Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 1335

 

Paradigm:

 

As to the question of whether to add a second sub depends on the geometry of your room. When yo walk around the room, is the bass even or is it absent in places and emphasized in others. If so, a 2nd sub (of the same type is best) would help even out the bass around the room as i have in my room...and yes, the AS-EQ1 handles 2 subs so no need for a second unit.

 

A slight change in the AS-EQ1 configuration setting is all you need and then re-calibrate as usual.

dmusoke: Thank you.

 

Let me assess that part, but I think I am beginning to understand, and I do have good sound overall for the first time.

 

You were the one who suggested As Eq1, and that was the game changer, at least in my case.

 

One question though; I still should check the phase alignment with my LF as you have suggested using NULL method, correct, because EQ1 does not phase align with the other speakers. Let me know.

 

Thanks again.

Funny you should ask, I was thinking about that, it is not because when I initially did leave it powered, it made no difference whatsoever - but based on Bob's advice, and the fact that I have added the Dr. HDMI to the mix, I am going to try that again.

- Mark

You can check phase, but coming from where you were to where you are now, I suspect you'll find the sub is in phase. Regarding your other question: Another Sub 25 or a Sub 1, I wasn't clear in my response. Two subs are almost always better than one for the reasons David mentioned, especially when you have a challenging room.

 

David? who?

dmusoke

I've connected a Mac Mini to my Anthem AVM 50v to stream music from my NAS drive. The Mac Mini is connected via Mini Display Port / HDMI (work around for 5.1 Surround Sound) to HDMI 6 on the Anthem. All settings on the Mac Mini has been adjusted to 5.1 Surround Sound, however the Anthem is picking up the link up as Mac 7.1 - PCM and is only playing in 2-Channel Stereo with no Mode selection options (via the remote). Any way around this on the Anthem ?

Any win 8 chart volume fix as of yet it has been 5 months since win 8 rtm (solution not consistent). I am def pizzed at the dual boot win 7 just for arc!

Regards

What are you using to play the audio files you are stream to the 50v ?

iTunes at the moment.

Hi,
I posted my ARC Graphs last weekend.

A question was asked regarding my Target Screen. I used ARC's "Auto Detect" function, which resulted in the following:


I have read in this thread, that it would be best to set the X-Over Frequency to 80.
Would this imply that in my case I change ALL Speaker X-Over Frequencies (including the Sub) to 80 ?
Secondly, If I change this manually in the AVM 50v setup menu would that be sufficient or is it best to re-run ARC with these settings ?

Lastly, I have played with my Sub, but I'm afraid moving it into the corner and playing with the Phase made little difference. Will need to look at a bigger/second sub.

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions.

Do *NOT* make changes to Crossover frequencies in the Setup menu in the AVM 50v as that will screw up the calculations already made by ARC as part of the solution you uploaded. Any such changes need to be made in the Targets window in the ARC application -- followed by a re-Calculation and re-Upload of the adjusted solution.

That said, the values ARC is currently using look reasonable (given that you have disabled use of the Subwoofer for your Music solution) and so I would not recommend you arbitrarily adjust any of them to 80Hz. There are sometimes reasons to help ARC pick a better Cutoff/Crossover frequency given specific room and speaker problems that can show up in the charts. I've not gone back to find the charts you previously posted to see if any such tweaking might be appropriate in your case. But it is certainly *NOT* the case that you should arbitrarily force ARC to use 80Hz.
--Bob

Sorry, but you have me totally confused and maybe all the different feedback from forum members has you totally confused too.
I suggest you start over from the beginning with ARC. Connect everything and start ARC.
When you say you used the " auto detect " function are you referring to option of being able to choose Automatic or Manual/Select Existing File on the opening of the ARC program ?
Choose Manual not Auto
I see you changed the music config in ARC for now leave it the same as Video config
Select Erase
Run ARC
Upload the results and save the file.
Do not change anything ARC suggests.
Post your charts and Targets.
If you may want to move your sub around and use Quick measure before running ARC.
You only need to move the sub inches at a time.
What you are looking for is eliminating or reducing as much as possible any peaks or dips in the sub curve or smoothing the response.
If yo changed any crossover settings in the Anthem setup go back and change them back.
Do not get confused with the crossover settings in the Anthem and the cutoffs seen in ARC. They are not the same thing.
Again, Post your charts and targets so we can try to help

^ Auto Detect is the button lower left on the ARC Target's window that restores all the Targets settings to what ARC originally chose based on the raw, Measured data and your original choice of which speakers to use for Movie and Music (made prior to doing the Measurement pass).

I.e., it is a one button way to undo whatever fiddling you've done in the Target's window. (You still need to re-Calculate and re-Upload with those now-restored, original Target values to finish getting the original, ARC-chosen solution Uploaded.)
--Bob

If nobody has responded to you yet. The graph display is just cosmetic and does affect how arc value is computed or how they are uploaded to your D2.
I have been running win8 and have no problem with arc. Just make sure that you have the correct driver for your keyspan usb.

Question about ARC: I haven't yet explored different Movie and Music settings, but may soon as my music listening position is slightly different that my movie listening position. So far, I have just included my music LP as the main LP when running ARC setup. If I chose to do separate settings, do I run ARC setup twice and upload two different correction values? Or, is it more simply a different set of X-over points set in the Targets window?

My previous Pioneer AVR allowed you to do up to 6 different measurements and adjustments based on LP's.

When you start in manual mode make sure that "Music same as movie" is not checked. You can select the speakers to use at this time also. ARC will lead you through 2 sets of measurements. They are both uploaded at the same time. You can then assign which mode goes with what source.

