It's no secret that resident Axiom audio-guru Alan Lofft has no love for the (MCACC/YPAO/Denon 3805) room EQ features found on certian reveivers as is evident by this month's newsletter. My take on Alan's comments is that he seems to imply that if you have reasonably good speakers, then these EQ features are virtually worthless and will do more harm than good.
In reply to:
(Editorial note: Although I didn't receive a demo of the AVR-3805, it's worth noting that doing accurate measurements of listening-room frequency response aberrations is extremely complex, and correcting for room response errors using 8 bands of parametric digital EQ is essentially impossible. At worst, such digital auto-correction schemes have the potential of making good speakers sound bad by "correcting" the frequency response of an otherwise neutral, linear well-designed speaker. Users may mistakenly interpret small level increases introduced by the auto-EQ system as sounding "better," a common result of uncontrolled listening. I would advise enthusiasts to take these auto-EQ systems with a liberal dose of salt, and not base purchasing decisions on this particular feature.)
I'm just curious as to weather or not those members of this board who have purchased these various (Yamaha,Pioneer) receivers feel like they have wasted thier money on this particular feature. And would they be just as happy with a receiver that does not have this feature. Anybody care to comment?
