Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 1302

Understand that you cannot take speakers and place them anywhere in a room and expect them to perform perfectly or even up to their design limitations.
You have to experiment. Move the speakers. Set the levels correctly. Set the phasing.
Add equalization or other modifications such as ARC. Add room and wall dampening devices etc
Now you know where to start.
Raise the Equalization maximum and watch the charts for results. Or post the charts here and someone
will respond with their thoughts and ideas.

The default 5kHz cutoff is more than adequate. Your room has less influence over the sound the higher you go in frequency. The bass region is where your room plays the biggest part and is where most of the help is needed. I've experimented raising the correction past 5kHz and lowering it below 5kHz. Raising it caused my system to become increasingly harsh as the high frequencies began to be over emphasized. Lowering it didn't really make any difference in sound. Some things that could be causing your drop off are speaker pointing (toe-in, tilt), microphone positioning or maybe a defective microphone. As you mention, listen to it for yourself and see if it sounds right to you.

I append a date to my filenames so I can see if I've made any progress after making changes to my system or room. My filenames look like this: Anthem Room Correction12-02-2012.ARC.

After you run ARC, you need to go into settings to turn it on for each source that you want to use it with.

When i ran the ARC i think i chose two subs instead of one as you have suggested. I will also have to have a re-read of the manual about Bass management. As i haven't set the phasing or anything on my subs. They are all set to neutral at this point. Although they do come with quite an extensive array of features like phase shift and eq etc. Sounds like i need to set the Sub woofer bass setting BEFORE running ARC. In any event i am going to have to run ARC again because of the sub woofer selection issue.

I am using an Oppo BDP-95 as my source

What i meant by being able to see the Max Frequency is not on the ARC program but rather where do i see this setting in the Anthem Menu? For example i can see the X-over frequencies and their respective settings from ARC when i go into the Anthem menu and look at each speaker but i could see anywhere anything mentioned about the Max Frequency setting?

Thank you and i will try moving the subs to the outside of my mains. Although i wonder if i have got such a great result in the position they are already in would it be worth moving them?

I have tweaked my settings based on Ninja12's comments.

LOL .. after i uploaded the ARC file i watched another movie thinking that the ARC was already on by default. Now i read i have to go in and tell the source to use these settings.

So if i do raise the Max frequency above 5kHz you are suggesting i run ARC again? Won't these settings be "by-passed" when i run ARC again? I am a bit confused here. Does the Anthem retain the uploaded ARC settings when i run ARC again? So i can run ARC and test the first ARC calibration file i uploaded? This should essentially yield the same result as "Calculated" from the graphs right when i do this?


Please see my comments above about running ARC on an uploaded ARC? But yes i will absolutely post my results on here. The feedback i received from you guys is great. - Thank You

Also please see my comments below about the 5kHz roll off.


Thank you re the filename - this is something i did do in terms of naming the file that reflected it's "profile" somewhat. Not too dissimilar to what you have suggested btw.

As for this 5kHz roll off i suspect it must be the room. Because my main speakers at least have a frequency range of 26Hz to 50kHz - so it does surprise me to see this roll off at such a low frequency level (relatively speaking of course - given the freq. range is 26Hz to 50kHz). The room is not treated at all so i suspect once i start treating it i should see a bit of an improvement? Not with standing the limitation of the mic of course. Perhaps it is just an artefact of the mic and what you see really has nothing to do with anything else other than the contraints of the mic not being able to accurately monitor much beyond 5kHz?

I have a fully treated room and I see the same roll off probably more then most graphs I see posted here. I don't think it is the room so much as a limitation of the mic and its positioning.

Yes beginning to think that the mic was more "the culprit" than anything else. So what we are seeing is a constraint of the mic itself. And as you say just about everyone is going to see a roll off around 5kHz because of this limitation. So do you set your Max Frequency above 5kHz?

Good that you have caught trhis error. reset the number of subwoofers to one.

Then you need to follow these OPPO setup instructions when using a D2v with ARC

In your OPPO setup settings The speaker setup does not effect any analog output so anything you set will not effect the stereo or multi-channel analog outputs you are using.
In the OPPO speaker setup you should set ALL speakers to high and the distance to 12 and subwoofer to On or Yes as the speaker setup will be handled in the D2v ARC setup.

