Audyssey Room EQ Review

[ABall]

I have calibrated rooms countless times by hand and with every Room EQ system out there. I understand the underlying science and what the system needs to do. It is not a mistake that I quickly arrived at the right target curve and positive results.

Just watched a video with Jeff Clark, meant to be lead systems engineer at Audyssey and he's been working on it since 2005 so I'm guessing he knows how the system works. Here's what he says.
"Don't hand hold the microphone" (its something to do with timing precision) "There are other systems where you can, ours uses that repeated chirp to cancel the background noise and in order to do that it needs to be perfectly still"
I'm not saying you didn't get excellent results but your environment may be a lot quieter than another persons, mine for instance, my lounge is about 3mtrs from a busy A road, even on a Sunday there's constant traffic, luckily its 30mph through the village. I just wanted to point out that for someone who strives for accuracy and the best engineering possible, holding the mic, according to Jeff, isn't the BEST way to do it, well he just says don't do it. I think it should be noted that holding the mic is probably ok but depends on background noise, I only bring this up because you totally convinced me to hold my mic next time i do some measuring but the video has convinced me otherwise. Here's the video, 40.25 is when he talks about holding the mic.

 

[Chromatischism]

With 11 speakers x8 positions, holding the mic is preposterous.

 

[ABall]

Then there's that yeah.

 

[OCA]

The Audyssey mic needs calibration especially in the high frequencies (from 7kHz onwards), differences in holding by hand or using a mic stand have relatively minor effects:

 

[ABall]

The Audyssey mic needs calibration especially in the high frequencies (from 7kHz onwards), differences in holding by hand or using a mic stand have relatively minor effects:

I would realy like to see you tell that to the guys who actualy write the code and say you shouldn't hold the Mic. As I said you can buy a dedicated calibrated mic with an uploadable file for Audyssey if you invest in PC software.

 

[Chromatischism]

This may sound crazy, but holding the mic is actually fine if you're only doing bass frequencies and have a steady hand. 1/2" doesn't make any difference. But once wavelengths get short, don't do it.

 

[ABall]

"May" doesnt enter into it.

 

[GalZohar]

The reasons they specify for not hand-holding the mic are not really frequency-response related (although for high frequencies I suppose they would be affected as well). They say it can mess up the noise cancellation features and timing measurements.

 

[Chromatischism]

To be clear, I sometimes hand hold my UMIK-1 for REW bass measurements, but not for Audyssey.

 

[HelloHell]

These are the results using the Audyssey XT in my living room, without DEQ. Right now my result is better than the one in the images that shows the final result, but I can't take measurements now to show have family in the room... The result after Audyssey is without DEQ but I raised the gain of the subwoofer +3db. 1/12 smoothing

Before Audyssey XT

After

Bass before/after

 

[GalZohar]

What was the smoothing?
XT has some EQ capability for the subwoower, and as your peaks and dips were wide and shallow it seems to have managed (at least to the measured resolution). However, for speakers the resolution in the bass is nearly non-existent, and it is basically limited to a very wide bass boost/cut, which can't deal withalmost anything except maybe some room gain flattening (which you might not even want to flatten).

 

[HelloHell]

What was the smoothing?
XT has some EQ capability for the subwoower, and as your peaks and dips were wide and shallow it seems to have managed (at least to the measured resolution). However, for speakers the resolution in the bass is nearly non-existent, and it is basically limited to a very wide bass boost/cut, which can't deal withalmost anything except maybe some room gain flattening (which you might not even want to flatten).

1/12 smoothing. Yes, the result on the subwoofer is fantastic, it's practically flat even without smoothing, only with variations of +/-1db between 23hz and 80hz. Now in relation to speakers between 100hz and 300hz, it's a problem that I can't solve without losing other characteristics so I have to leave it like that, the problem is with the right speaker that is less than a meter from a glass window, the left one responds well between 100hz and 300hz.
Below you have the result that I can messing with the PEQ of the SVS application, +6db at 20hz but I was already advised not to do it because I can ruin the sub amplifier or the woofer, it's a shame the result was fantastic.

No smoothing

 

[Chromatischism]

A trough from 100-500 Hz is very common in our systems due to the SBIR from the walls, floor, and ceiling.

 

[GalZohar]

It's also very common for Audyssey XT to only have a very broad level correction for speakers below 400Hz, as seen in the graphs.

 

[ChronicleRed]

Does it make sense to use XT32 without subwoofer? Is the benefit of XT32 smaller if I don't have subwoofer?

I currently have KEF Q350 in 2.0 setup and I'm going to add matching center for 3.0 setup (and maybe 5.0 later) for TV, but my main focus is music.

 

[beaRA]

Does it make sense to use XT32 without subwoofer? Is the benefit of XT32 smaller if I don't have subwoofer?

I currently have KEF Q350 in 2.0 setup and I'm going to add matching center for 3.0 setup (and maybe 5.0 later) for TV, but my main focus is music.

Yes. Your Q350s will play down to ~40Hz in room. The most important corrections are done in the modal region which extends up to 200-300hz in most rooms.

 

[anphex]

I apologize in case it was postet already and I didn't find it but how much does the Audyssey chip degrade the signal quality (SINAD?)

 

[Head_Unit]

I wonder why Denon doesn't fit out their 2ch amp with Audyssey

My guess is that it doesn't appeal to the beliefs of the 2 channel audiophile community. Just having that feature included would tarnish the purity of the signal. Even worse, it would have to include bass management and subwoofer outputs.

My guess is that is certainly appeals to what marketing/sales believe are feeling of that community. And that those folks are pretty gutless to try and push the envelope. I lived with that in the automotive realm-"what competitors are doing that?" Er, NONE of them, which is why WE should

 

[taloyd]

I apologize in case it was postet already and I didn't find it but how much does the Audyssey chip degrade the signal quality (SINAD?)

It's not a chip, and it's all digital domain, so the only SINAD hit would be if it lowers the gain of the final result such that the output is closer to the noise floor, so less signal:noise ratio. The only SINAD hit would be relating to gain levels, not room correction/EQ.

 

[MiniC]

It's not a BBC dip. It's a dip in the sound power at the crossover. All non-coaxial speakers have them. If your speakers are coaxial or they engineered around it, turn it off. If your speakers have such a dip but it occurs at a different frequency than stock, turn it off and draw your own on the curve editor.

Hi. Wish to seek your advice.
If my speakers have crossover freq at 400hz and 2.9khz, I should use Audyssey curve editor to create the dip?
Something like this?
‘Thanks.