My easy Dsp with a cheap Dayton DSP 408 is working wonders in my room

newlash09

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Hi all...

I guess there are lots of threads dealing with mini dsp and REW. I got a umik-1 measurement microphone about 2 years back. But REW was always Greek and Latin to me. So after an initial tryst, I never bothered about either.

So in order to go active biamping as well as adress room nodes which were driving me crazy, I decided to give the Dayton dsp 408 a spin.

Despite being completely dumb at crossovers and room Eq, two things that gave me confidence were :

1) It has a easy windows based desktop app, that enables one to change settings on the fly in real time, as long as it is plugged via usb into the laptop

2) It has 8 channels of outputs, and provides 10 point parametric Eq on each channel. Each Eq point allows "Q" value and "gain" setting per each Eq point.

That was the easy part. Normally most folks would measure their room and apply Eq to try to cancel the peaks and leave the troughs alone.

Since I didn't want to dabble in REW again, I used a simpler method. I used online room mode calculators, and fed in my rooms exact dimensions till the last CM.

http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm

Below are the two room mode tables I got from the above online calculators. Then as can be seen in the attached paper pic below, I listed down all these frequencies, and marked those frequencies that were repeating in both tables.

Next I applied eq uniformly of -3db, at all these room mode frequencies. Or where these frequencies were differing by 5 Hz, I took the center average. For "Q" value, as can be seen I've kept it uniform at 3.997 to keep it narrow, as I read room nodes are very narrow, and usually only 5 Hz wide.

I also forgot to mention that I also split the frequencies to the bass driver being driven by the krell till 600 Hz. And mids and treble being driven by tube amp below 200hz. All with the available linkwitz riley 24db per octave slope cross overs.

The result it the best sound I've ever had in my room. It is sounding bloody marvellous now. Absolutely no bass boom.or bloat. The mid rnage , vocal clarity and treble have really opened up. The improvement is so promising , that the addition of some absorbers at first reflection points should take the system to another level. So Iam really over the cloud now.

I know this is not the most scientific way of doing Eq. But if some one has been wanting to give it a try, but hesitant like me. Then I fondly hope they find my post useful.

Considering that most of the members have spent much more on a singular power cable or a inter connect.. I would urge one and all to please give this or any other modern dsp a try. They are tonally totally transparent. And the improvement is way more than a dac or preamp or speaker upgrade, forget cables :D

Another important thing was that I had my doubts if adding a cheap dsp in the chain would add unwanted noise. But I got a ifi ipower ultra quiet 12v psu for powering the Dayton, instead of using its supplied LPSU. And I find the back ground pitch dark. I have actually removed the preamp from the chain , and feeding the Dayton directly from esoteric via its inbuilt volume control. And the music now emanates from the darkest , most noiseless background ive ever had. And the dynamics are off the charts too



Thanks for reading my long rant
:D


IMG-20191228-WA0044.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0045.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0047.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0046.jpg
 
Last edited:
Considering that most of the members have spent much more on a singular power cable or a inter connect.. I would urge one and all to please give this or any other modern dsp a try. They are tonally totally transparent. And the improvement is way more than a dac or preamp or speaker upgrade, forget cables :D

Another important thing was that I had my doubts if adding a cheap dsp in the chain would add unwanted noise. But I got a ifi ipower ultra quiet 12v psu for powering the Dayton, instead of using its supplied LPSU. And I find the back ground pitch dark. I have actually removed the preamp from the chain , and feeding the Dayton directly from esoteric via its inbuilt volume control. And the music now emanates from the darkest , most noiseless background ive ever had. And the dynamics are off the charts too



Thanks for reading my long rant
:D

Glad to hear it worked out so well for you :)

I have long maintained that good room correction coupled with a half decent amp can work as well if not better vs $$$$ Amps and Interconnects& cables (Speakers need to be good any which way)
Personally, very happy with Anthem but will dabble with Dirac/DDRC some day
 
Hi all...

I guess there are lots of threads dealing with mini dsp and REW. I got a umik-1 measurement microphone about 2 years back. But REW was always Greek and Latin to me. So after an initial tryst, I never bothered about either.

