Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 524

You don't need anything fancy in the way of cabling to test this. Get a short, cheap RCA extender cable (Male at one end and Female at the other), cut it in half, strip the insulation back, and reconnect the halves with the polarity reversed using a couple of twist on caps. Put that in-line with your normal subwoofer cable to one of the two components.

If it works, THEN you can worry about doing it better.
--Bob

For years, I have suffered from CTS (Chronic Tweaking Syndrome). Now ARC has cured me!

Received my ARC on 8/12/08 from my dealer, hooked it up, read this thread, experimented, and then listened for a week. I have arrived at final settings that are fantastic and the sound now equals the level of $$ I have invested in speakers, 2500 watts of amps, cables, processor, sources, etc. I am thrilled with the results.

Here are my targets (same for music and cinema):

L/R Fronts crossover: 110Hz (ARC default)
Center crossover: 115Hz (ARC default)
L/R Surrounds crossover: 115Hz (ARC default)
Sub crossover: 120Hz (ARC default)
Room gain: 4.945749 (set 1.0dB higher than the ARC calculation)
Max EQ: 15,000Hz (my final setting)

Before I run ARC, I tame a big room mode with my Velodyne SMS-1 using three filters. Otherwise, ARC just can't do it all. Further, after running ARC, I have boosted the 20-30Hz range by 1.5dB using the SMS-1.

Also, I have set the HF (High Frequency) adjustment for all my sources to -1.0dB in the Source Setup menu.

No more tweaking for me, just enjoying!

Here are my curves and a picture of my room:

Attachment 117553

Attachment 117554

Attachment 117555

That's some pretty snazzy "tweaking" you've got there! Congrats!

"My name is Spridle1, and it's been one week since I last tweaked..."

"Hi, Spridle1!"





--Bob

Is it a sharp roll-off starting at 50hz. down to 20hz. or a 25 dB drop from 50 to 40hz(a hole between 50 and 40 but you have Bass energy at 20 and 30)?

What is your sub's crossover via ARC? Can you try to measure at 3ft further back, just to make sure you are not sitting in a null area relative to the 3 subs?

There's a slight blip of energy but everything is pretty much gone after 50hz. It not the room because one: it goes away when one or the other sub is off and two: these are 5 position ARC readings. ARC sub Xover is at 120hz.

Gee you finally gave me something to do with all those red and white RCA cords buried somewhere in the basement.

Nick said that a room gain between 0 and 6 is normal. In my previous measurements I was also getting a room gain of 0. I tried moving the mic 1 ft off the back of the seat and around 4 inches higher than my ear level then made 9 measurements with no less than 24 inch spacing between each measurements. Resulting RG increased from 0 to 1.4. Still I did not like the Bass response. I experimented with several values and finally came up with 3.2RG as my desired value.

Other than being sure that our amps and speakers can handle the ARC corrections, why do we get different target curves? I don't have have more than a 10 dB swing from the deepest valley and the highest peak on all speakers and I have 4700 watt of amp power at 4 Ohms as well as an acoustically treated room and still ARC just specify a RG of 1.4!

bob. here are sub and ctr arc files. at last!
thx again!
walt

That's the ticket!

All perfectly reasonable. Your sub looks fine (the little dip near 60Hz is nothing to worry about -- it's only about 2dB), and you can see that the sub is all set to do the heavy lifting at the lowest frequencies, so ARC is free to remove the Boundary Gain (or whatever it is) that is causing the high measurement at low frequencies for your main speakers.

I think what you've got now should be sounding pretty good! Are you happy with it at this point?
--Bob

Is your room acoustically treated? You may just have a low, natural Room Gain in the room.
--Bob

Yes Bob, I have Diffusers,panels, membrane bass absorbers all over the place. I have an average RT60 of .25 to .35 across 63 to 4khz.

Now I am wondering if Ninja12's room is well treated also?

I have Acoustic Panels on the side walls that covers my first and second reflections. I have one acoustic panel on my ceiling that covers the first reflection from my center channel. I have an acoustic panel on my front wall behind each tower speaker (B&W 803S). I have a bass trap in the front two corners. I have one monster bass trap on the back wall.

Indeed, the graphs are good. Maybe Basstraps are in order if you want to improve on Deep end response.

Ok, maybe that's the reason for low RG values.

Ninja12, have you tried, 3 or 4 dB Room gain? Mine works great with 3.2 dB.

No, I have not tried 3 or 4 db room gain. I was getting 0 room gain before I put any acoustic treatments. However, I do know that the acoustic treatments are working because I don't hear the reflections anymore.

bob;abc; thx again.
my lingering question(other than will the rains ever stop[what is the cube of a cubit])
note the target curve for the ctr spkr. why do my mains not have the same target? seems to me that they should!?
funny shaped room? has a 9' ceiling and a 10' -trey - - - acoustical treatments, but not as extensive as some. (nothing on ceiling)
see attachment.
walt

Your center speaker is not measuring as a "full range" speaker. A full range center speaker is pretty uncommon, but if yours is SUPPOSED to be full range then it may have a problem in its bass element -- its woofer.

The measurement you have right now for your center speaker looks pretty normal to me.

Your LF/RF speakers, on the other hand, are measuring as pretty typical "full range" speakers, so ARC is taking advantage of that -- balancing the work the sub has to do against what the LF and RF speakers can do.
--Bob

Unhappy with my sound after ARC, wondering if this is the problem.

I did measurements with the ARC software that came on the disk from Anthem. Then upgraded to 1.2.5 and didn't remeasure, the room, but had 1.2.5 do the calculations. I hope this might be my problem, for the very thin sound I am getting.

