"Official" Audyssey thread (FAQ in post #1) - Page 681

Originally Posted by pepar

I trust Audyssey and their research. If I had a pre/pro with true dual sub outputs and I also had an AS-EQ1/Sub woofer Equalizer (which I do), I would use ONE sub output and correct my subs as one.

Jeff

Originally Posted by Jeremy Anderson

What's the best way to handle a tactile transducer? I'm running a SVS 20-39CS+ passive sub and Buttkicker LFE off of a Samson 1000 rackmount amp with a standalone subsonic filter set around 18Hz to help protect my SVS from over-excursion. I have been turning the gain all the way down to the Buttkicker and bypassing the subsonic filter when I run MultEQ XT, then re-engaging the subsonic filter afterward and dialing the Buttkicker in with listening material.

Of course, that was with an Onkyo TX-SR705. In two days, I'll have the Onkyo TX-NR1007 which has two sub outputs, so I was wondering if I should change my Samson back to stereo and run separate feeds to the SVS and Buttkicker. I'm just not sure what Audyssey would do if it tried to chirp the Buttkicker. Or do the 2 sub outputs on these new Onkyos produce identical signal (i.e. they are both EQ'd the same)?

Originally Posted by bluesky636

The 807 has the offset adjustment. Neither the 906 nor my 706 do. You can accomplish the same thing by reducing the Intellivolume setting by 10 db.

I run HDMI audio out of my BD player to the 706 for movies. At the same time, I have an optical digital connection between my BD player and 706 for CDs/music. Intellivolume is set to "0" for HDMI and "-10 db" for optical inputs. I also have Intellivolume for the HDMI from my sat box set to "-5 db." Works great.

Originally Posted by Invictus 14

Hiya Bluesky I am searching Intellivolume due to your great advice and stumbled across one of your older posts. Now I have always thought what you have said here that optical is better for music its transferring the signal through light, do you dind it better for music. Obviously HDMI is the go for movies as it supports all the later formats and 7.1 matrixing of 5.1 signals. By the way changed my Intellivolume via source to minus 10 for music and used Dynamic Eq It was much nicer clear even and crisp granted I had to turn up the volume more to reach my preferred sound but it is much better. Also changed Movies to 0 intellivolume and my cable sattelite to 0 as well this is as you advised much better when using dynamic EQ. Ok mate well back to reading about Intellivolume.

Originally Posted by bluesky636

I have one source for playing both movies and music, a Panasonic DMP-BD35 BD player. I have it connected to my 706 via BOTH HDMI and optical. HDMI is used only for movies (Intellivolume = 0 dB) and optical is used for music CDs (Intellivolume = -10 dB). I have my 706 set up so that the HDMI input defaults to whatever listening mode is appropriate for the movie audio cource. The optical input defaults to CD PCM playback.

I also have my DVR connected via HDMI with Intellivolume set to -6 dB.

Originally Posted by Invictus 14

Thanks Bluesky so you obviously think that music sounds better via optical PCM I have always thought that theory to be sound. Cheers mate.

Originally Posted by Invictus 14

Thanks Bluesky so you obviously think that music sounds better via optical PCM I have always thought that theory to be sound. Cheers mate.

Originally Posted by Mactavish

Depending on you AVR, the optical inputs "MAY" have limitations on music sources. My Onkyo 906 does, and therefore I use only HDMI from my Oppo BD-83. This of course means I am constantly changing my "Intellivolume" setting, but I don't mind the extra work if I can make it sound better for each source. Read you AVR manual on how it handles "optical" input, if you don't use any of the audio codecs listed as not supported then by all means do as BlueSky has suggested, as that is a good idea, just does not work for me and my gear.

Originally Posted by LarryChanin

In attempting to rerun Adyssey Pro I repeatedly have my measurements aborted due to "noise" problems. I really don't think I am dealing with real ambient noise. First, my home theater is fairly sound proof, I have all air conditioning turned off, no projector is running and I'm in a quiet neighborhood.

