"Official" Audyssey thread (FAQ in post #1) - Page 726

I ran a few searches trying to find something about this, but no luck. Hoping somebody has some experience or ideas on this one.

I recently did the feature upgrade to my 3808 and re-ran the Audyssey setup. Was very pleased with the results, but I have been having pretty regular volume problems ever since. I periodically appear to lose the voice track on digital sources. It is really odd, but I will be watching a show on TV and suddenly I'm only hearing the music track and background noise, but no voices. I cannot purposefully repro this but it does randomly repro on multiple digital sources (Cable Box and DVD). Both are HDMI in.

I have screwed with just about every aspect of the Audyssey settings. Dynamic Volume does not appear to be the culprit as I've had that disable for several days and am still seeing the behavior. Since disabling Dynamic EQ, the behavior seems to have changed such that the voice tracks just get very quiet vs. totally muted. Adjusting Audyssey settings can temporarily correct the problem, so I feel relatively confident it relates to Audyssey setup or function.

I have not done a hard reset, but have done a soft reset and the behavior represents itself. I'm going to try switching my audio to optical rather than HDMI cables to see if I can localize the problem to HDMI audio, but figured I'd post just in case somebody else had seen this.

Sounds like either 1.) an amp (center) going bad or 2.) and intermittent connection with the speaker cable (frayed, or loose...)

Thanks. Potentially, but seems odd that the behavior changes when I make changes to Audyssey settings. Frayed wire or failing amp seems like it wouldn't be affected by a configuration change.

Good tip to at least swap out some speaker cables to see if the behavior changes.

What changes are you making?

When you encounter this problem; check if your receiver shows that it receives all multichannels in or not.
Several (older) components, when connected via HDMI (and due to bad handshaking), often loose contact with all but the stereo channels. That means that you only will hear the information from those two channels, regardless of the presentation or how many speakers you actually have.

When this occur, you will see that your receivers display shows only stereo input. You will also loose any type of high res sound that you might expect. The receiver will show PLIIx Cinema or equal as speaker output.

If this is what you experience, you will probably get the correct sound back when toggling the source input on your receiver.

Samsungs first BD-player (BDP-1400) is especially bad regarding this.

Thanks for the suggestions. This is not the behavior I'm seeing. The display still reflects a 5.1 channel input from both the sources I'm seeing this behavior. Both devices are relatively new...a Toshiba A-30 and Motorola DCH3416.

I'm not losing multi-channel and going to stereo...unfortunately, the suggestion that this might be the center amp failing is the one that seems most likely given the behavior. That would suck.

Just about anything. Turning off Dynamic EQ, changing the Room EQ settings from Audyssey to Manual. A soft reset seems to work as well. Right now all Audyssey settings are off and audio is fine. I'm going to try a couple other sources to see if I can reproduce the problem even when Audyssey is off.

Hello again

Thank you for you kind answer.
Now I understand how this works.

I have one more question.
When I run audyssey setup, I have low pass frequency and volume control in the middle of adjustmen range. After first measurement I check the subwoofer trim lever and it was -12
I turn down the volume on sub and run setup again. Now sub was detected as 7,5 away, actualy it's only 1,5. Trim level was on -8

Now I don't know how to solve this problem. How to get trim lever arround +-3 and also distance is set correctly.

Thank you.
Br

You now have the volume control on the sub set well, between the limits of -12 and +12.

As frequently discussed here, the sub distance is a time measure relative to the front speakers, and includes physical distance and electrical delays. These delays can come from anywhere in the electronics in the sub, but especially from any filters. You should be worried only if the sub's measured distance is less than the physical distance.

Why do you have the low pass filter on the sub set in the middle of the range? If you can disable the filter on the sub and use only the filter in the receiver, the delay and distance calculation may be reduced.

If by "low pass frequency" you mean the control on the subwoofer itself, you need to set this to the maximum value or disable it if your sub allows you to. Set the volume knob on the sub to between 9:00 and 11:00 o'clock and rerun Audyssey.

Don't worry if the trim levels are not +/- 3 dB (unless you want them to be) as long as they are above the minimum trim value of your AVR (usually -12 dB to -15 dB).

If the distance measured to your sub is longer than the physical distance, don't worry about it. That is caused by the delay through your sub's filter network. Just leave it alone.

If you have not done so, read the Audyssey Setup Guide (link in my sig) as it explains all of this in great detail.

Hiya Chris and Everyone
Well after 6 months of having MultEQ XT on the Onk 906 a couple of months of having the Paradigms and 6 weeks of having the Sunfire Sub. I think I have everything perfect.

