New loudspeakers & room digital correction service

[aps]

Thierry

 

Is there a recommendation as to good in ear binaural microphones to use for the actual HRTF measurements?

 

APS

[fresponse]

Hello,

 

It is important to find small microphones so you can capture most of the influence of your ear shape.

If you live in the US you can go for a model like this one https://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-TFB-2

In Europe you can check this website http://www.soundman.de/fr/products/ (OKM I or II)

 

Best,

Thierry

 

 

[fresponse]

Hello,

 

FYI the service has been reviewed by C. Punter from Hifi -advice http://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review/digital-reviews/audio-software-reviews/home-audio-fidelity-loudspeakers-room-digital-correction-services/

 

Conclusion is "So, clearly wholeheartedly recommended!" ?

[marcusman]

Great review, and nice confirmation of what many of us already know!   I've alway been curious as to what people who have better equipment than I think of HAF filters, now I know!

[STC]

Stereo is inherently flawed due to crosstalk. Any setup addresssing the crosstalk will be better than stereo with crosstalk. 

 

Comgrats to tall who embraced XTC. 

[RedSwede]

Hi,

 

 

I've recently taken Thierry's service for room calibration and wanted to post a little review. This is my first post on here, but I'm not working for HAF, haven't had any payment or freebies. I just read about it here, took the trial and paid for the filters. It only seems reasonable to give some feedback.

 

I took the Excellence option with room correction and crosstalk correction.

 

Since my main setup has ended up in it's current location, I have always been annoyed with some room modes. It's a decent sized room with a good amount of heavy furnishing, but the listening position is not ideal. For various life-related reasons, that can't change. These room modes have always bothered me, and I've tried various EQ solutions and a few trials of Dirac, but never had something that sounded right. As soon as I read about it here, I REW-measured my room and had a couple of test files done - that was enough to convince to try the paid filters.

 

Room Correction Filter: 

This is a plain and simple massive improvement. Trying to quantify it is difficult. It's absolutely not a details change like cables, or DAC filter settings. Neither is it a speaker change, where the whole character of the system changes. It's more like going up a rung or two or three on the amplifier ladder, but from the same manufacturer. The character of the system doesn't change at all - which is a first for DRC to me - it just fixes the problems. Getting rid of these room modes is probably to me the single biggest upgrade possible in a decent level setup.

 

Crosstalk.

This is different - it's not just an improvement, as it has a bit of a feel of an effect. As standard, I would rather not use this - sometimes it sounded like certain instruments were in my head. However, Thierry was also able to make some filters with a reduced level of "effect". I did find that some of the in-room "feel" does drop a little as a result of getting rid of the room modes - a small amount of crosstalk reduction brings back that more enveloping soundstage, but in a controlled even handed way. It also, for reasons I don't exactly know, seems to make treble extremely easy, taking away any hint of hardness (already something I thought my system was pretty good for). There is still some downside, but in my case the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

 

Summary

If you can easily introduce filters into your playback chain, and don't have a professionally treated room, I genuinely cannot see why you wouldn't have HAF room correction filters running.

 

Try crosstalk reduction out. Thierry can tweak and change things, so there could well be a setting that you like. With some degree of this going on I have never had a more lifelike presentation in the room.

 

[Norty]

I have recently purchased the Crosstalk package from Home Audio Fedeltiy.  It has made the world of difference to my system.  My room is irregular with couches, coffee tables, windows and no carpeting.  All the things that hinder quality audio.  I now have a quality of sound that paid for with my stereo.  As I use Roon to process the filters I can turn the room correction on or off with ease while listening.  There is no comparison.  I have both the  Crosstalk and regular file set up and with the Crosstalk I get equal soundstage but a more spacious sound outside of the speakers.  The sound is centered with great imaging of sound.  Thierry walked me through the sweeps even though I am a non-techie.  If like me you do not have a dedicated listening room but have quality equipment the room correction is the single best improvement you can make.

[STC]

Great to hear more audiophiles are interested in crosstalk cancellation.

 

 

 

[garypine]

After listening to the results of the processing of the test tracks I sent, I was sufficiently impressed to purchase the product from Home Audio Fidelity. Over the years, I have spent considerable time with many approaches to room EQ, e.g., Audyssey, Anthem, Dirac. I've only been listening to reference my tracks for about a week and am already very impressed with the results. This product competes very favorably with Dirac which, in my opinion, is the best product of the ones I listed above. But I'm writing this post to say something else. It is very rare in my experience for a company to be as responsive as Thierry is at Home Audio Fidelity. I was amazed - shocked even - that he would respond to my question and requests for changes within 24 hours - even on weekends. And on more than one occasion he answered a question that wasn't even about his product, saving me from doing additional research. This level of customer support is extraordinary and I wanted to give Thierry a shout out for that.

[marcusman]

I agree Thierry has been super responsive with me and my silly questions in the beginning.  Its been the best audio purchase I've made.  I don't "tweak" anything anymore.  My next purchase will be better speakers then I'll have Thierry do his magic again.  