There is NO max frequency setting per se in the D2v or in ARC. That would be counter productive.
The reason you see cutoff in the graphs is that ARC has a maximum frequency that it applies correction to which is the cutoff frequency you see in the target setup. The graph results in ARC are only the application of ARC NOT the frequency response of your system. If you want to see the full frequency response of your system you will need a full range microphone, some additional hardware for plugging in and amplifying the microphone, not the ARC microphone and a program such as REW. What you see

Good that you are aware of this too !

You do not need to rerun ARC again unless you actually change the physical configuration of your system or make some changes in the OPPO or other sources.
Name and save the ARC file like you have done in case you want to use it again, You can change the settings in ARC in the targets such as setting the subwoofers to flat or the hi freq cutoff and upload the new settings to the D2v. Listen to the new settings. You can look at the new graphs that ARC will have and if you do not lkie the new sound reload your old ARC file you saved.



This is not a limitation but designed this way as expertly explained by forum member CharlieU

'thestewman" One thing is in complete contradiction to what I understand, and what Oppo has told me and what the Oppo manual says; you are saying that "The speaker setup does not effect any analog output......", and in my understanding it affects the Analog outs, not HDMI's. Please confirm, anyone else here.

I typed and stated, "The speaker setup does not effect any analog output so anything you set will not effect the stereo or multi-channel analog outputs you are using"
.
You are correct. My mistake while typing and thinking ahead. Glad you caught my error.

I should have said the OPPO speaker setup will affect only the OPPO multichannel analog output.
Sorry

Stew
Edited by thestewman - 12/2/12 at 6:47pm

Is there any updated software for the AVM40 (beyond 1.33)? HDMI issues are getting annoying.

Thanks.

There is a beta v1.47f for the D2 and AVM50. Email Anhem to see if it will help.
John

Lots of things affect the ability to measure the high frequencies accurately, which is one reason Anthem sets the default upper limit for applying correction to 5KHz. First and foremost, the treble frequencies are far more directional than the bass frequencies. Most speakers will have a distinctly non-uniform output of treble, with the problem typically being more pronounced in the vertical direction than in the horizontal direction.

This means that when the mic is off the center axis of a given speaker, there is less treble heard simply because the speaker is not putting out as much treble in that direction. So the thing to do first is to check the pointing of your speakers. And in particular, if the speakers are not mounted at seated ear height, check their VERTICAL pointing. The Center and Surrounds should point at ARC mic position #1 (your center-most seating location). The Left Front and Right Front should NOT point at ARC mic position #1. The usual Rule of Thumb is to "toe those in" only about 1/3 of that angle. That is, if you consider how much you would have to rotate LF/RF to point at #1 (starting from pointing straight to the back of the room), only swing them 1/3 of that amount. The Subwoofer pointing is irrelevant for treble of course.

Next, make sure your tweeters are actually functioning. It is not uncommon to blow a tweeter in a speaker and simply not notice because the mid-range drivers also produce output up there (just not as much). By the way, this has happened often enough in this thread that we even have a name for it in here. We call it "Richard Syndrome", after the first poster to have this epiphany: The discovery -- via ARC -- that one or more of your speakers is actually BROKEN even though you have been happily enjoying it up to now!

To check this, play stereo content (e.g., a CD) with good treble components (bells and cymbals for example), set MONO ALL Audio Surround Mode in the Anthem -- which sends the same audio to every speaker -- and go put your ear right up close to the tweeter in each speaker in turn and make sure it is producing output. All the speakers should sound similar. If one or more speakers is not producing tweeter output, then fix that first before you do anything else with ARC. It could be wiring (separate input jacks -- or improperly wired bi-amp setup) or a fuse rather than a blown tweeter.

Next, consider the method of speaker installation. We've heard time and again here from folks who have in-wall or otherwise customized speaker installations who have discovered, for example, that the speaker grill cloth or grill mounting hardware was actually blocking output from the tweeters of one or more of their speakers. A grill bar across the center axis of the tweeter -- even several inches in front of it -- is enough to screw things up royally because the treble output of the tweeter is so directional.

