[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

atledreier wrote:

Even though the 'evidence' here suggest this and that, the reality is that good EQ in the time domain, like Audyssey and RoomPerfect (Both of which I've extensively used) makes for better sounding systems, especially in a well treated room. I can't explain it, I won't even try to, but the fact still remain. It sounds better.

Sure, I don’t think there are many who will claim that Audyssey (or any equalizer) won’t make an audible difference (hey, I’m a big equalizer buff myself). And certainly there is a time domain element with Audyssey, just like there is with any equalizer – to re-quote Rane’s Dennis Bohn, “Amplitude, phase and time are all inextricably mixed by the physics of sound. One does not exist without the others.” The debate seems to be over exactly how or why. Which I’m starting to think is kind of silly. It’s like, “Okay, it works. Who cares why?”

At the end of the day, an equalizer merely tames a room mode by depriving it of energy – i.e. reducing its amplitude. If it also happens to truncate the near-term signal decay time, that’s certainly a nice side effect. But if you could somehow totally eliminate the extended decay without reducing the amplitude, it would still sound bad (just try applying one of those “electronic room modes” to some headphones, where there is no ringing issue). So in my mind it’s the amplitude aspect that makes the audible difference, not the time domain.

Regards,
Wayne