Unsatisfying results with Audyssey

Just re-ran Audyssey on my Onkyo TX-SR606 amp since I just got a new BIC VK12 subwoofer. Followed the directions in the "Audyssey Setup Guide" document on the forums to the letter. I keep getting weird results that I was hoping someone could shed some light on.


First off, the speaker levels keep getting set to very low values -- most stuff is -7dB or so. I find I have to turn the volume way up when watching TV or movies to hear anything. My room is only about 14x14x12 and the receiver is at 35ish to make things audible. Here's what it decides on:
L: -7
C: -8
R: -8
SR: -7
SL: -9
LFE: -11

Second, whatever it's doing with the equalizer is causing ridiculous hiss. When I set the EQ to off or flat, it sounds much better. I confirmed that prior to the test running I have all the audio options at off/default (no weird EQ, dialogue boost, cinema mode, night mode, DRC, etc.)


Lastly, it is over-estimating my rear speaker distances by several feet. I have to dial it back down a bit. I think it might have to do with how I've got them turned at about a 30 degree angle?


What am I doing wrong here? I have actually done the "IntelliVolume +8dB" trick and it isn't enough.

My setup:
Onkyo TX-SR606
Polk R50 (f) -- tilted inwards very slightly
Polk CSi (c)
Polk R15 (r) -- tilted at about 30 degrees
BIC VK12 (sub) -- about one foot away from each wall in a corner

Ha, I did and two people were in the middle of some flamewar apparently...my comment went unanswered after a few pages of bickering. Silly.


I re-ran Audyssey again. The couch is pushed up against the back wall and the guide says you get better results by having the mic at least a foot away from the wall, so I slid the ouch forward slightly. It seemed to help a tad, but I still needed to bump the surround level down by 2dB on LS and RS. Also angled the center speaker up ever so slightly with a thin book, and that corrected my muffled dialogue problem.

On the last calibration my strange hiss has gone away...maybe it had picked up some strange background noise or whatever. My damn neighbors are noisy at times.

I'm still thinking I need to just go for dipoles/bipoles in back instead of the monopoles, but we'll see.

Care to elaborate? I've never heard that negative numbers are "efficient" in that setup.

I am setting it on the top of the cushion of the couch. That puts it within 3 inches of ear location, and points it straight up.

It's my understanding that it doesn't matter where you put the volume knob.

And in reference to your tripod suggestion, that is not what Audyssey recommends -- you're supposed to get close to ear-height.

It is setting my center channel to "full range". It's a Polk CSi25 -- two 5.25" woofers and a 1" tweeter. Supposedly rated to 55Hz but I doubt that.

It picks 80Hz for the surrounds, which are R15s -- a single 5.25" woofer each, rated to 65Hz.

This would lead me to believe that the center should probably be set at 80Hz too...or should it stay at full range?

I don't have MultiEQ, just the intro-level Audyssey 2EQ. The LPF of LFE is set to 80Hz, per the instructions.

My fronts are full-range Polk R50 towers with dual 6.5" cones and can hit down to 24Hz (though it's likely something more like 60 or 80). I was under the impression that you should pick full range if the speakers are bigger ones, but set everything else to small.

Okay, so what crossover settings DO I use for the different channels? I do not have LARGE/SMALL.

There's Full Range, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 120, 150, 200Hz.

I picked 80 for all the speakers and left the LPF of LFE at 80Hz. That should prevent any gaps.

Audyssey claims the mic is accurate to 2dB, which is better than most handheld SPL meters.

2dB is damn good. Not even sure I could detect anything better. I would be curious to use an Audyssey MultiEQ amp instead for this...get more measurements or something. SR706 time? Heh.

Sign on my desk reads: "Please direct all comments to /dev/null". :-D

Am I right with this?