Thanks for the quick reply! That sounds easy enough, now to find the time to do it!

I've been meaning to get people's feedback on my setup for some months. I finally got around to taking some screen shots of the ARC app.

I'd be curious to see people's impressions and suggestions. For movies, I use the default ARC settings; however for music config, I lowered the setting from 60 to 45. Disregard the pic that shows music at 60, it's been calculated and uploaded to my AVM50v at 45.

As you can see, I have true full-range L&R speakers with the Ultima2 Salons and I'm getting great extension all the way down to 20Hz. My speakers are not really toed in at all. They are pretty much straight on.
I'm sitting about 14 feet from the speakers. My sub is the Revel B15 and is -3db at 18Hz.

My side surrounds and rears are all in-ceiling. I look forward to people's insights and suggestions.

Hi Everyone,
Thanks again for all the comments and feedback.

Here is a complete set of new Graphs based on ARC's "Auto Detect" settings in the Target Screen, that I ran last night.




Just to be clear, I have not changed any of the targets post running ARC. The only thing I did do was to de-select the Sub in Music (I prefer listening to the Classics with a little less Bass ) prior to running ARC.

I did move the sub into the corner (prior to running ARC), as discussed in this thread before. I also used the Quick Measure tool to see what the impact would be if I move if a few inches either side of the corner, but as per my previous replies, it had very little impact (i.e. the Sub - Graph stayed more or less the same). I believe some of the previous comments that the Sub is just too small for the room size might have "hit the nail on the head". My room is approx. 6 x 8m and about 2.6m high.

I'd be keen to get some advise on the Targets and ARC graphs as posted.

Thanks again for all the assistance and advise. It is much appreciated.

Sorry for the late response... No need to perform the NULL method if using the EQ1. It phase aligns the subs with the mains by computing the odd subwoofer distance it gives you to enter into your processors bass management menu which is the end result of the NULL menthod anyways. It also suggests a xover value for you as well.

 

Thxtheater ...  your speakers responses look very good but the sub has a deep notch at 100Hz that is limiting its high frequency response to 80Hz, I believe ARC could gives a value of 110 - 120Hz if that notch is reduced.

 

I would also give my music config a listen first before lowering its xover points. You'd like the sub to handle the lower frequencies for it produces them easily with minimal distortion. Though your mains go down to 20Hz, i guarantee you their distortion at 20Hz is much higher than the same 20Hz produced from a subwoofer. That's what subs are designed to do ...produce low distortion sounds at low frequencies and at high spls.

 

At 75dB your mains go down to 20Hz and below as shown in the charts. But what about at 100dB or more where movie peaks are recorded? Their FR curve could show a response down to 50Hz or higher and with much more distortion to boot! Hence the need to allow the sub to handle the low end.

 

Audiolic, a few suggestions .....

 

1. Since your sub has limitations in the low-ned, i would set its response to "FLAT" in the advanced menu to extract as much low end bass as possible,

 

2. Since you won't use your sub in the music configuration, then change the 40Hz to 25Hz which is the lowest value possible, i believe. still make the full xover setting checked.

Great, thank you.

I think Bob also mentioned that I could look at changing the MAX EQ setting to 10000 and 15000. What does this setting change ?

I fine the solution thru windows 8 different than that through windows 7. The chart volumes are lower and the uploaded solution differs. Have you ran your solution on win 7 and than 8 to compare? The software runs fine on 8 here also (no crashes etc.). If you have not compared the 2 solutions you do not really know if you have no problem. It has nothing to do with keyspan since it can be repeated with the keyspan and without thru a com port.

Regards

dmusoke:

 

One thing though, and it is after talking to SVS tech support, and he suggested that if I am going to run ARC with my D2v later, then do not even need to connect my LF to the Eq1, and that is what I did. In other words, D2v was never ON during the entire Eq1 setup. Also it is not easy to connect D2v mic to Eq1, because D2v mic is a USB, where the connection to Eq1 is a mono jack.

 

So I am wondering Eq1 never heard LF and Sub together, so how can it phase align.

 

Let me know if am understanding and doing it correctly. That is why I thought to check phase by NULL method.

 

Thanks.

I have not run back to back measurement with win7 and win8. I usually re-do my arc measurement once every 3month or if have to move furniture around.
And they weren't worse when I switched to win8. If you have done a back to back measurement with just win7 and win8 as different parameters, you could zip up everything including your .arc and screen shot and send them to anthem support. They have tool to figure out if it is the microphone driver that is behaving differently or the arc software that is computing a different solution.

Is it possible on my AVM50 to direct Zone 2 or 3 (or RECORD) to the headphone jack and still use MAIN with the speakers? I want to listen to LPs (Analog Direct) while my significant other watches TV.

I looked at the manual, as well as searching here, but I can't figure out if it's possible. I apologize if this has been asked before.

Thanks,

- Mark

Mark,

My recollection is that you cannot. The headphone jack is parallel to the MAIN zone. So your only options are to play main and headphones in parallel or to mute the main when the headphones are inserted. Your options are (depending on how crazy and complex you want to get):

1) Use a separate headphone amp connected to zone2 or zone3.

2) Run all component out from the cable box to the anthem and switch your TV watching to component plus both analog and digital out. When she wants to watch TV, you watch it via one of the TV's AUX component inputs with analog audio via the TVs speakers.

3) Get an HDMI 1x2 splitter. Pass one signal to the Anthem. Pass the second signal directly to the TV. She can then watch TV via the TV speakers from a second HDMI input.

You will just have to find another way to bypass it.