"Official" Audyssey thread (FAQ in post #1) - Page 1650

LOL! I guess that's a good point to mention.


Max

Just a statement about oleus post on the movie setting under audessey. I have had a lfew of Onkyo/Integra receivers in the last few years. Onk 5008 5007, Integra 40.3 and 50.3 and now the 3009 which so far is my favorite receiver. Just a fluke or what. In the last couple of months my 3009 has the same sound issues as Oleus. Since december. I changed my front three main speakers and added two Emo amps to the front end. Seems I have had to reset audessey several times to get even a little close to the great sound I had prior. I did do the last firmware. After I read the posts yesterday I switched to the Audessey music and lo and behold it sounded great. As it should. So he definately not alone. And now as I recall this was not an issue prior to the December firmware. By the way K Barnes thanks for the Mic stand recommendation a few months back really helped.

There are so many people on the relevant AVS threads that have 3009s and almost to a man they are delighted with them and with the way XT32 improves their sound. So it's worrying if a recent round of Onkyo FW updates is doing something so drastic that it is making these flagship AVRs suddenly sound like "a low quality AM radio".

I will soon have to update the FW in my own 5509 in order to be able to use the Pro kit that I have on order. I almost never do FW updates unless an update promises to correct a definite problem I am having, or as in the pro kit, promises a new feature that I want.

Has anyone else seen any reports of recent Onkyo FW updates having such a negative effect on the SQ, and one which can apparently be eliminated by selecting the music curve?

I'll Ask Audyssey later if they know anything and will report back of course.

This graph from Markus seems to indicate some processing in the surround channel in THX modes which is probably why it seems softer and less intrusive.

I know about internet content. I did not even use Google (hardy har har)!

The question I asked was about the dynamic range of music. The defintion of the term "dynamic range" depends on what you are talking about. No need to discuss the dynamic range of the signal chain nor of the recording medium.


From that article:

"What Is The Dynamic Range Of A Piece Of Music?

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Intuitively, we feel that dynamic range ought to measure how ‘variable’ or ‘mobile’ the music level is."

and further on

"There remains the question of whether one should use such a term as ‘dynamic range’ at all: there is no official definition for it, and it may be confused with the dynamic range of a recording medium, which is basically the difference between the highest and lowest level it can handle. During the course of this article, therefore, I won’t talk about ‘dynamic range’ in relation to a piece of music. Instead, I will be using ‘RMS variability’, or more generally ‘dynamic variability’. The term ‘dynamic range’ will be reserved for the measure of signal-to-noise ratio of a recording medium. I will use the term ‘loudness range’ in strict reference to the EBU 3342 document, and the term ‘loudness variability’ in other cases involving loudness instead of RMS."

I also have been one of the very happy 3009 owners. Until this issue. It does seem though when switching to the music mode the system sounds as it should. If I did not read this fourm I would have never thought of that. Base on that premiss It is not fault with my speakers or amps. I redid audessey set up to the letteer almost 10 times this week just to get it decent before I found out about or took the suggestion to switch to music. I will look forward to your request from audessey and i will contact them on my own. Having been an Onkyo/Integra owner I am aware of theyre missadventures with bum firmware. I hope the new one improves not deterioriates what we have any further possably they are already aware and have a solution in the upcomming firmware. I personally at this time have no strong interest in audessey pro not to say that could not change in the future. Thanks to all so far for responses.

wow, thanks for confirming this william. really starting to seem to be like that december firmware update knocked audyssey out of whack.

there were some posts on the official Onkyo forums about it, and several on the AVS Onkyo 709 thread, although one user with a new receiver and the new firmware did not have the issue.

Interesting. It may be that the user with the new AVR who did not have to update the FW is immune because it's the process of updating the FW that is causing the problem. I have Asked Audyssey if they know anything or can enlighten us any? I’ll post their reply when I get it.

Are there several users on the 709 thread that have noticed the same problem since updating? Have they made no other changes other than the FW update and re-running Audyssey? Does switching to the Music curve fix it for all of them?

Yes, three others on the 709 thread had the issue (at least one of them ended up returning the receiver because of it), and several reports on the Onkyo forums (not all using the 709, either). And now William in this thread.

I think i remember one person trying the music curve and having it not work, but i need to go back and check.

thanks Kbarnes for sending the question over to Audyssey. I think a lot of people don't even run the Audyssey setup for whatever reason, and there are probably a lot of people who would have the issue but don't know it yet.

I really thought I was going nuts until I read Oleus post. The only issue that I could think of is When I first got my 3009 it froze during the first update I did a reset and ran it again no problem the same thing happened on the december firmware. I use the ethernet hardwire for my 3009. This was the first time I ever had any issue during a firmware update. And yes it is odd the music curve makes it all right . Also thanks K Barnes also for contacting audessey.

i've never been able to do an Onkyo update without it locking up a few times.

glad to hear MUSIC is working for you. it sounds fantastic to me.. maybe later this evening i will make a youtube video so i can show you guys what the "MOVIE" setting sounds like.

it was described by others as "weak center channel" but that's a huge understatement. it's not just the center channel, either, but voices coming through the center channel magnify the problem.

Maybe this is what I heard last night.

I tried to watch part of a movie and my system sounded like an awful HTIB with broken speakers. Very "midrangy/peaky". After reading this, I remember I had just done an update (Integra 80.2). I use Audyssey Pro.

I wonder if this could be what I was hearing.

You are right the bottom end gets very weak and there is emphasis on the upper midrange and highs also the surrounds seem almost overwhelming losing a bit of the dialog. Switching to music all goes to normal good bottom end less emphasis on the surrounds and highs. Crazy.

did you try the same source and program with the music curve as opposed to movie yet?

I was using PLz IIx movies and I will try music later today or tonight.

I am one of the 709 users that has the latest FW, and has no problems. I received my unit, plugged in the HDMI Main out to my TV so I had a GUI, then I powered up the unit and updated the FW via USB Drive. I had no issues at all during the update process. No freezes, or hiccups.

So maybe it isn't necessarily the FW, but maybe the process of updating that is causing the problems? Freezes & resets during the update certainly don't sound good to me.

Yep, your Onkyo caught the bug. I imagine we will keep getting reports of this trickling in!! Definitely try switching the audio curve to MUSIC, it worked wonders for William and I, but hopefully Onkyo gets this resolved sooner rather than later!

yeah but unfortunately if you read through the onkyo forums, lockups and error messages during firmware updates are sadly "normal".

That's what I'm starting to realize. I will think long and hard before I update again.

I came over to this thread to see if anyone had any insights into the strange issue, and less than 24 hours later two others over here with onkyos have started to hear similar weirdness. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in the NEXT firmware update.

I use same setting but I switched it to music curve and that is when I noticed the uge improvement i wonder if anyone reported this issue to onkyo I intend to,

OK - thanks for the feedback. I'll let you know the official Audyssey response asap.

It sounds like the Movie curve is all over the place but the Music one isn't affected. I guess the FW could do that.

thanks for your help KBarnes!!

FYI... I am running 12/20 on my 5009 (exact same FW as the 3009 and 80.3) with no issues.

Pleasure - I have a vested interest because I will need to update the FW on my 5509 prepro soon so that I can use Audyssey Pro with it.