Holy Room Correction Batman!!!

[Grasshopper]

So I am posting in Preamps as this is how I stumbled into this.

I have been feeling something missing from my system (currently running DAC direct to my amps). I kept feeling like a tube preamp may be the answer. My concern with goin' tubes was a warmer sound (which I want) at the expense of dynamics.

So I went to a local dealer and auditioned the C2500 into an MC452 powering B&W 802 Diamonds. As this was similar to my setup, I was ready to be blown away...and I wasn't. I was fully prepared to bring the C2500 home and fall in love, sell my beloved W42 DAC2 and have two black boxes with green glowing lights and blue meters and ride into the sunset. I fault the acoustics in the showroom to some degree...other factors were at play I'm sure. But it was a very fatiguing sound. Then i noticed the MEN220 which could be added to the chain. With some discussion, we ran the C2500 into the MEN220 and WHOA...night and day difference. So I borrowed the MEN220 for the weekend, and was frankly shocked at the difference.

I now am VERY impressed with the W4S DAC2 as a DAC/Preamp, and unimpressed with the acoustics of my room. I had the MEN220 in between my preamp and amp via balanced interconnects and had my wife perform an un-biased A/B test hitting the "bypass" button on the MEN220 (with voicing set to neutral). She confirmed that with the MEN220, the sound was much fuller, soundstage deeper...BETTER.

Where have you been all my life little magic room correction boxes???

I ran a song I know well with and without the room correction engaged and was blown away at how the system compensated for bass suckouts that I'm guessing swing as much as 10db+/- in my room. Where I am confused, is even with room correction in bypass mode, voicing set to "music 2", having the MEN220 in the chain was noticeably warmer and did a decent job taming the brightness my prior setup plagued me with.

...So what to do? i'm now pretty pleased with my DAC and feel like correcting the room is a clear path to audio bliss. I started thinking a nice tube pre-amp with careful EQ'ing on tone controls would help, but I suspect a room correction module will do this much better.

I'm not sure how this voodoo works, but the soundstage was flat by comparison without the MEN220 in the chain.

I think room correction is on my upgrade list!!!

The MEN220 seemed to be all the rage not too long ago, though I've noticed early adopters have "moved on". I also wanted to check out the Dspeaker Anti-mode 2.0 Dual Core. Has anybody compared the Dspeaker to the Mcintosh unit?

The MEN220 is about 4 times the price of the Dspeaker!!!

Thoughts???

[woodlander]

I guess it is an individual thing. I installed an MEN220 a couple of years ago and I still think it was one of the best additions to my system. I am planning to get a second one for another area of the house. It seems to depend on your environment. If you have a good room with ideal placement of equipment and speakers, you might not need room correction. I don't have an ideal environment and the MEN220 made a huge difference. I like the fact that it provides an active crossover as well as room correction.

[amati]

I think the MEN220 is better when you use it behind your DAC.
Only when you use it in digital doman, behind your MacMini and before the DAC than it';s fine with Antimode, but than you have to use toslink i believe.
I have a Antimode DC, but i don't like the noisefloor and hum when used analog.

[Family Progtitioner]

I'm a huge fan of the room perfect room correction, whether it's in the mcintosh unit or Lyngdorf. I happen to have the Lyngdorf units and the difference is mind blowing.

[mgbaron]

If you want to do it in the digital domain, you can also do it with software:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/

Seems like that might be worth a try.

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by amati

I think the MEN220 is better when you use it behind your DAC.
Only when you use it in digital doman, behind your MacMini and before the DAC than it';s fine with Antimode, but than you have to use toslink i believe.
I have a Antimode DC, but i don't like the noisefloor and hum when used analog.

Do you have the MEN220 and the Dspeaker anti-mode dual core (or have you heard both in your system)? If so, I'm eager to hear your detailed comparison.

If not, anybody else hear both of these units?

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by Family Progtitioner

I'm a huge fan of the room perfect room correction, whether it's in the mcintosh unit or Lyngdorf. I happen to have the Lyngdorf units and the difference is mind blowing.

Did you also demo the MEN220 in your system? It appears as though the difference between the MEN220 and the Lyngdorf are minor and they should sound similar. If you had a chance to hear them both, can you relate the sonic differences?

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by mgbaron

If you want to do it in the digital domain, you can also do it with software:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/

Seems like that might be worth a try.

This is interesting! I'd be interested to hear if anybody has tried this.

[mgbaron]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

This is interesting! I'd be interested to hear if anybody has tried this.

I'm interested in it. For $300 including a decent omnidirectional mic, it's really a very reasonable price. I am nervous, however, about doing digital processing on the computer, which is something that I'm currently doing everything that Audirvana allows to avoid.

[Family Progtitioner]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

Did you also demo the MEN220 in your system? It appears as though the difference between the MEN220 and the Lyngdorf are minor and they should sound similar. If you had a chance to hear them both, can you relate the sonic differences?

I did demo the MEN220 with my second system, but ended up buying the RP1 lyngdorf unit because I was able to get a smoking deal on a pre-owned unit.

Was there a sonic difference? Likely not, but if pressed maybe the mcintosh unit was a bit warmer?

In my primary system I keep all correction in the digital domain by running a modified sonos unit into a lyngdorf DPA1 via coax, the DAC is then done in my Mcintosh C2500. I love the results.