The Hi-Fi Guy

Room correction and EQ is a tremendous thing but Ed Selley worries it's getting harder to run a system without it - and we're therefore in danger of losing the personal touch

- Ed Selley

AS I WRITE this, I am listening to a digital file, streamed from my NAS, via the Roon music management platform, into a DAC and from there to an amplifier driving a pair of speakers. There are any number of EQ and DSP options open to me in Roon but every single one of them is bypassed or switched off. I know that my speakers' response in my room at my listening position is not ruler flat. And do you know what? I don't care.

The sound I'm hearing is one I've honed and tweaked over time. It's close enough to 'neutral' to make testing equipment a practical proposition, but it's one that also reflects the listening experiences of your common or garden UK lounge. Importantly, it also allows for the slight but noticeable character of the electronics and speakers themselves to be perceived as part of the performance.

The very idea of this is anathema to some. The target is a 20Hz-20kHz frequency response as flat as a relief map of a snooker table, reproducing the feed from the mastering desk. And EQ and correction are means of getting closer to this ideal.