I think the 1.5 to 4.0 room gains we seem to be Measuring are all pretty good. I think the lower numbers reflect rooms that are, perhaps OVER-treated -- flatter than might be good.

However, in Ninja12's case, the deep hole he's got around 50Hz seems to be giving ARC problems in determining the true, natural Room Gain. I think ARC is seeing a NEGATIVE Room Gain in his Measurements and so it is using 0dB as a fail-safe since a negative Room Gain makes no sense acoustically.

In ABC999's case I think the room just has a low, natural Room Gain after treatment.

In both cases, telling ARC to "force" a somewhat higher Room Gain onto the Targets is probably a good idea. But I'm not sure it makes sense to go all the way up to the 4dB (or higher) that some untreated rooms will Measure as that will make the audio system sound a bit out of whack with the response of the room to natural sounds -- e.g. talking.

This is all still guesswork of course. We also need to figure out just when and why ARC decides to roll off the top end of the Target curves.
--Bob

I don't know what version of ARC you were using before, but yes, I think you should definitely re-Measure using ARC V1.2.5 (and firmware V1.33).

If your version of ARC is old enough then there are bugs that have since been fixed which could affect the Measurements.

At the very least, you need to go into the Targets window and do an Auto Detect on your old Measurements so that the updated algorithm in ARC V1.2.5 can set the Targets correctly before you Calculate. I would not even consider Calculating with ARC V1.2.5 using Measurements made with any ARC version older than V1.2.2. And again, I suggest you re-Measure even if you were using V1.2.2 before.

----------------------------------------------

After you Upload, go into the Setup menu and:

1) Make sure Setup / Source Setup / Room EQ = ON is set for all sources you want to use with ARC

2) Make sure the uploaded Setup / Speaker Calibration levels make sense. If not, something has failed during the Upload.

3) Make sure the uploaded Setup / Speaker Configuration crossover values for Movie and Music match what ARC shows it is Targeting in the Targets window. If not, something has failed during the Upload

4) If you have more than one subwoofer, do *NOT* set subwoofers = 2 in the Speaker Configuration. ARC needs subwoofers = 1 regardless of how many subwoofers you actually have.

5) Once you are happy all this is correct, do a Save User and/or Installer Settings to capture those Setup menu changes ARC has just made to make sure you don't accidentally mess them up later by doing a Reload from those memories.
--Bob

Can someone explain room gain to me? Is it as simple as the name impies being spikes at various points along the frequency response curve?

From the collection of ARC-related post links which can now be found in the first post of this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=#post14429013

Simply put, Room Gain is a DESIRABLE aspect of the room response that ARC tries to preserve even as it is working to eliminate the various UNDESIRABLE aspects of the room response.
--Bob

I am still surprised that after running 1.2.5 last night that it still has my SVS PB13U is still set crossed over at 120, and my fronts are set all the way down to 40?

Michael

That's normal for V1.2.5 if your fronts are full range. If you post your charts here we'll see if it looks like there are any problems.

Don't worry about the big overlap in crossovers. ARC deals with that for you in its room correction processing.
--Bob

I am not so sure that it is universally desirable but generally necessary since the mastering studios presume its presence(!).

Not an overlap since the sub(LFE) lp filter is only for LFE signals and the main crossover is only for those signals.

I hear you. My point was that ARC is trying to detect and preserve it rather than eliminating it like it does with other room response characteristics.
--Bob

Audio-Only Blu-Ray Discs Starting to Appear!

I was just on Amazon and noticed that they have already started to carry audio-only Blu-Ray discs: DTS-HD MA 7.1 at 24 bits / 96KHz.

Do a search within "Blu-Ray" for "audio".

Apparently these are actually 5.1 high-bandwidth recordings that have been processed to add the rear channels. But that may not be true for all of them. In any event, they should work just peachy through a D2.

I've ordered a couple to give them a try but they are out of stock at the moment. Has anyone else here tried one of these through an ARC'd D2 yet?
--Bob

Dear Bob & the Gang:

I haven't logged in for a quite a few months now but was prompted to after reading Kalman Rubinson's article about the ARC-1 (and D2) in the September issue of Stereophile. Excellent article, Kal! (Check it out everyone!)

My, my, my . . . quite a lot has transpired since I last logged in! The new ARC-1, new firmware, and a couple of thousand new posts (most of them courtesy of the ever patient and helpful Bob P ).

After catching up on my reading this weekend I have decided to order the ARC-1 tomorrow and finally upgrade the firmware in my D1 upgrade which is rock solid using ol' 1.11 which was installed when I had the hardware upgrade. Like drhankz has said, "If it ain't broke . . . "

I have mostly lurked in the background here (as I am sure a lot of other D2 owners do) as I am not as technically knowledgeable as most in this forum, but I have read every post in order to try and educate myself in regards to not only HT, but the science of audio and video as well.

Just let me say that I find it SO helpful to not only have access to this forum, but also to the collective knowledge and the willingness to share same knowledge that you all demonstrate when it comes to D2 problem-solving. Thanks to everyone that participates in making the D2 experience as enjoyable and painless as possible.

I just thought I would reintroduce myself in advance of my getting the ARC-1 and upgrading my firmware because I am pretty sure that I will be needing some help and advice with something to do with these changes in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance,
Mark

P.S. I can't wait to listen to my Buena Vista Social Club DVD-Audio recording post-ARC-1 calibration!

I agree ---

ARC is tempting enough for me to UPGRADE
also even though it isn't Broke