On Friday I ordered a Maestro. Can't find anything on the specs about an equalizer. Do I need an external EQ? Or, do I even need one at all?

--Steven

Steven ... The Maestro has an EQ, but not one for fixing room problems. Take a few weeks to play with it ... then you will want to plot a FR curve in both positions.

Have you purchased a Radio Shack meter yet ?

Steven ... The Maestro has an EQ, but not one for fixing room problems. Take a few weeks to play with it ... then you will want to plot a FR curve in both positions.

Have you purchased a Radio Shack meter yet ?

Hi, Craig-

Yes, a couple of years ago a bought the AVIA disk and the Radio Shack meter. It's a little intimidating to use. And, since the HT setup was in the bedroom of a small apartment, it didn't seem worth the effort.

We now have a bigger place; hence the subwoofer. And I at least I can walk around the room with the meter.

So, good advice. I'll play with it as is for awhile and then let you guys know how things are.

--Steven

Hi, Craig-

Yes, a couple of years ago a bought the AVIA disk and the Radio Shack meter. It's a little intimidating to use. And, since the HT setup was in the bedroom of a small apartment, it didn't seem worth the effort.

We now have a bigger place; hence the subwoofer. And I at least I can walk around the room with the meter.

So, good advice. I'll play with it as is for awhile and then let you guys know how things are.

--Steven

Steve.

Just a couple of pointers. If you found the meter and DVD intimidating I recommend NOT walking around the room with the meter, it will only leave you baffled. Leave that to those with enough knowledge to use that information. Concentrate instead in performing measurements at your listening position.

Steven, I agree with John F. Palacio, unless you have a lot of patience, you probably should limit your SPL meter measurements to your primary listening position. That can be tedious enough!

If you are willing to spend even more money (since you already have spent 6X what you originally intended, I could understand how that might be out of the question!), you might consider the Velodyne SMS-1 equalizer. It not only does a wonderful job, it is very user friendly.

It's a good tool for setting up a sub even without using the EQ, and portable enough that it could help you analyze and optimize the system in your apartment, too, provided you have a TV there (it uses a video screen to show your bass response).

The bad news is they cost ~$600-$700 retail, or ~$500 on ebay.

John and Mac-

Good suggestions. I've tried using the AVIA disk also for calibrating the projector and that wasn't easy either. In its new location, though, I can make the room darker and that might help is making fine discriminations in the test patterns.

I am considering an equalizer, but probably not a $500 one :D . Of course, I wasn't considering a $2000 sub, either.

We've been playing with the BIC in the apartment, for music. It really does add to the large Advents, even at low listening levels. So far, no complaints from the apartment below us, but it's been mostly jazz (and a little Taj Mahal - ha!). We haven't decided on placement for either the Advents or the BIC, but so far the combination sounds good.

I've been getting used to the Advents and I'm liking them again. (That might change, though, when we listen to the McIntosh.) I'm starting to appreciate them again, although the truth is that the BIC does have better bass.

The Maestro is scheduled for delivery on Tuesday. That means that NEXT weekend we'll be able to set it up and try it out for movies.

After playing around with it for awhile I'll look more seriously into an equalizer.

--Steven