After reading everything I could on this forum and doing it heaps of times introducing new speakers and a Sub and playing around with placement I think I am close to audio heaven. I have the Onk 906, Paradigm Studio 100 Fronts, a Paradigm Studio cc690 centre, a Rotel RB 1080 Driving the fronts as a power amp 200w, Dali large floorstander sides, and Dali Bookshelf rears. I got the Sunfire Signature Sub-TS EQ 12.The Onk is processing and is driving the front, sides and rears, The Sunfire is obviously a powered Sub with a tracking downconverter 600-2700w depending on demand.

So after using the Subs auto Room EQ and also wondering why my centre was reading as between 70-120 hz, I followed lots of your advise and did this.

Thanks to Bluesky and some others I resisted all urges to touch the Sub EQ and as Chris said let the MultEQ XT set 8x filters on it. I set the sub up exactly as recommended prior to running Audyssey.

Thanks to Chris I stopped worrying about why such a beast of a centre speaker was listing other than full range and trusted in him it was simply reflection in the room somewhere, I.E large coffee Table or floor. (I didnt want full range anyway but wanted the room to move in x overs and suspected speaker malfunction LOL)

Ok so I picked the best time of day and ran 8 points, resisted the urge to play with the Sub EQ (damn that was hard!) and using all the lessons learnt from the forum such as speaker placement up to mic placement and recommended readings, distance apart for the size of your room, ie 1 foot up to 2 foot apart.I stuck with Giomanas mic placement guide and Audysseys and because my room is a bit narrower than most my distance apart in readings 1-6 was 50cm.Making the 6 point rectangle box. And my 7-8 was in ratio and as per recommended, about 25cm to the left of point 1 and 25 cm back same as pos 8 25cm to the right and 25cm back.

Turned everything off all phones and ran 8 points with no Eq on the Sub just out of the box settings. When I finished I was very happy with the findings the Sub Trim was a little high at -11 even though it was a 10' O clock on master volume. But will tell you more about that in a minute. My x overs all came back full range except for the centre it came in at 90, so a no brainer there. All Speakers got set to 90hz, Lfe set to 120 "Obviously"

I usually up the trims a bit especially the rears, however I thought I shall leave them as they are for at least 2 days listening. I turned on my Sat box on to the music channel. I was pleasently surprised everything sounded lovely and detailed rich and bright at -20 volume. I thought oh dear i cant hear the Sub much or more to the point deep base. But then I realised I was getting mostly pop songs so waited and soon enough some R&B and hip hop came on, namely Black Eyed Peas. And in chimed the Sub! Beautiful tight base lines brilliantly reproducted and filling the room totally non directional!.

I put Call Of duty 2 Modern Warfare in the PS3 set it to Mutichannel Pcm on the receiver. This had always had the Sub bottoming out on big explosions before and I was worried I mean a 5k Aussie Dollars Sub Bottoming out!!! But not now If I saw a plane coming or an exposion about to happen I ran towards it obliterating myself in the process but got the loudest reproduced deep or low hz sound and nice and tight and realistic. And I have heard plenty of explosions in real time! So once again really happy.It was then I decided the Trim on the Sub can stay where it is.

The final test! Terminator Salvation on Blu Ray DTS Master HD no Neighbours home either side of me so I watched that baby at -7 on the volume. (I have to add +5-+7 on the volume 10 years in the Army and scarred eardrums from diving pure oxygen) So thats my reference level. I was amazed! The Audio was fantastic filled the room everything performed beautifully. With the large terminators in the movie and other scenes I think this one can stand side by side with Iron Man for low frequency but no bottoming out! Sunfire filled the room, it was awesome and my whole couch was vibrating!

Ok thats enough of my Novel of feedback thanks everyone and I am very happy. But I fear no more tweaking for me!! LOL until I change the furniture around again or decide to move something. So thanks again this wasnt a simple Audyssey setup I had to custom a few things in placement ignore the Sub Eq and trust in Audyssey and take a lot of lessons from you guys. But man did it pay off. Just thought I would right this as there are so many questions and advise needed, listed in this thread but few success storys or reports of great findings. Thanks again all and Merry Christmas!!!

Justin
Queensland, Australia
PS If you have a 60 kilo or 130 pound Bullmastiff dont run Audyssey test chirps when there inside, no matter how well behaved they are. The dog will go friggin stupid!! LOL "Note for Chris make a small portable dog toy with Audyssey test tones transmitter inside it" You will make millions LOL

Could not reproduce without Audyssey. I went ahead and did a hard reset and went back through the Audyssey setup process and will hope that I don't see the problem surface again.

Hello,
I am getting an itch about the Sub Equalizer.
At the moment I have a Denon A1HD, audyssey pro and a pair of subs. Are there any reasons why the outboard Sub EQ would be more useful as compared to audyssey pro to equalize my two subs in a relatively difficult large room?
It's still unclear to me how to combine the two audysseys though Denon's AVP. Any thoughts?
Thanks

That's the kind of post everyone likes to hear. Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.

