"Official" Audyssey thread (FAQ in post #1) - Page 1626

Ok yea, you were true about trying again. I tried again, and it worked.
Finally all the 6 points have been auto-calibrated, but i am not very happy with the sound.
The Subwoofer amp has six knobs, Phase is sent to 0, Frequency is set to 200 (is max), Gain was set to 6 out of 10 being the max... i set it to 6.
On the EQ part on the amp Freq is set to 0, bandwith 0, and level set to 0.

When i started the Audyssey setup, in the very beginning itself, audyssey asked me to turn down the subwoofer gain to -75db. Initially i had set it to 12 o clock position (six out of 10).
But with the -75db it reduced to 1.5 out of ten.

After the calibration, here are the results on screen, (just clicked some pictures of the phone).

Results of Speaker Config Check




Distance Check




Ch. Level Check




Crossover Check




Not sure why Audyssey asked me to turn the level down for the sub to - 75, which is 1.5 on the gain in my amp out of 10. Hence no Bass is heard at all after calibration.
There is no bass at all with this auto calibration.
I have to turn up the volume upto - 11.0 db for normal hearing. Which looks like 75% of the total volume to hear audible sound.

Please help.

I forgot to say that THX Music doesn't do upmixing.
But it can use upmixed content from DPLIIx, Neural etc.
So if you have 2 channel content, you are using DPLIIx+THX Music as an example...
I haven't checked what processing THX Music adds but I
would assume it has less processing than THX Cinema.

Yes.

I am getting a little confused here mate, pls correct me if i am wrong, but when you mean that i need to adjust the gain on the subwoofer so the test signal at the beginning reads 75dB SPL, I will have to turn the gain down on the amp, right?? I have an external amp which powers my THT subwoofer. If i adjust the gain to 75dB for the test signal i will have to turn down the gain on the amp, and after which do i turn it back up???
When i tried to turn the gain back up to the previous state, the bass was over bloated and muddy, infact it was cranking up the sound.

That is the problem, thats what i was saying earlier, that when i turn the gain down on the amp to 75, it reduces the subwoofer's bass to 1.5 (out of 10 being the max).
No bass at all.

I do hear the test signal. But adjusting the gain to 75 db reduces the bass way way below.

Yes to that there is no option for ""Stereo THX music" AFAIK.

True, as far as it goes. But where have you seen Audyssey explain that DSX is their way of re-imagining the soundfield to suit their preference? On the contrary, the DSX story says:

>>Research has shown that accurate spatial sound rendering requires more information than what 5.1 surround sound systems provide. Audyssey DSX delivers this additional information from the required directions to overcome the limitations faced by 5.1 surround sound systems.

Research into imaging...
Research in human hearing shows...
Experiments have shown... <<

Reading this, one would not be faulted for thinking DSX improves accuracy, when in reality it warps the original soundfield, most obviously if we are talking about movie soundtracks, but it also applies to music. We expect advertising blurb to exhibit hyperbole. But this is AVS Forum, n'est pas? It is fair game for us to discuss such matters here so that when keen listeners like Keith scratch their heads wondering why something does not sound quite right, rather than deferring to Audyssey’s implications of improved spatial accuracy based on extensive research, they will know that it is just Audyssey's idea of a cool way to enhance the presentation in exchange for departing from the original “reference” intent.

BTW, I happen to agree with the premise: Research has shown that accurate spatial sound rendering requires more information than what 5.1 surround sound systems provide.


Who is us and who is them, and what are they sparring over?

That has been my experience with MultEQ XT. Turns the sub down too much. No problem, when it's done, I set it to where it sounds right to me.

Audyssey MultEQ is designed to get us as close to 'reference' (what the mixer heard) as possible isn't it? Yet with DSX they deliberately move away from reference by deliberately changing the intended effect of the surround channels. There is a certain irony in that, but it's no big deal. But anyone using DSX should be aware that they have immediately entered preference land, that's all. Nothing wrong with that of course, as Chris has always said, as you say.

