PlexAmp has a central role in my music streaming.
Love it that the EQ with preloaded headphone profiles is available.
But what I really would love, is the option of a Digital Room Correction. Either via PlexAmp team, or licensed via Dirac? DRC software on the server, a Microphone plugged into a connected device, and stream test tones via the PlexAmp player through speakers - and let the magic happen 
Sounds easy when I write it like this 
Hereās what Iāve foundā¦and Iām only playing 2-channel audio.
Take it from me, I was born in '72, had hearing so good I could hear
the 16KHz flyback transformer of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) on the other
side of a concrete block wall, so I know a ālittle bitā about audio. No BS.
First off, know what bitrate your Plex server is set to transcode into for audio/music streaming.
Mine is set to music, 192 kbps (kilo bits per second) in the OPUS Codec. Once you know this,
then you can transcode ALL of your audio to that codec and bitrateātakes the load off of your
server transcoding and it can stream NATIVELY!!! ā¦ALL of the audio that I have hard transcoded
to OPUS (Native to PlexAmp) was originally a FLAC fileā¦or DSD (Direct Stream DigitalāRARELY!)
I switched from Appleās AAC codec to OPUS as YouTube ALSO uses OPUS and itās a VERY legitimate
format as it doesnāt exhibit the same sibilance in the high frequencies as the comparable bitrate
in the MP3 Format. Please forgive my long drawn out dissertation here!!! Ok. On to the process of
āflatteningā your āsound spaceā-- I always do a physical auditory flattening with my ears using a
āpink noiseā audio trackā¦the higher quality codec you can find, the better. FLAC format if you
can get it, AAC would be my second choice, MP3 creates absolute high frequency sibilance junk in
the higher frequencies, especially below the 192 kbps sample rate. When I play the Pink Noise,
I have all types of audio processing dis-engaged whilst flattening the audio signal with the
āpink noiseāādisengage DTS, disengage Dolby Atmos, and anything else. I recommend using the
highest resolution āpink noiseā audio file you can find!!!..flatten all of the frequencies
using the base/system equalizer that you can so all of the frequencies sound the same
ā¦none greater than another. Only after flattening the base EQ can you add back in the
other audio processors. Hereās āMy Processā:
Itās quite a process, but when done correctly, itās like āreverse engineeringā YOUR sound system
to match what the audio engineer in the studio would have heard!!! Hopefully I havenāt made this
too complicated and you can find the āpathā to Audio Excellence that suits your hearing capabilities!!!
āEvery Oneās Hearing is slightly different!!! Make Your Listening Experience PERSONAL!!!
CHEERS!
Hereās my take on this:
The fact that Plexamp has an EQ at all, is because it is primarily an app for mobile devices.
I donāt see that part of it becoming more sophisticated than that.
The above feature request doesnāt make much sense for a mobile device. It is more suitable to a fixed set up.
And because of that, I think it is reasonable to put things like EQ, room correction, and speaker correction outside of Plexamp and into the operating systemās audio pipeline.
That way all apps can benefit from it and youāll have to measure a room only once (and not in every audio-playing app separately.
(Personally, I think even in the āmobileā use case, there should be EQ and other audio corrections done at the system level. For the same reasons as above. If done on the system level, it could even react to a change of audio device and apply a different set of corrections if e.g. a headphone is plugged in or the car stereo is connected per BT.)
Not even if this functionality were available āfor freeā via an open source software library. Even then youād be battling with numerous challenges, which are all outside of the scope of a humble music player.
Quality of audio input, quality of microphone being the main ones. I donāt see any chance to even start supporting user-provided hardware for this. To get reliable (and supportable) results, Plex would need to have control over both (i.e. make/supply these themselves).
And last time I checked, Plex doesnāt plan to go into the hardware business any time soon.
Thanks @digitiz72 and @OttoKerner , appreciate your input.
I actually built a couple of RaspberryPiās as the PlexAmp streamer. One connected to a headphone amp, the other to my 2 channel with speakers. I run it on my mobile as well, and indeed, room correction on a mobile device is not very useful - but with an amplifier setup, it changes everything.
Plex in the hardware would be an interesting decision, but I agree, unlikely, and for a software company it is a significantly different business model.
Licensing PlexAmp (such as Roon does) would be something else. Plenty of streaming amps out there - a lot of them Roon Ready. It would be nice if it was PlexAmped!
The calibration would be a challenge, but what is the pay-off? The room is a huge impact on the audio. It requires EQ (but unlike the current EQ, it needs to be 2 channel separated EQ), in that sense, PlexAmp is already a long way there. The next is a recording device, with a calibrated microphone. The microphones can be limited to a few models, or perhaps only one. A test tone generated/stored by Plex, and and the reference the software is targeted to hit.
Could it be a partnership with Dirac? (Iād pay for it).
I have an analyser, that provides me with directions to the EQ settings - which is a start, but I have no EQ in my amp, and I am not going to introduce one in the chain- unless it is digital.
PlexAmp was for me the reason to purchase Plex - I take the movie and tv server as a bonus. PlexAmp by far has been the best streaming option for music for me by far.
Get a MiniDSP 2x4HD + a UMIK, run tests with Room EQ Wizard (free), and call it done.