[jiminlogansquare]

I recently purchased the HAF solution (my word for it) and am thoroughly pleased with how it has improved the sound of my system. Especially the crosstalk correction. This feature alone might be enough to sell HAF to those who love vocals and spoken word recordings. And in general the correction that HAF provides is more limited than what I was doing with Dirac and therefore actually lets my speakers shine and express their sound in the way their creator planned

 

I realize  that the Dirac correction target was my own choice and that Dirac allows the user a great deal of discretion and freedom in how much and where to apply corrections 

 

 Bottom line, the sound I got from Dirac was over controlled compared to what HAF is doing. Add in the crosstalk attenuation, and it's an easy decision for me.

[jiminlogansquare]

Also, could we possibly get the title of this thread updated to reflect the actual name of the service: Home Audio Fidelity. It's absurd that this service's actual name remains obscured after more than a year. 

[fresponse]

Thanks for all these feedbacks ! it is really encouraging.

I am working on something new and will come back soon with more infos.

 

[jiminlogansquare]

Thierry, any updates on your new project noted in your post from August? Enjoying HAF and curious and hopeful for any improvements you might make. 

[fresponse]

Hi all, things have been moving slowly but I am now close to have a product. I have been working on a new type of correction to address the uneven decay times coming from room resonances. As it is not standard filtering technique, I had to develop a specific plugin. The Windows version is under final testing and should be available within a month or so . Next step will be to adapt it for Mac...

[PYP]

2 hours ago, fresponse said:

Hi all, things have been moving slowly but I am now close to have a product. 

 

Would it be possible to use your new product with Roon?

[fresponse]

Roon is not yet supporting external plugins but there are some workarounds like routing the output to a VST host or DAW. There are some examples on the Roon community.

[PYP]

8 hours ago, fresponse said:

Roon is not yet supporting external plugins but there are some workarounds like routing the output to a VST host or DAW. There are some examples on the Roon community.

 

Thank you for the information.  I look forward to learning more about your new product. 

[fresponse]

The Windows version of the "Room shaper" plugin is now available. Some infos and download link can be found here

 

[marcusman]

10 hours ago, fresponse said:

The Windows version of the "Room shaper" plugin is now available. Some infos and download link can be found here

 

Looking forward to trying the Mac version.  Hopefully Roon will allow plugins one day.

[alandbush]

11 hours ago, fresponse said:

The Windows version of the "Room shaper" plugin is now available. Some infos and download link can be found here

 

 

So, a ‘filter’ to enhance room correction that’s already applied.

 

Intrigued by this development.

 

Unfortunately, it would appear my Windows 10 pro 64 bit pc cannot handle the cpu intensive processing.

Or, could it be my VST host or USB attached interface cannot specify a buffer large enough to handle the 1.5 second processing buffer?

 

The cpu is 2.4 ghz with 4gb ram.

I am using VST Host linked with a RME Digiface.  The maximum latency buffer is 4096 samples.

 

What I hear with the plugin, active or bypassed, is audio but with a stuttering or pumping(?).  This stuttering reduces when increasing both buffers but the the maximum buffer size is reached before it is removed.

 

I wonder if you could provide details of a Windows based system that can run your plugin successfully.

 

btw - I have another Windows 10 pro 64 bit machine with an i7-7700HQ cpu at 2.8 ghz 16gb ram but it’s not currently setup to perform audio playback.

[jiminlogansquare]

2 hours ago, marcusman said:

Looking forward to trying the Mac version.  Hopefully Roon will allow plugins one day.

You can use plug-ins with Roon by adding a virtual cable program like Audio Hijack. Although you might have known this and were just wishing Roon did it all.  =^)

[marcusman]

Thanks Jim, I didn't know this!  I like learning new things so gracious!  I do wish it was built into Roon however just to make things streamlined.  Anyway I'm a fan of what HAF is doing so I'd love to try it out except I don't own a Windows machine.

 

If you have any instructions on how to do this please post!  I'm somewhat adept technically

[fresponse]

12 hours ago, alandbush said:

 

So, a ‘filter’ to enhance room correction that’s already applied.

 

Intrigued by this development.

 

Unfortunately, it would appear my Windows 10 pro 64 bit pc cannot handle the cpu intensive processing.

Or, could it be my VST host or USB attached interface cannot specify a buffer large enough to handle the 1.5 second processing buffer?

 

The cpu is 2.4 ghz with 4gb ram.

I am using VST Host linked with a RME Digiface.  The maximum latency buffer is 4096 samples.

 

What I hear with the plugin, active or bypassed, is audio but with a stuttering or pumping(?).  This stuttering reduces when increasing both buffers but the the maximum buffer size is reached before it is removed.

 

I wonder if you could provide details of a Windows based system that can run your plugin successfully.

 

btw - I have another Windows 10 pro 64 bit machine with an i7-7700HQ cpu at 2.8 ghz 16gb ram but it’s not currently setup to perform audio playback.

 

What kind of VST host are you using ? do you have upsampling ? I have done some testing with similar computer resources as yours w/o issues up to 192 kHz

[alandbush]

2 hours ago, fresponse said:

 

What kind of VST host are you using ? do you have upsampling ? I have done some testing with similar computer resources as yours w/o issues up to 192 kHz

Thanks for the reply.

 

VST host is VSTHost by Hermann Sieb, set to run with a sample rate of 96kHz.

 

I have other VST hosts I could try, such as PedalBoard and Cantabile.