Only for the sub channel. It's -12dB for the others.

Hey guys thanks for all the help. My reciever is an Integra 70.2 and I was reading the manual last night. It seems it has a function for each input called intelli volume. This lets you adjust the volume for each input. I can raise or cut each input by 12db. So if I balance the mains with the trims using as much trim as possible and use a test dvd to cut my input to achieve 0 on MV, is this where I want to be.

Don't touch the gain after running Audyssey. You just need to set the SPL to 75dB (not minus 75dB which you said before) on the screen. To set it to 75dB adjust the sub gain control until it is reading 75dB. If you were setting it to -75dB before it's no wonder you got no bass

How do you mean "when you turn down the gain on the amp to 75dB"? The 75dB figure you are looking for is on your screen - it's the first step of the Audyssey measurements.

How can you have an amp for your sub (which I assume is therefore a passive sub) and also have a gain control on the sub itself (which would make it an active sub)? Just do exactly what Markus suggested earlier and you will be good to go.

In a previous post the OP wrote he has an "Intergated 70.2". I read that as Integra 70.2 which has +/-12 dB trim for satellites and -15 to +12 dB for the sub(s).

From the Manual of the Integra 70.2 (page 56):



■

Are you saying the OP should adjust the gain control on the subwoofer or adjust the subwoofer trim control in the AVR?

Roger, that is *exactly* it, in my case at least. I took Audyssey's description of how DSX works to mean that if I used it I would get a more accurate sound. At first I did indeed enjoy the more exciting sound that DSX Height channels gave me - but I could never quite get away from the niggling feeling that, as you say, "something was not quite right". I could never put my finger on it until you mentioned to me that the surrounds were not behaving as they behaved before, prior to DSX being used. I did some listening, some simple tests (by isolating the surround channels and switching in and out of DSX mode) and suddenly it all clicked into place. The "something wrong" was what was happening to my surrounds, which now sounded much quieter and also as though the content was slightly 'different' in some way too. I could not therefore simply increase the levels of the surround channels by a few dB to compensate - something else was happening too. I then decided not to use DSX Height mode any more, but didn't especially enjoy sitting looking at two Height speakers that were now doing nothing. This led me to experiment with PLIIz and I personally find this much better: it gives a nice 'height effect' (even if it is not what the mixer or director perhaps intended, so I fully admit to joining the preference club here) but it also didn't mess up my surrounds.

The reason I have banged on about this so much when the opportunity has arise in discussion, is precisely for the reason you say: the DSX marketing information has a tendency to mislead by giving the false impression that engaging DSX gives a more accurate reproduction when it does not. It may give a very satisfactory result for some people, or a very exciting result for some people, but because of what it does to the surround channels, it most definitely does NOT give a more faithful representation of what the director/mixer intended.

And that is what I think Jeff meant by 'irony' although it was a light-hearted remark and there isn't much point in making a big deal of what he said IMO.

Are you trying to get the trims to read 0dB? That isn't necessary. The idea is to get each speaker delivering reference dB when the MV is reading 0dB.

Intellivolume might be the solution though (never used it). If you turn down the level on every input by the same amount, you will effectively reduce the input signal and that should let Audyssey set trims that are higher than -12dB. That is all you need you know - trims above the -12dB mark so that you know Audyssey didn't want to go even lower. Even -11dB will do.

EDIT: Ignore the paragraph in italics above. See Feri's post below.

The problem for me was simply that the surrounds no longer sounded right, or even very audible sometimes. The presentation became very 'front-heavy' which gives rise to the often seen remark "a wall of sound". I liked what DSX did - but not at the expense of messing with the surrounds. And it is important to recognise that as soon as one pushes the DSX button, one has entered Preference Land.

Er, yes, isn’t that what I said, Feri?

When running Audyssey and the first screen asks you to set the sub level to 75dB, it has to be set on the sub itself. You can't access the trims at that stage for obvious reasons.