Larry

Originally Posted by noah katz

"Do the 2009 receivers from Denon and Onkyo still suffer with the Volume IC chip limitation"

"yes"

"Thank you so much for the reply, I shall have to wait for the 2010 models then that hopefully have more models that allow 11 channels with Wide&Height on the same time."

What does the number of channels have to do with the volume IC?

AFAIK the only thing the 4810 lacks for full 11.1 is two amp channels.

Originally Posted by Kemet

I am more satisfied with the bass from the Audyssey now that I have made the subwoofer hot by 2db and put +3db on the bass setting on all 7.1 channels, sounds a lot closer to a house curve as I dont have Audyssey pro to confirm.

Originally Posted by bluesky636

Unless you are talking about SACD and DVD Audio capability that the Oppo supports but my Panasonic BD35 does not, I'm not sure what limitations that an optical input "MAY" have that you are talking about. I only use optical for Redbook 2-channel PCM CDs. Everything else goes through HDMI.

Originally Posted by Mactavish

Exactly what I'm talking about. There may also be bit rate limitations, don't remember but that would be on those types of formats anyways, also not sure of Blueray audio like the 7.1 AIX sample disk that comes with the Oppo. So as I said, depending on YOUR GEAR, it's something to be AWARE of!

Originally Posted by bluesky636

Got it. I remember the discussion now. I also believe I suggested using an HDMI splitter that would allow the feeding of two separate HDMI inputs so that Intellivolume could be set separately for those two inputs. If I recall, you were adverse to that due to the extra box and cable required. It would eliminate those pesky optical cable limitations, though.

Originally Posted by bluesky636

I'm curious as to what you mean/how you accomplished the bolded statement.

Originally Posted by millerwill

When I look on the Audyssey website at the listing of AVR's that have MultEQ XT and DSX, there are 'Consumer-Ready AVRs' and 'Installer-Ready AVRs'. My understanding is that the difference between the two is that the latter can have Audyssey Pro added (if purchased), while the former cannot; is that correct?

Thus it seems that the Onkyo AVR's--e.g., the TX-NR3007--cannot have Audyssey Pro added, while the Integra DTR-70.1 (which is basically the same as the Onkyo)--can add Audyseey Pro (if one chooses to do so). (They both have MultEQ XT included.)

Am I interpreting the situation correctly? This is really pretty annoying, since I am completely happy with my Onkyo 805 AVR (since I do 'pass through' of video via HDMI and have no use for any video processing in an AVR), but I would like to add the DSX Width Speakers. For this I need to get a new AVR. Whether I think I will ever want to do Audyssey Pro or not will then determine whether to go with Onkyo or Integra (or Denon). Think I'll just wait until next year!

Originally Posted by audyssey

Sorry to hear about your troubles... The fact that they occur when you get near the right surround would indicate that something is "bothering" the mic there. From the trim results you are getting it sounds like there is an issue with the Right Surround. Looking at your latest plots it shows that the response above 2 kHz is –6 dB and below 1 kHz it is +10 dB (or so). That's a 16 dB difference over the audible spectrum. MultEQ is trying to calculate the trim based on that range and it is likely seeing the top end so far down that it is overcompensating with the trim estimation. If you compare the "before" responses to the Back Surround speakers you will see what I mean. That looks much more like what one would expect. I don't know if this a speaker pointing issue or a blown tweeter issue, but it would explain why the trim was found to be much higher than it should.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Anderson

Onkyo UK claims that Audyssey Pro will be added to the 1007, 3007 and 5007 via firmware update. Onkyo US denies it. They need to justify the Integra line somehow, I guess.

Originally Posted by Mactavish

Yeah, I just play with various levels of "Intellivolume", since I have NOT found any static setting to be good for the variety of sources I play. Movies aside, I listen to broadcast radio, HD-Radio, Internet Radio, CD, DVD-A, BlueRay Audio, SACD, USB playback via Thumb Drive as well as USB hard drive, Itunes streaming over my home network, etc., geez did I miss a few?

