Quote:
Originally Posted by m. zillch 
I've never heard the Cary piece you have, vanguardtm, however more importantly I am quite knowledgeable about how to interpret third party technical audio specs in terms of what is significant to human perception, and what is not. The Cary measures quite well and there is nothing out of the ordinary which I would worry would in any real-world situation alter the sound negatively, but then again the same goes for the Marantz. If you never engage the Audyssey circuit I doubt you'd hear much of a difference between the two at all,....
I agree Yamaha's "Concert hall" mode is rather silly and objectionable {I've owned it], but don't confuse Audyssey with that. "Concert Hall" engages echos and reverberations which the original artists and their recording engineers never intended you to hear; it is therefor a bastardization of the original artists' intent. Audyssey room correction, however, corrects for deficiencies with your room and speaker placement, which all of us have even with $10,000 speakers and highly modified rooms. Having a flat frequency response is something that the recording engineers were at least hoping you'll have, so in this way we are actually reproducing the music with a higher fidelity by using the circuit.[Not that I'm claiming it is "perfect", but you can easily turn it on or off at will]
{I personally don't use any of the extras of Audyssey such as "Dyn Eq" or "Dyn Vol." I leave all that extra stuff off.]
I've never heard the Cary piece you have, vanguardtm, however more importantly I am quite knowledgeable about how to interpret third party technical audio specs in terms of what is significant to human perception, and what is not. The Cary measures quite well and there is nothing out of the ordinary which I would worry would in any real-world situation alter the sound negatively, but then again the same goes for the Marantz. If you never engage the Audyssey circuit I doubt you'd hear much of a difference between the two at all,....
I agree Yamaha's "Concert hall" mode is rather silly and objectionable {I've owned it], but don't confuse Audyssey with that. "Concert Hall" engages echos and reverberations which the original artists and their recording engineers never intended you to hear; it is therefor a bastardization of the original artists' intent. Audyssey room correction, however, corrects for deficiencies with your room and speaker placement, which all of us have even with $10,000 speakers and highly modified rooms. Having a flat frequency response is something that the recording engineers were at least hoping you'll have, so in this way we are actually reproducing the music with a higher fidelity by using the circuit.[Not that I'm claiming it is "perfect", but you can easily turn it on or off at will]
{I personally don't use any of the extras of Audyssey such as "Dyn Eq" or "Dyn Vol." I leave all that extra stuff off.]
KevinKar:"The only major difference I can discern is when using Audyssey on CDs which I've mentioned before where it tends to add a slight out of phase component to the sound. That can only be due to the timings it's calculated since I don't hear it when it's off or when using the AVP9080. That has nothing to do with bias or level matching or anything other than Audyssey changing the speed at which one speaker's output reaches my ears."
Home Theater:"With the LSO’s bright canary-in-a-coal-mine string section, MCACC was brittle and smaller, whereas pure direct sounded more relaxed and larger. I preferred the latter."
Me: I now have a Pioneer sc-1222-k, which reviewers give good SQ ratings to. I have it connected to the same AVA FetValve amp as the Cary was. In 'Direct' mode for 2ch. listening, my Cary Cinema 6 pre/pro is clearly nicer IMHO. Using MCACC for two channel, the sound got more dull, with less air. I don't think any 'room correction' software can compensate for the equipment. Not that the Pioneer is bad, but there is a reason discerning listeners with the $$ go upmarket for 2ch. I can't wait until I get my AVA T8+ pre (TAS: "one of those rare products that genuinely transcends it's price....")!
Bias, advertizing ( I was in it for ~ 25 yrs), AB tests, training, whatever...some people hear differences, some don't. My wife went to "Music & Art" in NYC on a voice scholarship. Prior to her & for many yrs, I dated a Julliard piano student, who's sister was a Julliard violin student. My Bro-in-law is a pro musician (Bob Woodruff, pls look him up & buy a CD or 2!). This past week we went to a Brklyn Phil. Chamber Music concert in a small hall. I often hear differences between audio equipment.
YMMV, so enjoy the music!
Murf
Edited by vanguardtm - 2/11/13 at 7:28am
