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 February 1, 2009 Copland DRC205 Digital Room Correction Processor
It’s the room. If you’ve got a great system but haven’t taken steps to tune your room, you’re missing out on a lot of performance. Room correction comes in many forms, the most basic of which is the strategic placement of furniture so you can sit in the sweet spot. There are plenty of what I call "analog" room-correction devices out there in the forms of bass traps, acoustic tiles, and even little metal hemispheres. I can get away with rearranging furniture, but turning my living room into a recording studio is definitely not possible -- bass traps are out. And at any rate they’re not the kind of thing I can see myself shucking out three large for. This leaves me with one option: digital room correction. I’m not talking home-theater receivers and speaker-delay settings here, but full-on, purpose-designed, high-powered computers that measure the acoustic properties of your room, and then do their best to make the walls and ceiling "disappear." The DRC205 Digital Room Correction Processor ($2995 USD), from the Danish company Copland, is the first of its kind that I’ve had a chance to experiment with, and if it’s anything to go by, it shouldn’t be long before audio reproduction moves to a whole new level of realism. Description The DRC205 is housed in a largish, silver-painted steel chassis measuring 17"W x 3.5"H x 15.5"D. The front panel is a minimalist affair of machined aluminum with ten recessed LEDs to display settings and two buttons: one for Setup, and one to Select various preset frequency-response curves. The DRC205 has no power switch and is therefore always on. Inside the chassis are two Copland-designed 24-bit/192kHz digital devices: an analog-to-digital converter on the input and a digital-to-analog converter on the output. According to Copland, the D/A circuitry used in the DRC205 is taken from the company’s top-line CDA822 and CDA823 CD players. Between the two converters is the Dynaton Sound Solution (DSS) Module, a third-generation digital signal processor developed by Dynaton, another Danish firm. If you haven’t heard of them, it might be because the company is only five years old. Despite its youth, Dynaton already has several patents pending, and feels confident enough to make some bold statements about its DSS Module, claiming that products equipped with it offer:
Makers of bass traps and diffusers, take note! When a company makes such claims, it can be setting itself up for some hard times. There are always skeptics who like nothing more than to knock over pedestals and make others look foolish. But based on what I’ve heard from the DRC205, I’d say that there isn’t a claim listed above that isn’t true, at least to some degree. The marriage of Copland’s A/D and D/A converters with Dynaton’s DSS technology seems to have given birth to an exceptional if somewhat finicky audio component.
Setup Wanting to make life difficult for the Copland DRC205, I didn’t even try to correctly position the speakers I used for this review; I simply plunked them down 3’ from the front wall and 2’ from the sidewalls, and toed them in toward the listening position, 8’ away. Because I put no effort into properly positioning the speakers, I won’t identify them here -- it wouldn’t be fair to their designers and manufacturer. I’ll say only that they’re high-quality, floorstanding guinea pigs that cost about $1400/pair. The DRC205 is placed in the circuit between a source component, which plugs into the processor’s sole input, and a preamplifier or integrated amplifier, which connects to the Copland’s single output. Input and output share the DRC205’s rear panel with a type-B USB jack (which permits a connection between the DRC205 and a PC), a jack for the supplied calibrated microphone, and a small hole that provides access to a tiny rotary switch. That switch is a free-turning unit used to set the low-frequency limit for the test tones generated by the DRC205 during room calibration. The aim of this switch is to limit low-frequency output to avoid pushing the speakers beyond their capabilities. To set the limit, a small screwdriver is inserted into a notch in the switch to turn it to the desired setting. There are frequency markings stenciled around the perimeter of the aforementioned hole, but these don’t seem to correspond to anything. According to those stenciled markings I thought I’d set the DRC205 to a 40Hz lower limit when I had PSB’s Imagine B speakers in-house, but according to the Copland’s front-mounted display, it was actually set to 16Hz. Why Copland has used a free-spinning manual switch for this purpose is a mystery, as front-mounted electronic selectors would be far more convenient -- especially if you review a lot of speakers! Once the DRC205 is set up and the microphone and optional USB cable are plugged in, the calibration process is straightforward. Place the mike at ear height at the listening position. Press Setup for a few seconds to initiate the test mode. Or, via its USB port, the DRC205 can be set into motion via software included with the product. The DRC205 then generates