OK, I finally got it all set up, with some help from Inguz. The difference in sound could be characterized as night and day, with no exaggeration.
I made a few stupid mistakes, which I think others probably have, as well. I'll list them here. If you don't make these mistakes, setting everything up should take less than an hour, or two hours if you take your time. 1. I didn't set audacity's preference to record in stereo. It defaults to mono. You can't do your sweeps in mono and generate filters. 2. I didn't set my laptop to use the usb device as its microphone source. This meant that it used its internal microphone. The results were execrable. Judging from some comments Inguz made to me, I'd guess that there are others who made this mistake, as well. 3. I neglected to modify the conf files for drc. The default microphone is _not_ the behringer ecm8000, which is what I used, and the default target curve wasn't the flat one, but a spline. The result was a somewhat hollow sound. Others have reported hollow sounds, as well, so I'd bet that this is a mistake others have made. Dont' make these mistakes, and the process is pretty painless :). Pros and cons of this versus a behringer dac Cons: 1. Not as "tweakable". This is actually a benefit for me, and others like me. I don't know a lot about equalization, and I have enough other things to learn about professionally that I just don't have the time or energy for this one. Note that you _can_ modify the target curve, if you so desire, and there _are_ much more configurable pieces of software that will generate filters that can be used by the plugin (I think one of the companies that makes one is called acousta). 2. You can't have multiple squeezeboxes have different eq. This is actually false in the general case, although I've seen people mention this. You _can't_ have multiple squeezeboxes use different eq if there sync'ed, though. Pros: 1. It automatically deals with the bass, unlike the behringer. This makes it easier to use. 2. Time/phase correction in addition to frequency response correction (a biggie). 3. If you can borrow the measurement equipment (what I did), then it's free (at least until or if Inguz starts charging for the software). Alternatively,you could share the cost amongst a bunch of friends, since you don't need to all use it at once. Overall, I can't imagine going back (after only 1 day!). One thing this exercise did was make me realize just how truly horrific my room really is (I knew it was bad, but it's beyond bad). I will now concentrate all resources I expend on audio on the room for a while. Hope people find this helpful. -- totoro _____________________________________________ squeezebox 3 -> mccormack dna .5 -> audio physic tempo 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ totoro's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5935 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29489 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