Next, double check the way you are using the mic during your ARC Measurement passes. For proper Measurement of treble it is important that you follow several rules:

1) The mic must be pointed STRAIGHT UP at each mic position.
2) The tip of the mic should be set at seated ear height. If you recline your seats, then that's what you should do when judging seated ear height.
3) The tip of the mic must not be adjacent to blocking or reflective surfaces. Consider each mic position. Keep the mic at least 18 inches from walls/drapes. If you have high seat backs, raise the mic a few inches to clear the top of the seat, or move that mic location a foot closer to the screen to get it away from the seat back.

---

Keep in mind that you can use the Quick Measure tool (found in ARC's TOOLS Menu) to check, in real time, the raw (uncorrected) audio the mic is hearing at any given position from any given speaker. So you can see the affect any changes might be having.

The red Measured curves ARC displays in its charts are an "unweighted average" of what the mic is hearing from that speaker across all the mic positions. Each mic position will have a different direction angle to each speaker, so treble response will vary. The regular ARC chart averages that out. So what Quick Measure shows for any given mic position is unlikely to match that regular ARC chart curve in every detail. But if you move the mic around you can mentally average the Quick Measure result yourself to get a feel for what would happen with the real Measured curve. (ARC actually calculates its results using all the mic data -- not just the average shown in the charts -- but the averaged curve has proven to be an excellent surrogate for what's really going on.)

Do remember that Quick Measure reconfigures the Anthem so that it can hear uncorrected speaker output. That means that when you are done with Quick Measure, you need to open and re-Upload your current ARC solution, or do a whole new ARC setup pass if you've changed anything (e.g., moved speakers around).

---

A much less likely problem, but still worth checking, is that you are using the wrong mic calibration data file. These files are unique to each ARC mic. Your ARC mic has a serial number. Go to Windows > Program Files > Anthem > Anthem Room Correction (which is where the ARC application gets installed), and you will find in there two files with names made up of a pair of numbers -- the serial number of your Anthem and the serial number of your ARC mic. These are your ARC license and your ARC mic calibration data files. Check that the numbers match your mic. If not, then Anthem Tech Support can email the correct files to you.

While you are at it, check that you have the current version of the ARC application. Open ARC in the charts view and check About ARC in the Help menu. The version should be V3.0.2.

---

There are other things that affect the quality of treble measurement which are likely out of your control. These include things like room humidity. But when you have more treble roll-off showing in ARC than you think makes sense, take the steps above first to eliminate those causes that you CAN control.

Each room setup will be different, and each set of speakers will have more or less pronounced treble directionality. If it looks to you like ARC is picking up quality treble data for the speaker Measurements, then you can experiment with raising Targets > Max EQ Frequency to allow ARC to apply correction further up. If not, then leave Max EQ Frequency at 5KHz and trust that the high frequency roll-off you are seeing in the charts is "not real". But don't assume that until you have checked the basics as above.
--Bob
Edited by Bob Pariseau - 12/3/12 at 12:32am

Good luck with that. Anthem STOPPED supporting the units below their D2.v a couple of years ago. They never did resolve all the issues with the original D2. Anthem doesn't even have an archive for our older units.

a. This was posted over a year and a half ago and I still haven't seen a v1.33 problem description during the last few years with any substance it in (post 33029):

http://www.avsforum.com/t/678260/anthem-d2-d2v-avm50-avm50v-arc1-tweaking-guide/33000#post_20249396

b. Archive links are on this easy to find page, it's all there:

http://www.anthemav.com/support/latest-software

c. When reporting a problem, put a little meat in it like steps to reproduce the issue and send it to tech support otherwise nothing useful will happen (post 38649 is a guideline):

http://www.avsforum.com/t/678260/anthem-d2-d2v-avm50-avm50v-arc1-tweaking-guide/38640#post_22485582

Now let's please talk about something real that hasn't been talked about before. Thank you.

The Archive for your older units:

http://archive.anthemav.com/NewSitev2.0/Downloads/DiscontinuedProduct.html

http://archive.anthemav.com/NewSitev2.0/Downloads/DiscontinuedStatementProduct.html

Steve, Anthem prepared a "test" version beyond V1.33 to assist with problems from certain specific, older attached devices with flaky HDMI implementations, but V1.33 is the better of the two versions for everyone else. Let Anthem Tech Support know what model of HDMI display and HDMI Source devices you are using just in case, but the odds are high they will tell you V1.33 is the place to be.