test signals, first in the left channel, then the right. But unless you have very long arms, it’s impossible to simultaneously hold the mike in position and push the Setup button. This procedure is therefore either a two-person job, or you can do as I did and place the mike on a camera tripod. A remote control to initiate the Setup procedure would be a welcome addition. If, like me, you tend to take owner’s manuals at their word, then you might wonder if your DRC205 is working properly the first time you run the test tones. According to the manual, the processor’s test signals "may remain audible for up to approx. a minute per channel," so when the DRC205 had completed both channels in about 20 seconds, I wondered if I’d done something wrong. Only after repeatedly running the calibration procedure did I feel assured that the manual was exaggerating the amount of time the processor might require to crunch its numbers. It’s also evident that the manual was translated imperfectly from Danish into English; nonetheless, the basic setup and usage instructions come across clearly enough. (Fun cultural fact: Danes love exclamation marks!) The DRC205’s test tones comprise what sound like bursts of white noise in the treble range and a series of low-frequency warbles, the latter somewhat resembling the sound of a sheet of metal used to simulate thunder. The effects of these sounds on dogs is interesting to watch, but they’re otherwise unobtrusive -- no fingernails on a chalk board or painful squawks. The manual recommends running the tests in a quiet room, but if that’s not possible, the amplifier’s volume should be set high enough to drown out any ambient noise. The DSS module inside the DRC205 computes the room-correction curve about as quickly as it runs through the test signals. If the DRC205 is connected to a computer, the room’s actual frequency response can be viewed onscreen using the included software, which plots the response of each speaker in the room, as well as the recommended corrections to achieve the most neutral response possible, if that’s what you’re trying to achieve. If not, the DRC205 has four presets that use the room measurements to bring the audio system as close as possible to Copland’s predefined curves. The first of these predefined curves, A1, is ruler-flat from 20Hz to 20kHz. A2 is a variation of the classic BBC Curve, with neutral bass and dips in the midrange and treble. A3 is reminiscent of the NRC's Athena Project curve, with a 2-3dB boost in the low bass that gently arcs downward toward a 1-2dB cut in the upper treble. A4 is bypass, no correction at all. The DRC205 was able to bring my system to within 1dB of the target curves through most of the audioband -- an impressive feat, considering my room’s bass suckouts between 50 and 100Hz, where otherwise the response is down as much as 6dB from neutral. Examine the DRC205’s PC chart and you’ll see that there are two further curve buttons, P1 and P2, and five sliders with "Bypass" at the top of each. These are classic tone controls with which the response at any frequency can be tailored to the listener’s preference. Once the settings have been tweaked, they can be saved as P1 or P2. The predefined curves in A1 to A3 can be altered, but because the original curves are hardwired, any changes will not be saved to those selector positions.
A warning about the Copland DRC205’s ability to radically alter bass frequency response: In one of my rooms, the DRC205 found a -15dB suckout at about 150Hz. The Copland was able to correct this flaw, reducing its severity by an amazing 11dB in one channel and 6dB in the other. While those numbers are impressive, it must be borne in mind that this degree of correction can severely tax speakers and amplifiers, both of which can be pushed to produce greater output at the targeted frequency to offset the room loss. I noticed no ill effects from this with the variety of speakers I used with the DRC205, nor was there ever any sign that my Simaudio Moon i5.3 integrated amplifier was being pushed hard. That said, be aware that plugging big holes in the bass might be more than some gear can handle. Listening and comparisons Here at SoundStage! AV we usually describe listening impressions and comparisons with other products in separate sections, but in the case of the Copland DRC205, the only comparison of its performance was with its absence from the circuit. We could have arranged for a slew of "analog" room-correction devices, but that hardly seemed practical or doable. So here I present impressions of the same pieces of music with the DRC205 active (A1 curve) and with it in Bypass mode (A4). The DRC205 was the first component to grace my reference system that instantly made me wonder if I could ever live without it. The changes it made were not subtle, and certainly didn’t require a pair of golden ears to notice. When a friend lent me a copy of Paul Anka’s Rock Swings (CD, Verve 000475102), I was mighty skeptical that contemporary rock songs could be converted into big-band swing numbers. Boy was I wrong. I can’t get enough of this disc. With the DRC205 active, Anka’s take on Spandau Ballet’s "True" was spacious, and