Product Review - Real Sound Lab CONEQ
Article Preview :: Loudspeaker Equalisation System
Reviews : Processor
Real Sound Lab’s innovative speaker correction system provides high-precision equalisation tailored to your monitors and your room.
The optional hardware element of the CONEQ system consists of a range of powerful digital equalisers.
Monitor loudspeakers are, without doubt, the weakest link of every audio chain! The perfect loudspeaker simply doesn’t exist; every design has a different blend of strengths and weaknesses, but the distortions inherent in current electro-mechanical transducers conspire to degrade the wanted audio signal in various frustrating ways. Of course, loudspeaker technology has improved steadily, if incrementally, over the last 100 years, but it is still very far from flawless — manufacturers simply choose different sets of compromises for their designs, to meet the required performance, size, and cost goals. However, the digital revolution has affected pretty much every aspect of the audio world, and loudspeaker designers are increasingly now integrating sophisticated digital equalisation techniques in an attempt to correct transducer deficiencies and to optimise loudspeaker system performance.
One interesting variation on this theme is CONEQ from Real Sound Lab, a company based in Riga, Latvia. CONEQ is designed to measure electro-acoustic transducers such as loudspeakers, and then to calculate corrective digital equalisation to permit near-perfect performance. The corrective filters are applied to the monitoring signal chain using either bespoke hardware DSP equalisation or software plug-ins, depending on practical requirements and budget. The software is compatible with both Mac (OS 10.5.8 and higher) and Windows (XP SP3 and higher) operating systems.
Technology
As an alternative to the hardware, the CONEQ filters can be implemented using a range of plug-ins.
Many third-party ‘corrective’ equalisation systems obtain the speaker system frequency response by measuring the sound pressure level produced by the speaker under test on-axis, at a defined listening position — it is the obvious way to do it, after all. Armed with a system response, it is then fairly trivial to calculate the required corrective filter to address any response irregularities. However, the total contribution the loudspeaker makes in a control room must include the off-axis energy, which is not taken into account with simple on-axis measurements. As a result, while many corrective systems often deliver improved performance for on-axis listening, they frequently result in degraded performance off-axis, and the overall effect can be disappointing or unsatisfactory because the frequency response of the total energy in the room is unbalanced.
Real Sound Lab’s CONEQ system takes a subtle but significantly different approach: to determine the acoustic power frequency-response rather than the simple sound pressure level response, and adjust it so that the speaker generates the correct power spectrum across the listening area. The idea was developed by Raimonds Skuruls, who founded Real Sound Lab along with investor Viesturs Sosars back in 2004. Their technology is now available in various software and hardware products, as well as being licensed to companies like Panasonic and Hitachi for use in their flagship plasma TVs, Mitsubishi in their Immersive Sound Technology surround systems, and in some of JVC Kenwood’s home audio products, among others.
I should emphasize that CONEQ is designed to correct principally for loudspeaker deficiencies: it is not a ‘room correction’ system in the conventional sense. Very sensibly, Real Sound Lab state that room acoustic issues are best dealt with using conventional acoustic techniques. Having said that, the CONEQ system will inherently attempt to correct for some of the effects of room acoustic anomalies captured during the measurement process, such as direct reflections from a console or table top.
The Measurement Process
The Starter Workshop program features an animation showing how to move the mic.
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See ‘Pricing’ box.Real Sound Lab +371 6788 9828
See ‘Pricing’ box.Real Sound Lab +371 6788 9828
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Wed 22 May 2013
Sound On Sound : Est. 1985