HDMI problems most commonly have to do with cabling. Seriously, even if you are using the SAME cabling, the contacts may have gotten dirty or corroded. If you have any adapters, wall plates, daisy chained cables, HDMI switches, additional video processors, etc. -- ANYTHING -- in the HDMI path, those alone could be the source of your problems. Keep in mind that HDMI is an end to end protocol, so every HDMI cable from Source to Display should be suspect.

Try operating at 1080i as a test. If 1080i works, but 1080p does not, that's usually pretty good evidence the problem is in the cabling.
--Bob

Nick, Thank you for your reply,
A. I still get pink screen and total snow, on power up, but not all the time.I did talk to tech support last week and was asked to put in Studio RGB (1a DATA ) with not any better results. The D2 still locks up changing sources. I brought my unit into Anthem last year or so, and Anthem changed some part inside and installed 1..47. I went back to 133
B. I could not find this folder doing a search on D2, I will keep this link.
I know Anthem does their best at resolving any and all issues,

THX

Might be an issue between the D2 and your TV (handshake through system still applies even though D2 does the source switching). The TV brand that you mentioned to tech support last year used to come up very often in regard to HDMI issues all its own, so check for TV software updates if this hasn't been done. I don't have any up to date info on the combination and this is the first I'm hearing of it in a long time - best to keep working with tech support. Could be anything including the source side.

The sources are the same, almost. Now OPPO 105, PS3, SA-8300 HD-DVR., Denon 3930ci. All cables Ultra Link platinum. Most likely bad hand shake with monitor. Problem solved, buy a new monitor.
Cheers

Let's focus on identifying and fixing the right problem.

Is your TV running latest software? Considering how many D2 and AVM 50 v1.33s are in use, connected to a variety of monitor brands including yours, one of the best known names, I see no reason that it can't work regardless of what went on a few years ago when said TVs didn't work with the same company's Blu-ray players (and their support reps knew it).

If it is then temporarily disconnect the 8300 then the 3930 while ensuring that the 105 and PS3 are also running their latest. Note exactly when lockups occur, if they still do, and let tech support know what steps are needed to reproduce them.

D2v w/o 3D starting to have issues
I loaded 3.09f and everything was OK for a few days
I had crunching sounds out of front speakers when I was navigating the gui on my rogers box & nmt
then no audio, nothing brought it back
reverted to 3.09c - everything back to normal for a couple of days (still had crunching when navigation gui), then no audio
powered D2v off/on multiple times along with sources - no luck
installed 3.09f again
back to normal again, but for how long
nothing has changed in my setup

mark

There are lots of possibilities including amp problems, or a pretty severe ground loop. E.g., if the amp is shutting down to protect itself (perhaps due to an intermittent short in speaker wires), it might stay shut down long enough that you'd still have no audio during the time you were trying things with the D2v. But by the time you did the firmware install the amp could have come back out of protection.

Typically a D2v hardware problem severe enough to kill audio won't cure itself just because you do a firmware install. So I'm thinking it is more likely a timing thing. If it happens again, try powering everything off overnight and see if it is live again in the morning (i.e., without re-installing firmware).

Anyway, give Anthem Tech Support a call and let them walk you through trying to diagnose this. It may be necessary to uncable just about everything to minimize the possibility of ground loops.

While waiting to connect with them, start with the basics, which means rechecking all your cabling -- particularly speaker cabling -- to make sure everything is attached properly and that there's no chance of shorts. If you are using Trigger connections, make sure they are plugged in properly as well. Check all cables -- both ends.
--Bob

pretty sure it's not a ground loop - had one a couple of years ago, added an isolator to the cable input (& then found I had hot & neutral reversed)
amp is on and green light, so no overload/shorts

the odd thing is the soft crunch I get in the front speakers when navigating the gui on 2 different hdmi devices - haven't tried the Oppo 80 yet to see if it does it too
I haven't seen anyone else mention this, so it seems significant to me

haven't changed a thing hardware wise (except the unplgging/plugging of the hdmi cables when upgrading)

mark

Hi,

This is a copy of a support request I just sent to Anthem, reposted here for extra coverage I skimmed the last 20-30 pages here and it looks like others have had the same issues, but I couldn't find a clear final solution, so here goes.

