Parametric Room EQ Settings Evaluation

The "FLAT" Room EQ mode, according to Denon "adjusts the frequency response of all speakers flat." Prior to this review, I would have thought that the purpose of "NORMAL" setting was to adjust all speakers to a flat frequency response. Apparently "NORMAL" provides a bit more than simple room correction. On this setting, Nora Jones'vocals were moved forward a few feet, replacing the laid back style of the song with a more forward mix. On other discs I experienced similar feelings where the vocals were accentuated and the mix was brought forward so as to almost "flatten" the depth of the instrumentation in the mix. The "FLAT" setting is, to me, just a less aggressive version of the "NORMAL" setting. If you want some global room corrective EQ, but don't want to create a wall of sound, this might be your best choice.

The "FRONT" setting is intended to"adjust the characteristics of each speaker to match the front speakers." Of all of the settings, this one was the least intrusive as it only affected the surrounds and center channel speakers.

Based on my notes aboveI am going to make some serious recommendations regarding Denon's Automated Parametric Room EQ. First of all, prepare to do about an hour-long listening session, playing some of your favorite music. Go ahead and try out the "NORMAL" mode - and be prepared to like it... for about 3 minutes, until your ears get fatigued from the onslaught of sound. After this, switch between the various modes using the on-screen display, so that you can pick and choose what mode you are jumping to, rather than cycling via the remote. I think that the Room EQ system is going to vary in its usefulness depending upon the room, the speakers, and the listener. There is simply no way for any reviewer to tell you what will and will not work for you with regards to this type of system. I can tell you, however, that with my RBH Sound reference speakers, I prefer to leave the system off.

What would make this system much more useful would be to cap the amount of gain and allow limited tweaking of the amount of correction that is allowed. As you can see from the charts above, several of the target frequencies received +8 and +9 dB of GAIN from the system - a general no-no in the world of room correction. A good solution for this would be to apply a global "strength" filter that would apply to all EQ settings and would come with a "high, medium, and low" configuration. This would allow some flavor of correction to be done without generating the potential "wall of sound" effect that I observed. Denon could also focus the majority (or even all 8) of its parametric EQs on fixing the most notorious problem in listening rooms - room modes. By targeting just frequencies below 120Hz, they could provide an incredible service to those wishing to smooth out their low frequency response... of course this also has its own difficulties and inherent trade-offs.

Overall, the Room EQ system is a potential victory, but it must be used cautiously and its results will vary from system to system. It also could benefit from running a separate test for Room EQ once the speakers were configured; and mode-specific calibration. Take your time, listen to the differences, and draw your own conclusion. Based on my observation with the system I would doubt that the "Normal" mode will result in any truly accurate correction, but rather will create something akin to a DSP mode that renders a very forward mix of all channels. Denon also provides a Manual fixed Q equalizer that will allow you to do some correction on your system at fixed frequencies (63Hz, 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz & 8kHz).