So in order to go active biamping as well as adress room nodes which were driving me crazy, I decided to give the Dayton dsp 408 a spin.

Despite being completely dumb at crossovers and room Eq, two things that gave me confidence were :

1) It has a easy windows based desktop app, that enables one to change settings on the fly in real time, as long as it is plugged via usb into the laptop

2) It has 8 channels of outputs, and provides 10 point parametric Eq on each channel. Each Eq point allows "Q" value and "gain" setting per each Eq point.

That was the easy part. Normally most folks would measure their room and apply Eq to try to cancel the peaks and leave the troughs alone.

Since I didn't want to dabble in REW again, I used a simpler method. I used online room mode calculators, and fed in my rooms exact dimensions till the last CM.

http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm

Below are the two room mode tables I got from the above online calculators. Then as can be seen in the attached paper pic below, I listed down all these frequencies, and marked those frequencies that were repeating in both tables.

Next I applied eq uniformly of -3db, at all these room mode frequencies. Or where these frequencies were differing by 5 Hz, I took the center average. For "Q" value, as can be seen I've kept it uniform at 3.997 to keep it narrow, as I read room nodes are very narrow, and usually only 5 Hz wide.

I also forgot to mention that I also split the frequencies to the bass driver being driven by the krell till 600 Hz. And mids and treble being driven by tube amp below 200hz. All with the available linkwitz riley 24db per octave slope cross overs.

The result it the best sound I've ever had in my room. It is sounding bloody marvellous now. Absolutely no bass boom.or bloat. The mid rnage , vocal clarity and treble have really opened up. The improvement is so promising , that the addition of some absorbers at first reflection points should take the system to another level. So Iam really over the cloud now.

I know this is not the most scientific way of doing Eq. But if some one has been wanting to give it a try, but hesitant like me. Then I fondly hope they find my post useful.

Considering that most of the members have spent much more on a singular power cable or a inter connect.. I would urge one and all to please give this or any other modern dsp a try. They are tonally totally transparent. And the improvement is way more than a dac or preamp or speaker upgrade, forget cables :D

Another important thing was that I had my doubts if adding a cheap dsp in the chain would add unwanted noise. But I got a ifi ipower ultra quiet 12v psu for powering the Dayton, instead of using its supplied LPSU. And I find the back ground pitch dark. I have actually removed the preamp from the chain , and feeding the Dayton directly from esoteric via its inbuilt volume control. And the music now emanates from the darkest , most noiseless background ive ever had. And the dynamics are off the charts too



Thanks for reading my long rant
:D


IMG-20191228-WA0044.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0045.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0047.jpg

IMG-20191228-WA0046.jpg
Nice. Congrats on the upgrade. I've been long thinking of trying a dsp for my sub. It's encouraging to see a fellow member with great results.
Do you mind sharing where you sourced it from? Is it locally available in India?
 
Is this for active stereo setup? What drivers are you using?

Hi saikat :)

Yeah this is a kind of active setup, but not exactly one in the truest sense. The amps are active, that means the power amps don't see frequencies beyond what they are delivering to the respective drivers. But the speakers still have their passive crossovers built in. These are 3 way pmc floor standers .

Nice. Congrats on the upgrade. I've been long thinking of trying a dsp for my sub. It's encouraging to see a fellow member with great results.
Do you mind sharing where you sourced it from? Is it locally available in India?

Hi Dr.lakshay :)

I got my unit from forum member @Kannan

You can contact him if you need one too. As you can see Iam only correcting bass below 300 Hz, and leaving the natural voicing of the speakers above this frequency intact. So I guess correcting just the sub, should give similar great results.
 
Peace... I love the DSPs and the wonder it can do with the xovers. Was wondering what you are up with your DSP.
1. Especially 24db xovers are challenging in Passive environment.
2. Then we can give the required power to each an individual drivers as it's purely active.
3. TA and level adjustment can bring every thing on the place where you want.
 
Get the Wharfedale EVO 4.2 3-Way Standmount Speakers at a Special Offer Price.
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