TOPIC:

It is sometimes necessary to “phase match” when mixing between different speakers in a multichannel configuration. For example, if my center channel is phase linear (KH120 II) — but my left and right mains are not (KH120 original analog).

Sorely lacking is the ability to apply FIR phase correction only to select necessary channel(s).

Is miniDSP’s inelegant solution here for one to purchase yet another stereo Flex (which has FIR capability) — basically so that we can chain multiple units?

This does not make any practical sense to me, as a potential end user, I’m afraid.

Good question. It could be because the DSP does not have enough memory and/or CPU to do FIR with enough taps on all eight channels?
It could also be because they don't want to introduce the extra latency that FIR will result in.

Anyway, MiniDSP should be happy having myself as a customer, since I purchased six MiniDSP Flex - one for each channel in my 5.1 setup....

I am not demanding to apply FIR filters for every single channel. Why is that not clear or hard to understand? In fact, just over a thousand taps should be enough for the specific type example/application I wrote. Front LCR are rather more important here — I don’t care about FIRs for the surrounds even. Whereas IIR could be more than sufficient for everything else.

I was making a general comment, not about your desire in particular. But since you mention it, having the same phase response for all speakers in a surround setup is a good idea. That includes the surrounds as well.

I guess that MiniDSP's concern here is that many customers would complain about too few taps available. Better not to offer FIR in the first place, than do it kind of half-way where you can't run long FIR filters on all channels simultaneously.

Why assume for others? All I keep hearing is apologetics or hypothetical excuses.

'Plenty of other options out there.
It's always best to switch to a non-dedicated hardware platform and then you can configure exactly the way you want it.

Dave.