How's this for wacky...after the hard reset and recal it surfaced again. I'm watching an HDDVD (Elf, since it is the holidays and all) at about -20 volume, suddently the voice track goes silent...all other sounds, background, music are audible at the same volume as they had been. All speaker channels are outputting sound...just no voices.

I turn the volume up to almost 0 and I start to hear voices again...when I turn the volume back down to -20, my listening volume, the voice track was back.

This is driving me nuts...any brilliant ideas?

Right now, all settings are essentially at default after the Audyssey setup. Dynamic EQ is on and Dynamic Volume is off.

Hi,

Please refer to posting #20951.

The important thing to note is that you can not use the Sub Equalizer without access to Audyssey Pro.

Larry

The Subwoofer Equalizer has 2x (or maybe 4x with the new firmware?) the filter resolution of the AVP, plus it can time- and level-align two subs. In practice, the Sub Eq would be calibrated and then Pro would be done "over" it.

Jeff

I seriously doubt this problem is being caused by Audyssey.

In your original post, you said this all started happening after you did a firmware upgrade to your AVR. Perhaps the upgrade did not load properly or was corrupted and is causing the channel loss. I don't know what the update procedure is but have you considered downloading another copy of the update and reinstalling it? Worth a shot.

Have considered it, yes. The update I'm referring to was the feature update of the Audyssey features, so I'd be reinstalling the Audyssey features and I don't think the Denon server would actually let me do that again...I think it would detect that I've already installed the features.

While I admit I have no better explanation, my experience with firmware updates on other types of hardware is that they either succeed or fail...this is a pretty niche problem to develop due to a problem with the install process itself. But, hey, you never know.

Even if I take that route, I'm one of the lucky few who can't do firmware updates of my Denon from my house due to the number of hops Comcast takes to get to the Denon update service. Known issue, believe it or not. Denon times out every time. So updating it means disconnecting everything and trucking it over to my office and hooking it up to a switch in my office and doing the update. Not top of my list...was hoping for a less challenging brilliant idea, but thanks for your help regardless.

You never know unless you try. I haven't seen any other "brilliant ideas."

Yeah...I hear you on that. Killing me. Mostly have a feeling that I'll yank the receiver out, head over to my office, get it setup and then find out I can't do the update again because the receiver knows it has already been done.

Pain in the rear.

Which is why the SVS AS-EQ1 is a good alternative for many people. It comes with all the necessary stuff.

Thanks for the reply. I do have audyssey pro version already and it should be ok in that regard.
So, I assume that audyssey pro knows how to blend the level between the speakers and subwoofers even that the calibration have been made through different machines (avr + sub eq).
Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks again.

I have a Denon AVR-590 receiver and a Energy ESW-8HG subwoofer. I have read the suggested setup guides and scoured this thread to no avail. Every tiime I run the auto setup I get a "S. Back (Preout) No" message indicating that the receiver has not detected the subwoofer. Any suggestions?

Sounds like you have the RCA cable plugged in to the wrong jack. It should be plugged in to the "sub" pre out jack marked in black, rather than the S. Back pre-out right next to it.

S.Back = Surround Back (not the subwoofer!)

The 590 has assignable pre-outs that can be used to expand to 7.1. Another possibility is that you have configured a setting where the receiver is expecting to "ping" surr.back speakers, but you don't have any connected. Reconfigure the setting so it is in "normal" 5.1 mode and you should be good to go.

I have it set up with a standard 5.1 speaker set. There is a black, red and white subwoofer output. I had it plugged in to the black one. Is that wrong?
It pings the front L, C, R, and rear L, R properly

Yes, it knows. And no license is required for the Subwoofer Equalizer. I have Audyssey Pro over the Sub Eq's "sister" SVS AS-EQ1 and it's a "cold, dead hands" kind of a situation.

There is only one subwoofer output on the 590. It is in the Preout box and is labeled Subwoofer. It is a black RCA. The red and white RCAs next to it are labeled Surr Back/Front Height and can be used for Surround back channels in a 7.1 system or Height channels in an Audyssey DSX or Dolby PLIIz system. They are completely unrelated to the subwoofer.

If you have not told the system that you have a 5.1 and not a 7.1 system (in Amp Assign in the menus) then MultEQ will try to ping the Surround Back channels. When it doesn't find them it will tell you that it didn't. You can ignore the warning and continue. The error you are getting is not related to the sub which I assume is being pinged during the MultEQ calibration, right? If it is not being pinged then make sure that in the setup menu you have said: Subwoofer: Yes.

Yes, it is being pinged. It is just not very loud during the pinging.