Hi Nyal,
Thanks, understood. I use R+D software on an old notebook with a Creative outboard sound card, m-audio preamp, and Earthworks measurement mic (probably worth more than all else put together). That provides very flat response without a lot of money (<$2000 USD plus notebook), and saves breaking the good preamps out of my recording system just for room measurements.
My room is well-treated; probably too much so, but I do not mind a fairly dead room. I realize I am giving up some of the "spaciousness" of my Maggies for pin-point imaging across the couch; I can live with that, at least better than the comb filtering effects I would otherwise experience. There are pix on this site in the reader's rigs area.
I don't have any real problem doing better than MCACC for frequency response (though I can't tweak phase/group delay with the AVR), it just takes a little time. Quiet time, harder to find with the kids home for summer! R+D uses a combination test signal (impulse plus noise) so by looking at the time and frequency domains I can dial it in fairly well. The Pio unit does include three PEQ bands, which unfortunately do not cover the low bass region (< 50 Hz or so). My subs have a single-band PEQ I use for that, along with all the absorbers. I rarely use waterfalls because I am less familiar with them and the AVR's filters won't do much about them (i.e. time decay, RT60 etc.); I depend upon the room treatment for that.
One thing I have noticed is that my measurements virtually overlie from run to run unless there's a good reason (e.g. somebody opening the door during a run). I have enough treatment that comb effects are minimized, at least through most of the range, so moving the mic a little does not significantly change the response. I do have some room modes to deal with and a few upper bass/lower midrange bumps I smooth out, but overall the system is about +/-3 dB with a few narrow spikes to +/- 6 dB from roughly 10 Hz to 20 kHz using 1/12-octave smoothing. I do shelve the region above about 12 kHz down about 3 - 6 dB as I can't hear that anyway (getting old) and prefer to save my ribbons.
My main interest in XT32 and things like miniDSP and BassQ are for the regions from 200 Hz down; I agree with you on that. The biggest drawback Pioneer's MCACC has, IMO, is their lack of anything below 60 Hz. Some people claim that is advantage and it allows you to use an outboard dedicated sub unit; I feel it is a shortcoming of MCACC, most likely related to processing power in the AVRs. I also prefer more PEQ bands, and more regular graphic EQ bands for that matter, than my Pioneer offers. Finally, I prefer to do the processing digitally, where I have more control over the filters and can design much steeper linear-phase or apodizing designs with essentially zero noise and drift compared to analog, and prefer to eliminate the extra A/D-D/A conversions that an outboard unit requires.
As I have said and Kal has noted (methinks he knows me a little too well
), should I upgrae to an XT32 unit, I would purchase the pro package so I could piddle.
I appreciate the insights offered by you, and Kal, and everybody, thank you! I have probably diverted this thread enough... - Don