What the hell are you talking about? Please point out ONE “misstatement” I’ve made regarding Audyssey.
I already did, but you apparently ignored it.
Audyssey does not control bass management at all. That is handled by the AVR.
That is a false statement. It obviously doesn't control 100% of the bass management (you're stuck with a 4th order low pass on the sub, but I'm not sure why you'd want anything else), but it makes a significant contribution to it on the speaker side and that contribution is now adjustable with MQX in the ways I described above.
If you look at my Denon AVR and Marantz AVP reviews you’ll see I have thoroughly documented the performance of the Audyssey suite, frankly probably more so than anyone else in their whole multi-decade history.
That's nice, but I hate to tell you, without
any experience with MQX, much less extensive experience with it, those reviews are largely now
obsolete for any high end user of Audyssey. A short list of things MQX allows that wasn't possible with Audyssey before, even with the app:
Already discussed are the adjustments to bass management mentioned above, along with customizing the low frequency cutoff for those running speakers full range.
While it's still not as easy as I'd like (I wish they'd allow the import of a frequency response curve) creating the target curve is dramatically easier and more accurate than the app. In the app, you could only make adjustments
relative to the Reference curve which obviously wasn't a flat line and not an exact science. With MQX you can make a real curve with a few PEQ's in REW and then you have an identical target curve for REW to verify the corrections (and make after corrections/adjustments afterward if you like).
Two separate target curves in the same file. This allows for near instant switching between the two for listening tests. It may only be one single PEQ you want to test (such as filling in a crossover dip or not) or a completely different curve. Or you could use this for BEQ on your subs, along with the appropriate level adjustment.
Speaking of PEQ's, people were rightly excited when the HTP-1 came out and allowed 16 PEQs along with Dirac. MQX allows an
infinite number of PEQs. You can easily import these PEQs directly from REW.
After adjustments. This goes along with the PEQs. With MQX correcting to an identical curve you have in REW, it's really easy to check its work and make corrections to any deviations you find objectionable. The more mic positions you use, the fewer there will be, but there might be some (especially if using an uncalibrated mic). Simply import the filters from REW. I typically only bother with the LCR and subs with a calibrated mic.
32 possible mic positions. This provides a substantially better spatial average which will result in better and more repeatable corrections. I've found MQX measurements to be very, very, close to MMM measurements.
Individually calibrated mic. They have them now and you can use them with MQX. The mic I was using prior had a pretty large high frequency rolloff. Alternatively, any DIYer worth his salt can use MQX to calibrate whatever Audyssey mic they have to a reference mic, create a correction file and easily apply that to all his target curves.
You can see the actual filter for each speaker. This goes hand in hand for setting the frequency EQ limits. With MQX, you can set the lower limit (impossible before MQX) as well as the upper limit. For example, if you run a ported speaker full range and want a nice bass boost (who doesn't?) but obviously don't want to boost below the tuning frequency, you can drag the lower EQ limit down until you see it boosting below that frequency. The same with a high frequency rolloff--you can drag the upper limit upward until you see it boosting the crap out of the tweeter at a frequency you probably can't hear anyway but will eat into the headroom of the tweeter and stop before it does that.
Individual measurements. If you move a speaker, replace a speaker or pair of speakers, add a sub, move a sub, replace a sub or whatever, you can measure just that speaker and incorporate the change into your calibration without having to re-calibrate all 12, 14, 16, etc channels and start from scratch. This is an immense time saver and eliminates the discouraging feeling many have about making changes in their system because they dread re-doing a full calibration.
A more obscure one--different sweet spots. Some people for some reasons may want more than one. One for his favorite chair when he's alone, and maybe on for a more central position for when he has visitors but doesn't want to go through the effort if doing a full calibration for both locations. If they aren't too far apart and he has good speakers, simply doing a single measurement at the secondary sweet spot may get him 90% there with virtually no time/effort. Simply "Exclude" that position in the primary file, then recalculate all the trims and delays based on that measurement in MQX for the secondary file. It works surprisingly well.
Those are all very real, meaningful things MQX allows that wasn't possible before off the top of my head. I'm sure I've forgotten a few. They make a real difference to a high end user and would hope any "reviews" by anyone who speaks with authority on the capabilities of Audyssey in the year 2022 would be very familiar with them.
The “SubEQ” approach to combining two subs is crude (level match over some frequency and “time align,” then EQ the sum, as opposed to exploiting level and time as additional variables to improve performance) is best described as “better than nothing, probably,”
Yes, it is a notch down from a MSO-type correction, no doubt. But until very, very recently, that was as good as it got for room correction below the Trinov/JBL Synthesis cost level. People who wanted better did it themselves. There are still people with high end processors waiting for a functioning version of DLBC to show up for their processors. It'll be interesting to see what they offer for the new units--keep in mind, the Denon/Marantz hardware was not capable of doing anything more in the past. We have no idea what Audyssey will do with the newer hardware.
midwestavexperience.com
