Does Audyssey make the audio less clear?

[aarons915]

So I've been running my Denon in direct mode for a few years and using Equalizer APO for my EQ but am thinking about switching back to Audyssey. I took these measurements a few years ago from the Pre outs of a Denon 3500H and compared them to my Emotiva UMC 200 at the time. From the Pre outs at least, you can see the squiggly lines when Audyssey is turned on compared to running in direct mode. The UMC 200 doesn't exhibit this with it's PEQ on and I'm wondering if anyone finds this alarming? Does this mean Audyssey is putting a slight "veil" over everything being played through it? I limited the correction to 300Hz for this measurement, it's interesting that in the corrected region it doesn't show these squiggly lines in the response.

 

[kyuu]

Do you notice any difference in the sound? The "squiggles" don't look like they should be an audible concern, however it could be indicating Audyssey is making a lot of really high Q adjustments to "fix" the measured frequency response. This is something that probably shouldn't be done, and you should be limiting the correction to under Schroeder anyway. Without actually calculating it for your room, 300Hz is a pretty good place to start.

Also, I'm guessing by the roll off in the bass region that these measurements were taken with bass management enabled and a sub crossover in place in all cases (except for Pure Direct which disables all processing)?

 

[SKBubba]

No.

 

[aarons915]

Do you notice any difference in the sound? The "squiggles" don't look like they should be an audible concern, however it could be indicating Audyssey is making a lot of really high Q adjustments to "fix" the measured frequency response. This is something that probably shouldn't be done, and you should be limiting the correction to under Schroeder anyway. Without actually calculating it for your room, 300Hz is a pretty good place to start.

Also, I'm guessing by the roll off in the bass region that these measurements were taken with bass management enabled and a sub crossover in place in all cases (except for Pure Direct which disables all processing)?

These were separate processors so I wasn't able to properly compare them but Audyssey has never sounded as good as simply using manual PEQ filters to my ears, probably because it corrects things it shouldn't but it could have something to with the phenomenon I showed. The blue graph is with Audyssey on and limited to 300Hz so what it seems like Audyssey is doing is just limiting it's correction to very small amounts to simulate limiting the correction, when I zoomed in on the graph I recall the deviations only being like .25db above or below 0. I'm researching different methods of altering the JSON files and it seems like the best way to get around this is to do a full range correction but just make sure Audyssey isn't actually touching the response above the transition frequency of the room.

 

[kyuu]

it ain't the audyssey , ,
, , want to know what it is ?

Why be cryptic? If you have a theory to offer, please do share it.

 

[kemmler3D]

Hmm, that's pretty odd. It does sort of look like it put a bunch of high-Q filters everywhere and then put other high-Q filters to cancel them out. Like there's ringing all over the spectrum or something. I doubt that's what happening, it would make no sense, but either way I don't like the look of it.

What do the phase graphs look for the different measurements here? That would be a useful clue in this case.

 

[kyuu]

Sorry Andysu but I'm not a follower of your Youtube channel. Hope you don't hold that against me.

If that's the case, it should be easy to clear up. @aarons915 Have you made sure no other processing is enabled beyond the bass management and Audyssey, including any upmixing such as the aforementioned Dolby DSU?

 

[aarons915]

Hmm, that's pretty odd. It does sort of look like it put a bunch of high-Q filters everywhere and then put other high-Q filters to cancel them out. Like there's ringing all over the spectrum or something. I doubt that's what happening, it would make no sense, but either way I don't like the look of it.

What do the phase graphs look for the different measurements here? That would be a useful clue in this case.

Yeah my hunch is their way of limiting the correction is greatly reducing the cuts and gains to +/- .25db to essentially not do anything but it will still smear the signal to some degree. I found this pic I took years ago so I don't have the original REW file anymore to dig deeper.

well all you , , , really want to know , maybe why you didn't follow my ranting on youtube ?
@aarons915 has been , not his fault , been using Dolby dsu which is in my no years of listening the worst dolby matrix and no its not an upmixer that's just another bs marketing brand name to sell another useless , well depends on which parts of it are useless ?

if you use the multi channel stereo ) mode on the denon you won't see the digital dsp that the dolby dsu , or dtsx neural or the lousy auro3 matrix
in fact if you connected a Dolby DSU4 to the denon 8ch inputs if it has any rca inputs you'll get the original analog Dolby Stereo for 4.2.4 matrix playback or can use the dsu depending on what mood your in ?

not many only real listeners will notice it , won't notice while its all playing , maybe not even notice it with LR surrounds muted switched off , with only the centre ( whooshy effect that is distracting ) , but you all should , i doubt even @amirm noticed ?

get a real Dolby DSU4 with cat 150 card , its like having a proper vinyl produced years ago or vhs tape or best , laserdisc or is laserdisc theatrical mixes gonna hurt your audiophile pride ?

recommended processor to add on
Dolby CP50
Dolby CP55
Dolby CP65
Dolby CP100
Dolby CP200 ( that may be too much horsepower for anyone to handle it's the elite processor )
Dolby CP45 is okay
Dolby CP750 is okay

not sure about CP650 it has some snags like the CP500 but rarely happen

Dolby CP850/950 i wouldn't put those processors into a dog cat charity recuse shelter , atmos is old tech rubbish been around for now 13 no years and not many atmos mixes have knocked my socks off , so what about bass LFE.1 even dune2 i seen go down to 1Hz , so what , the rest of that mix is rubbish


anyway this is a live video of few no years ago , took me while to find it as i been rating about how , technical sounding flawed dsu is , not many pros to give it , expect tries to make Dolby 4.2.4 sound like a discrete 5.1 mix , even back around when Dolby A SR was in use projectionists would moan how its not discrete like , 4 track mag and getting sent optical prints instead of 70mm prints , i don't mind the 4.2.4 sounds better than these rubbish dolby atmos discs you all keep buying for , lossless audio ? don't you mean near field tampered with mixes ? to show-off your home theatres with ?

This is quite the assumption lol. I wasn't using any DSP as I was simply measuring the Pre outs from signal sweeps in REW, it was in direct mode and then in stereo when comparing Audyssey on vs off. I forget which channel this was but it was either L or R, no DSP added.