GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Learning to interpret RTA

Post Subject: Yes, RTA is a tool, but how to use it?Posted by zanon on: 6/14/2010

Paul S:

DSET is a very high power solution to a question that I only have a very primitive understanding of. It is not right for me at this time.

I would prefer if the model etc. of my speakers not be involved in this discussion. I know I am committing audio heresy, but I do not want to talk about gear, i want to understand how to better use RTA to support and interpret what I hear. My speakers are 2 way floorstanders, reasonably high efficiency, 10 inch woofer, horn loaded tweeter, and are ABSOLUTELY stretched thin.

It is certainly possible that my speakers are not right for this room. As the room is so large, like ROmy's new room actually, it may require a dramatically different gear to load it properly. That is not in the cards for right now, and is also a tangential issue from me getting the most out of what I have now, and even more tangential to understanding this new tool.

For an experiment, I set my RTA and looked at octave level measurement. By magic it became very flat -- the big dip I see at 1/3 vanishes. I am afraid at what I will now see at 1/6 given how much information was lost at octave level. It has also made me curious as to sonic effect of these kinds of dips and notches. Using dEQ (also terrible, I know) to crudely boost upper bass had little effect on opera (Soave, from Puccini La Boheme) but moved vocals on your typical rock/pop track dramatically to the front and, to my ears on some tracks through them out of balance. They were no longer as integrated in the past, even though they sounded more recessed. I will experiment more, and also try higher detail RTA as suggested by Jessie.

Unicorn: Left/Right is a good suggestion. I had not considered that at all, and have been just using toe-in to integrate two channels (my HF is very directional).

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