I expect to be calibrating QS4s in a few days using the MCACC systems in one or two of my Pioneer receivers, and I'll report back if anything special happens. But since I'm not set up to measure the frequency response of my system, it's hard to imagine what I could tell you about calibrating the QS4s specifically.
I wouldn't trust these reports one hears that a calibration failed for certain speakers. What people usually mean is that the speaker distances detected are not the same as what they measure with a tape. Well, who cares about that? If you think your tape measure will give better results for calculating delays than the acoustic distance, you can simply set the distances manually. Measuring distances is not what you need an automatic calibration system for -- it's just a minor convenience.
I really, really like MCACC. I've spent many hours with a Radio Shack sound pressure meter and various calibration DVDs, but never had much confidence that I was actually improving the sound of my system. MCACC relieves you of the drudgery and uncertainty of using an SPM, and lets you do several calibrations, then sit back in your chair and listen to program material, flipping back and forth among your calibrations, to judge which is best. You just can't do that using only an SPM.
I know about Audessey and Trinnov only from reading reviews and user comments. Audessey does not seem to provide much user control, and I'm a fiddler, myself. The Trinnov system sounds very interesting, but the Sherwood Anderson receiver that has it is much too expensive, for me. One of my 7.1 Pioneer receivers with MCACC, the 817, cost me $146 last summer with free shipping from Amazon. There is no way I would ever, ever pay $1800 for a receiver.
The current Pioneer receivers do not handle height or wide speakers, unfortunately, but I'm hoping this year's models will. Now I have enough speakers to add height, but not yet a receiver to power them. More expensive Pioneer receivers than mine do know how to equalize subwoofers, but mine does not, so that's something else I'll be looking for (preferably handling at least two subs) in my next receiver. I might have to get an Onkyo and deal with Audessey.
