SDA speakers and room correction software

Striker2237 · November 10

Has anyone here experimented with room correction software and SDA speakers of any type?

I have Anthem ARC and Dirac but do not use it because I am uncertain what effects it has on the crosstalk system when it adjusts delays and levels. Is the SDA system sensitive to L/R balance levels in terms of ruining the effectiveness of the system and do delay adjustments have a similar issue?

I have a small army of these speakers now and some will be going to rooms/areas that are not ideal/I will not be applying treatments to or setting up around the speakers so I was hoping I could use the software to cheat those rooms.

Any input is welcome!

skipshot12 · November 10

With the way SDA works I'd be a little skeptical in setting up with room correction software.
Only way I would see it working as it should is if the correction software had Polk's SDA built into it to take account of it's affects while doing it
s corrections.

But I have a question... what if you used the correction software without the SDA cable?
You could at least be correct with the correction freq,s, spl and whatever else that software does.
Then let the speakers do it's SDA thing with the cable inserted.

Have no idea, let's see what the big dogs say.

VR3 · November 10

You can set Dirac to only correct below 180hz and should be fine

Just mindful that it reduces headroom and increases power requirements

skipshot12 · November 10

^There you go^

pitdogg2 · November 10

I just unhooked the SDA cable.

Emlyn · November 10

The only way to know for sure in a specific room and with a specific pair of speakers is to try it with the cable plugged in and without it plugged in. SDA speakers themselves are very sensitive to a listener's head placement within the soundstage. I agree with primarily focusing on the bass management aspects of room correction systems. I usually trim the speaker levels myself manually with an SPL meter after the room correction calibration does its thing.

Striker2237 · November 10

Okay great, seems like I was on a sane/worth trying track. Thanks guys

I do level adjustments manually with a DB meter and that's actually what got me thinking about this. In the SDA range of operation when running a test tone I found that if I turn the right side up 1.5 db to match left the left side SDA array gets louder and vice versa causing adjustments to be more complex than normal speakers

Emlyn · November 10

I have always level matched my SDA speakers in a home theater system so they are the same regardless of what the calibration comes up with. They are usually off by half a dB. Not that I could tell the difference in output, but I just felt better with them matched!

SDA speakers and room correction software

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