I could hear the crooner’s voice echoing off the studio’s rear and sidewalls. Drums were clearly forward of the main body of players, but the upright bass was at times hard to detect, as it tended to disappear when middle notes were played. Brass instruments had wonderful bite and were tonally rich -- I could easily hear the many harmonics that made up each note. In bypass mode, this same track sounded closed-in and one-dimensional. Whereas Anka’s vocals were dead center with the Copland active, his voice now emerged from just inside each speaker. The bass performance was notably worse, and bloated at the bottom. Alas, that bloat was all I could hear of the bass, as its mid and upper notes simply disappeared. The brass I’d enjoyed so much on the first pass sounded a tad shrill at the song’s loudest moments. In short: Copland 1, Room 0. Denzal Sinclaire’s "The Art of Living," from his 2003 eponymous album (CD, Universal 328274), had tubby, uncontrolled bass in its lower registers with the DRC205 turned off. The crooner’s soothing voice was locked to the speaker positions, and the entire affair sounded very one-dimensional. Cymbals came across a little bright, the crash cymbals in particular sounding too swishy -- a sort of fat, ill-defined mushroom of treble energy hung over the cymbals after they were struck. "Engage!" I said in my best Captain Picard voice, as I put the Copland back into the swing of things. What struck me right away was that Sinclaire and band now sounded a decibel or two louder than before, as if I’d turned up the volume. His voice had far more life than before, and when he sang about the art of living, I bought his sales pitch for the good life. Particularly impressive was the Copland’s ability to reveal that the lyrics didn’t simply emerge from Sinclaire’s mouth, but rather that his entire upper body was involved in the process of creating music. Copland 2, Room 0. The next track I played was a 24-bit/96kHz "Studio Master" downloaded from Linn Records. Singer Carol Kidd’s rendition of "It Never Entered My Mind," from Dreamsville (Linn AKD 325), has a glow and warmth that would make a fireplace envious. With the Copland in play, Kidd’s performance was sublimely detailed, right down to the slight but easily detectable sound of her lips parting. When a recording is poorly conceived, such fine details can sound etched and grating, as if the engineer had simply ratcheted up the microphone’s gain and hoped for the best. That was definitely not the case here. Kidd’s accompaniment on this track -- guitar, piano, and bass -- were well grounded just behind and to the sides of her voice. By "well grounded" I mean that each instrument existed not in its own little bubble of sound, but instead occupied the breadth, depth, and height of the space around it. The acoustic piano, which many consider the most difficult instrument for a sound system to reproduce, was so tangible, so pure and real, that I found myself wishing I could listen to it alone. In the left of the soundstage, an acoustic guitar strung with nylon or cat gut at times sounded a little diffuse, at least in comparison to the piano, and was sometimes difficult to localize. The sound of the bass was tight and well controlled, though there was some excess bloom in its lowest notes. Turning the Copland off revealed a still-fantastic masterwork that seemed in need of a little tidying up. The vocal details that had thrilled before were now fatiguing, sounding too rich. Otherwise, with this particular recording, it was hard to fault my room. Copland 2, Room 1. Another Linn Records Studio Master on my hard drive is Ian Shaw’s "Love at First Tequila," from Lifejacket (Linn AKD 311). I wasn’t familiar with Shaw before downloading this track, but he quickly won me over with a style that falls somewhere between Dave Matthews and the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies. When I listened to the song with the DRC205 in-circuit, it had a powerful impact. Near the beginning, a cymbal is struck with a mallet with such authority that I had to wonder if it wasn’t a cymbal but a much larger gong. The bass guitar sounded tight, and it was apparent that songwriter Shaw had intended that it function as punctuation during the verses, a duty it fulfilled with aplomb. Turning off the Copland sucked the life out of "Love at First Tequila." The bass and guitar gave away their third dimension, and fell back to the same line, behind the singer. As with the other Linn Studio Master, treble artifacts that added to the spice of the song with the Copland on now took on a sugary nature, a little too rich and with a tad too much energy. This one went to the DRC205. Copland 3, Room 1. Moving further along the rock scale, and with the Copland off, Van Halen’s "Unchained," from Van Halen (CD, Warner Bros. 47737-2), had abundant guitar crunch but sounded a bit thin, and sometimes as if the instrument were shrieking -- or, at least, shrieking more than was intended. Surprisingly, it wasn’t at all apparent that the bass drums and bass guitar were working in tandem to pump out a heavy downbeat. David Lee Roth’s vocals were properly centered, and I had no difficulty