"""
I have an early-model D2v (serial 141xxx) which I just upgraded to firmware 3.09, and I have two reproducible issues.

1) If I switch source from where I have an Xbox360 connected, to a source which has no signal, and then back to the Xbox360, the picture gets a hot pink/purple hue.
If I then switch to a source with a signal and back to the Xbox360, the picture looks fine again.

2) When I have the Xbox360 source selected, then enter the D2v's Setup menu, then exit back out of the setup menu, I get a nasty sharp noise played repeatedly. This noise continues until I switch to another source (with or without signal), at which point the noise stops.

Both of these issues are 100% reproducible with my current setup, and I have not seen them with the old firmware.

Setup details:

D2v serial 141xxx, dated Aug 28, 2008
Xbox 360 running the latest update
Display: Panasonic PT-AE7000
All connections are by HDMI
Xbox360 is at HDMI input 3
Projector is at HDMI output 1
Color space: Have tested with both YPbPr 4:2:2 and Studio RGB set up in D2v and the projector
Color depth: 8 bit

Is there any other info you need from me to help resolve these issues?
"""

Good luck and keep us posted as I have just upgraded my last HDMI cable and have the older D2V also but still get the hot pink screen everytime I go into the set up menu of the D2v while on a specific input and still get a hot pink screen everytime I switch between my two satellite inputs. Could be the display but this is my second projector that does it and I am going to test a plasma display this weekend. Maybe a discount for the new HDMI board with 3D is in order to see if that eliminates the problems.

I got a quick response from Anthem, suggesting I try 3.09c. I will do that tomorrow and let you (and them) know how it turns out.

Can everyone help look over the charts below. Any suggestions or problem areas that I should be concern about? Thanks

Thanks

I fund the charts are almost impossible to read when they are posted this way. They are to small and any attempt to make them larger blurs the text etc.
Also there should be 3 lines on every graph. By default they are Red, Blue, Green

I gave 3.09c a go, with no real luck:

1) The pink screen issue is the same.

2) The noise is gone, but now there is no sound at all, neither for the Xbox360 nor for the TV tuner (which are the two sources I'm using when testing now). The status says "No signal" for the HDMI sound for both sources.

They look good to me. How does it sound?

Try this: Right Click on the image and Open Link in New Window. The image in the new window will be full size instead of the compressed image the forum shows in the post.
--Bob

These look fine and should sound excellent as is. What's left is just tweaking. It looks like you've got good quality treble data Measured for all speakers up almost all the way. And since your speakers don't need a ton of correction in the lower frequencies, your setup could be a good candidate for raising Max EQ Frequency. I'd try raising it to 15KHz to get that extra octave and a half of correction in the higher frequencies. Do this in the Targets window (for both the Movie and Music columns), accept that change, re-Calculate, and re-Upload. No need to re-Measure.

Also the basic volume level of the solution is a bit low -- around 68dB. Before your next ARC Measurement run (no rush to do this), try raising Setup > Level Calibration > Test Level by about 5dB. Ideally you want the flat part of the Targets curves (black dashed lines) in the mid frequencies to be at about 75dB. Again, this is minor. You could leave it as is.

Your LF/RF speakers look to have excellent bass response. ARC has set a 60Hz Cutoff/Crossover for them, which means it is depending on quality output from them down to 30Hz. You could try experimenting by lowering that to 50Hz or even 40Hz to use more of the bass energy they can produce. Check to be sure the quality of the Calculated result still looks good across the entire frequency range -- i.e., the residual error between the black dashed Target curve and the green Calculated curve is small -- certainly no more than +/- 2dB. You may find that a compromise setting of the Cutoff for LF/RF and the raised value of Max EQ Frequency is necessary to get clean results across the frequency range. But since you don't have any PROBLEM that needs fixing in this current result, I'd lean towards leaving the Cutoff for LF/RF right where it is now.
--Bob