency (about 300Hz) for positioning speakers and absorption. It looks ugly but you need that resolution or else you’re simply fooling yourself. Actually, I think VAR smoothing goes from 1/48 to 1/3 but I don’t remember exactly. Please refer to REW help for more details.

 

[RickyC34]

In my experience, I've always had to add about 4 db to my subwoofers using Audyssey. Something else that can make a pretty dramatic difference is playing with the subwoofer distance levels. REW has an alignment tool that's fantastic and can be very helpful when setting distance. I would first check to make sure your front L/R are aligned and then align the subs to the front L/R.

 

[ozzy9832001]

Google Fletcher-Munson and you'll understand why it sounds the way it does. In a nutshell, we don't hear the bass frequencies as well as we do the mids, so in order for them to be of equal perceived loudness, you'd need to increase the bass frequencies. In some instances, it can be by a significant amount. Once you get to about 100dB SPL, it begins to stabilize quite a bit, but at 80dB or so that your measurement was taken, you'd need about 10dB more at about 100hz and sloping upward the lower you go.

Depending on your tastes, you may not like it that high, but it's something to play around with for sure.

I feel like there is a chair or desk or something between the speakers and the microphone during your measurement. Appears to be some comb filtering, especially in the higher frequencies. Not a huge deal, nor is it really indicative of much, but I wouldn't correct for it either.

Your decay plots show your room has quite a bit of reverb and is quite lively. This is more of a taste thing, but the reverb can cause a lot of smearing as sounds are lingering for far too long.