in hearing Eddie Van Halen’s and Michael Anthony’s individual harmonies layered over Roth’s lead vocal. Back online, the DRC205 worked its magic. Van Halen’s guitar went from thin to thick, heavy, enormous -- as though he’d put away his practice amp and plugged into a wall of Marshall amp stacks set to 11. Now the individual contributions of the bass and bass drums were readily apparent, as was their combining into a jackhammer that pushed the music along with relentless force. The entire soundfield was much larger, and had the essence of a live rock concert -- even the vocals became big. My final listening note for this track: "Now it sounds like a rock song." Copland 4, Room 1. At this point, things went astray. Though the DRC205 seemed purpose-built for jazz and rock, it fumbled every classical recording I passed through it. Needless to say, this was surprising. The first classical recording I played was Jupiter, from Holst’s The Planets, as performed by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (CD, JVC XRCD 228). With the DRC205 on, the orchestra’s upper registers were muddled, and the lower brass seemed out of focus. There was good spatial differentiation between different instrument sections, but the center of the soundfield seemed strangely hollowed out. Turning off the Copland revealed brass sections with great bite and more focus. The center filled in, and more sections became apparent as the more delicate instruments gained a footing. The lower brass was as muddled with the Copland off as with it on. Not wanting to rush to conclusions, I then played the same movement, this time performed by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (CD, Decca 417 553-2). Dutoit takes Jupiter more slowly and places less emphasis on the treble instruments. But taking these stylistic differences into account didn’t change the fact that this recording sounded just as muddled as the Mehta-LAPO version. The MSO came across as a unified whole, every musician pulling in the same direction, but the pleasure found in this cohesiveness disappeared when the music got complicated. Copland 4, Room 2. Nor did things improve when I switched composers. I downloaded Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 from the orchestra’s online music store, and again found the performance sounding muddled when the Copland was at work. My concluding listening note for this recording was a slightly damning "not something I’d want to listen to for very long." Putting the DRC205 to bed gave me better detail. What the Copland had me thinking were pops turned out to be the sound of bows sliding across strings. The symphony had much greater weight and impact than with the DRC205 in-circuit; even coughs from the audience provided an impressive sense of the recording venue’s size -- cues that the Copland seemed to somehow miss. Copland 4, Room 3.
This incongruity bothered me. It made no sense that the DRC205 could be so excellent with some musical genres but fall flat with others. And yet, in session after session, I could not find a single orchestral recording that sounded better with the Copland’s room correction than without it. Though at a loss to explain this phenomenon, I’m not too concerned about it for myself -- I don’t listen to classical music very often, and the DRC205 never faltered with jazz, the music I love and listen to every day. Putting my reviewer hat back on, I can only suggest that the lover of classical music make sure he or she can audition the DRC205 at home before committing to a purchase. Conclusion At the beginning of this review I said that the Copland DRC205 could be somewhat finicky. Now you know that its only serious quirk seems to be an aversion to classical music. That will be an understandable deal-breaker for some, but for fans of jazz and rock, the DRC205 is just the thing to squeeze every last iota of performance from your system and room. I can’t say how it compares to room-correction hardware made of wood and metal and fiber, but I do know that the DRC205 is a heck of a lot easier to install and set up properly than are bass traps and acoustic tiles, and takes up a lot less room. There’s no guesswork with the Copland DRC205: just set it and forget it. Actually, don’t forget it. Every now and again, turn it off to remind yourself just what you’d be missing without it. . . . Colin Smith Copland DRC205 Digital Room Correction Processor Copland E-mail: copland@creative-online.dk North American distributor: E-mail: divergent@divertech.com
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You’ve
finally assembled the audio system of your dreams. Well, OK, maybe not your dreams,
but perhaps it’s the best system a person with mouths to feed and bills to pay can
expect to own. Sure, you’d love to be able to move up to the next level, but that
gets real expensive real fast, and with college tuition on the horizon, it’s a
nonstarter. But by saving a little here and a little there, you’ve managed to scrape
together $3000. In the meantime, you’ve got great speakers, a killer amp, a source
component you can’t imagine replacing . . . what else is there? What’s the best
way to spend that money?
