|
Just my two cents:
I have a working project studio where I derive all of my income from. I have thrown all possible funds towards treating the room, but it is not a purpose-built studio so there was only so much I could do with the space.
I was continually frustrated with how my mixes translated elsewhere, and since I could additional treatment was not an option, I decided to give it a try. If it works, than great - if not, well I've spent $400 in many worse ways.
Initial thoughts:
I took about 26 measurements, just shy of the max 32, but frankly my listening area is quite small. The setup took little time and was painless.
The sound? My room didn't suffer from too many outrageous peaks and nulls, but there were some distinct issues on the plot that would explain some of the difficulties I had in the low mids. - and a nasty dip at 50hz which ARC will not be able to do anything about (my primary income is dance music, so this is a critical freq range, but I didn't buy ARC for the lows)
What was surprising is how much of a stereo imaging issue I had. Once activated, the processed signal immediately made me realize how much one side of my monitoring setup was twisting my perception of the image as a whole. I had been so used to it that it felt normal. But I had noticed that things seemed wonky when played elsewhere.
Once bypassed, the original signal is immediately heavy on the left and there are some phase issues that I think I got so used to that they became part of my brain's audio vocabulary.
So, considering that I was out of treatment options, so far this was a good purchase for me. At the very least I have a better idea of what was holding me back and I can try to adjust the room and setup accordingly. Ideally, not having to use ARC would be better than using ARC. But in the meantime, this was worth the $399.
If someone gave me an unlimited budget to build a studio, I wouldn't touch it - but if someone asked me if it would help in their bedroom studio, I would be inclined to say yes.
|