Then of course all the various audio codecs of these sources. I sometimes adjust song to song when I get nutty and my ears are sounding good. When I'm being lazy I just set it to -10 like most. I look at it as a "bass boost" adjustment or "less bass", in simple terms, I know it's rocket science and beyond my scope or caring, but it does work well, and worth the effort one wants to put into it, just a few remote clicks anyways.

Originally Posted by Kemet

I used the receiver's tone controls to add +3db on the bass for the mains, center, surronds and also the subwoofer. It should be in effect with Audyssey, as long as you don't use THX listening mode which according to my manual disables tone controls.

It has the max increase at 20hz and then rolls off as frequency increases so the bass seems to me to better blend, rather than just making the subwoofer even hotter, how much the bass tone control is tapered probably varies alot amoung models, and I don't have any charts to show what is doing, but sounds better to me than just making the subwoofer +5 db hot per se.

Originally Posted by bluesky636

Ah, got it. What are your crossovers from the main/surround speakers to the sub set to? I use THX so my tone controls are disabled.

Originally Posted by LarryChanin

Hi Chris,

Since my last attempt, discussed in posting #19741, I've been having some serious difficulties in running Audyssey Pro.

In attempting to rerun Adyssey Pro I repeatedly have my measurements aborted due to "noise" problems. I really don't think I am dealing with real ambient noise. First, my home theater is fairly sound proof, I have all air conditioning turned off, no projector is running and I'm in a quiet neighborhood.

I have been successful in running a 12 point measurement once, but after running a 6 point measurement I repeatedly started getting this noise error message when attempting to do the 7th measurement. After several repeated tries I was unsuccessful in getting past the 7th measurement. The weird thing is that it only occurs when the test measurement is on my right side surround. The left main, center and right main proceed normally on each and every attempt, but when I get to the ride side surround the measurement is aborted due to noise.

I saved the 6 good measurements and attempted to load them into my Onkyo Pre/pro, but when the processing got to the point where it is supposed to store to flash memory, my subwoofer got hit with a test chirp and that was followed by an error message.

"Fail to transfer filter because; Communication error during filter saving. Please check connections and try again."

I tried several times, but was never successful in saving the good measurements to my pre/pro.

You may recall that I have subwoofers connected to my surround channels. So I figured that perhaps the problem had something to do with this unconventional subwoofer/surround connection. Today I removed the subwoofers from the surrounds and relocated them symmetrically in the front of the theater.

Then I reran Audyssey Pro. Everything proceeded fine for three measurements, but when I got to the forth measurement, all the problems I described earlier reoccurred. Noise errors only on the right side surround followed by a failure to save to flash. So the problem is not due to the subwoofer connection as I thought.

In desperation I immediately tried using the consumer version of MultEQ following my Audyssey Pro attempts. The ambient noise conditions were identical to when I ran Audyssey Pro. The consumer calibration ran without problem, no noise errors, no problem saving the results.

However, I did notice one glaringly wrong measurement result. The trim settings for the right side surround was maxed out at +12 dB, but when I ran internal test signals it was significantly louder than the other channels. I got out my SPL meter and measured each channel and all channels consistently measured 72 dB at the primary listening location, except the right side surround it pegged the meter. I had to reduce the trim by 14 dB to -2 dB to get the side surround to equal the 72 dB readings of the other channels.

By the way, I've attached the before and after results with three measurements with the subwoofers removed from the surrounds. It looks better than my first attempt with the subwoofers on the surround channels. Too bad I can't save these improved results to my pre/pro.

Here's my previous results:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...5&d=1255844249


Any thoughts or suggestion you might have would be appreciated.

Larry

Originally Posted by Kemet

I have center&mains crossed at 70hz and surrounds at 80hz.

Although my receiver doesn't have it I don't think you can use Tone Controls with DynamicEQ either so there are limitations?

I mainly use Dolby PLIIx Movie/Music to matrix to 7.1, when I first got the reciever I used THX Ultra2 though.

So if you find your bass/treble not to your likeing with Audyssey, it may be heresy to say but don't be afraid to play a bit with the bass/treble tone controls