The topic of room tuning or digital equalization has never been a more relevant topic in the world of consumer electronics with seemingly every feature laden receiver and most new AV preamps boasting some form of room correction software under the hood. For serious audiophiles and high end home theater enthusiasts with up to 7.1 speakers in their system - there is an exciting new solution on the market. The neptuneEQ 7.1 channel automatic room equalizer was designed to correct room acoustics and the audio components problems with a strong design emphasis placed on ease of use thus the unit is friendly to the D.I.Y user. This equalization system is designed for higher end consumer users at a cost of $3,995.

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The NeptuneEQ has both balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs and outputs for all eight channels and utilizes high resolution 96 kHz 24-bit conversion. The seven primary channels are tuned utilizing a one third octave equalizer and the sub or LFE channel utilizes a one sixth octave equalizer. In addition to equalization, this system analyzes the room and automatically sets the subwoofer crossover points to best fit your system's unique needs. It also calibrates speaker levels and sets delays to align the distances to the listening position for each individual speaker. The system comes with a calibrated microphone and cable so no external computer is necessary. There is a graphic display on the front panel that shows you menus and parameters and the unit is controlled via a circular navigation button similar to that on your DVD remote control. The two-rack space unit is made to sit on a shelf and comes with rack ears at a small additional fee. The neptuneEQ is a good-looking design, one that would fit well into any component rack.

The Hookup
Setup of the neptuneEQ is very straightforward and easy to accomplish. It is important to read the manual since there are several layers of complexity and sophistication that you will need to understand if you're going to get the best out of your system. The manual is well written and clearly explains menu navigation and operation in a step-by-step process. My 5.1 system is all balanced, so I utilized the XLR inputs and outputs which are clearly labeled on the back of the box. The neptuneEQ comes with its own calibrated measurement microphone for running tests and I like the fact that they included a 25-foot cable, which should be ample length for most home theater setups. They even include a small stand for the microphone and a weighted bag to make sure that the microphone does not tip over when balanced on your chairs, so you do not have to supply your own microphone stand.

The setup tests may be performed either automatically or manually. Obviously the easiest method for most consumers will be to utilize the automatic adjustments. The adjustments include equalization, speaker level, crossover frequency, delays, and woofer phase (extremely important). The tests can be performed all at once or as individual tests. For someone such as myself (a professional audio calibrator by trade who tunes recording studios and residential high end music and theater systems), with sophisticated measurement tools, automatic settings may also be fine tuned manually once the tests are run. This feature is an absolute necessity in my book. Another great feature in this box is the power amp sensitivity adjustment. This allows you to adjust for the fact that you may have mixed and matched different manufacturer's amplifiers and speakers to assemble your home theater system. You may also have a combination of balanced and unbalanced products in your system as well. A shortcoming is the fact that they do not allow for a sensitivity adjustment for the subwoofer. With so many manufacturers providing self powered subwoofers and unpowered subwoofers it seems like a sensitivity adjustment for the sub or LFE channel should have been included.

Neptune has also recognized the fact that listeners will have certain subjective preferences and has incorporated a section for what we would call tone control. There are nine tone control presets available to the end-user. Five of these presets are settings for what Neptune has labeled movie, music, television, games, and flat. The other four settings are user adjustable storage locations so that you can create and name four of your own tone curves.

Performance
For my initial tests I simply wanted to find out what the audio quality was like on this unit. The easiest way to do that was to do a manual setup and listen in stereo mode so I could use my high-resolution audio sources. In my system I use analog minimum phase parametric equalizers for tuning the room. Since the neptuneEQ is a one third octave equalizer, which means fixed center frequencies and fixed bandwidth, I mimicked my parametric curves as best as I could for the listening tests. The curves matched closely enough so that I could make my judgments based on sound quality as opposed to tuning. I primarily used my standard reference CD that contains a selection of pop, R&B, orchestral, country-western, blues, rock, and jazz recordings. After a fair amount of listening, considering the fact that I was comparing an ultra-expensive, professional grade studio analog equalizer to one using digital conversions in and out, I felt that the neptuneEQ sounded pretty darn good. As one would expect, the analog equalizers exhibited more depth more air, more solid imaging and separation of instruments. I would not say that the neptuneEQ meets studio standards but it will easily pass the test with movie soundtracks, Compact Discs, audiophile discs like DVD-Audio and SACD, television and other new school multimedia sources. Add in the effect of room correction to the minimal effect of the component even in the most sensitive of audio chains and you have a lot to gain in terms of overall audio performance with the neptuneEQ in your signal path.

Read more about the performance of the neptuneEQ on Page 2.