Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Any feedback on the Audyssey MultEQ

I've been reading alot of good stuff about the Audyssey MultEQ, and I'm debating about upgrading to a new receiver that has it. Can anyone out there using it give me some ideas as to how well it really works and if its worth upgrading to. Thanks

Audioholics, Crutchfield, and many other websites have given it very good reviews from testing. The experts testing it were very impressed with the end results to the soundstage and overall freq outcome.

www.audyssey.com

I have yet to use it myself, however, from all the audio boards I frequent, I have been getting mixed reviews.

Take this with as much weight as you want, it is merely my observation on others' observations.

I guess what it really comes down to is trying it out yourself. I am certain the results will differ from room to room.

HomeDad,

I used it to setup my speakers on a Denon 2807 and I must say it knocked my drawers off. It went through its 20 minute setup and basically made all of the decisions for me. The measurements were dead on...if not off by a few inches. The only measurement which was off was the sub...it showed 20+ feet away...eventhough the sub is about 8 feet away from the listening position. I read here and there and found that this is normal.

The other weird thing was the crossover freq., on my rear surrounds (qs8's) it showed 110, on my regular surrounds 100. FREAKY.

I left it alone. Watched my favorites. The bass was tighter then ever, the surrounds were perfect and everything sounded much better then I was ever able to achieve with my Harman Kardon setup.

I must say I am very impressed...and I am now going to be a Denon user for a long time to come....AXIOM for the speakers though...without question.

My 2cents.

ps. I did measure all of the Audessey speaker levels with a good ole fashioned spl meter...and they were on the money at 70db in reference volume which is at 1db on the receiver display if I remember correctly.

Tarun,
Thanks, I wanted to hear it firsthand from someone on this forum that has actually used it. Now comes the agonizing decision of if I really need it or not, I already know I want it.

Its the WANT that always gets us. In my case it was a tad bit different. I got burned on a HK Flagship receiver and the replacement took months....so I bought a low end open box HK receiver. When I got my flagship back, i was so bummed I got rid of it. Then I got rid of the open box. I was so fedup with HK that I bought this Denon 2807 refurb...so I guess it was more of a NEED. But I tell u...it was a good decision so far. I also ventured on fleabay and bought the ipod dock for the denon....makes it even more enjoyable now. And this thing passes anything you throw at it out of the HDMI output...so its awesome.

Intresting notes on the HDMI issues. I use hdmi with a dvd player, and my Dish Network Vip622 hd receiver. I have 0 issues. I dont really need the on screen displays after setup...but switching between sources is not an issue at all. My projector is a little slow..but the receiver is fine for what it seems to be doing. Projector is a Sany PLV-Z5.

I guess I have some more playing to do.....but given my recent past experience...this thing is GREAT! IMHO ofcourse.

I'm glad its working well for you. Its those M80's

I should probably rephrase my last comment as " my current implementaton of HDMI and Audyssey MultEQ shouldnt be considered all that and a bag of chips" I would say I am more dissapointed with HDMI than anything.

I'm curious, did you have your axiom speakers and get adjusted to them before you got the 2807, or did you get all your stuff at about the same time? This could be a case of my ears getting adjusted to,what I have heard been described as, the "forward" sound of the M22. The "flat" setting of MultEQ lowers the 4-8khz levels of my M22's an average of -4.5db. Of course the room characteristics should be taken into consideration. I have the M22 on the carpeted floor, so the tweeters are 17" off the carpet. The primary reference is 40" off the ground, about 12' back. Windows on 2 sides covered with miniblinds, mirror on the 3rd wall. I wouldnt expect a lot of high freq reflections, as the tweeters are more or less pointed at the couch/loveseat.

Another question. If you wish to bump up the volume on the center channel, or back off the sub just a bit, how do you do it ? When using the right resolutions (mostly 480i), if you hit the chselect/enter button on the remote, it quickly brings up a nice overlay to goose the settings, although I do wish the Mains/surrounds had the L/R chained together.

This reciever does beat my old entry level Yamaha(the cheapest) to pieces. the main things I appreciate are adjustable crossover freq, on screen setup, auto level calibration, and of course more power. My holy grail is to never have to switch the input on the tv, and to have full access to the on screen overlays.

Randy

Here are the graphs from a 2807 Audyssey calibration.
average 12x16 carpeted room. M22's on floor 12' from listening point.
I only used a single listening point because it's usually just me. I guess I could do it 6 times from the couch to get an average.

I think its cool to see what the denon says it takes to make my setup flat, and also what it takes to make the center and surrounds match the fronts.

If you really dig the graphs you can get higher resolution at
my slow cable modem

I have had the speakers for a while now...and I do agree its the M80's and that HUGE Sub.

HDMI is new to me...so maybe I am missing out on something.

As for the sound issues....what I seem to be hearing sounds more then fine to me so I need not ever adjust it after I find that it is just right. The one thing I did try was to set teh crossover freq. at 80 for all channels. With Audessey and this setting at 80 everything sounds clean and perfect.

My room is in the basement of our home...so no windows.
The room is probably about 20 x 10 or so....has two doors and a drop ceiling.

Awesome graphs...wish I had the time to figure out how to grab em and then how to post em here. :-)

I am considering a Denon 4306 b/c of the Audyssey. I currently have an HK 7300, but unfortunately, I am in a very bright, very large all hardwood floor and reflective surface room, and am need of some EQ'ing to tame those highs. My question is: Does the Audyssey work well for 2 channel music also?

Thanks all!!

Hello
Yea I would like a larger sub, all in good time i guess. I'd try to sell my existing sub to my brother, but I think he needs a larger one also, and my conscience gets in the way.

concerning the HDMI, I switched video cards in the computer and am getting better results when switching the input on the reciever. Wanted to put that out. This is on linux so my results probably wouldnt apply to many.

I guess I have always been a knob twister . When I listen to music the bass content varies from disk to disk. I like to tweak the center to blend the vocals. Sometimes I wish i would just leave it alone.

If I had a wish with the Audyssey, I wish I could overide the speaker settings (large/smalll) and the crossover settings before it made its measurements/calculations. When you are in Audyssey EQ mode, and no setting have been changed, the audyssey light is green. If anything has been tweaked, the light is red. You can 'revert' the settings to get it back green, but then you lose your small/large changes and crossover adjustments also. I'd like to be able to 'revert' to the green light, but keep my custom small/large and crossover settings. The red light green light thing would let me know if I had previously tweaked things from the calculated settings.


Thanks for the compliment on the graphs. I hooked the zone2 output of the denon into a capture card on the computer.

Randy

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I have had the speakers for a while now...and I do agree its the M80's and that HUGE Sub.

HDMI is new to me...so maybe I am missing out on something.

As for the sound issues....what I seem to be hearing sounds more then fine to me so I need not ever adjust it after I find that it is just right. The one thing I did try was to set teh crossover freq. at 80 for all channels. With Audessey and this setting at 80 everything sounds clean and perfect.



My room is in the basement of our home...so no windows.
The room is probably about 20 x 10 or so....has two doors and a drop ceiling.

Awesome graphs...wish I had the time to figure out how to grab em and then how to post em here. :-)

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