Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater My HT evolution project.

I re-calibrated using the auto calibration feature, but it never did any calibration with the sub this time, (seems like it did before?) using Pioneer's MCACC auto eq feature.

I somewhat over ride some of the auto eq anyway by always changing the L/R/C from small to large and the sub to plus. Then I go into the EQ section and tone down the 65 hz setting there a little (it sets it to +10 causing some noticable boominess). Plus set the stereo bass tone to -1 or -2 and turn on the enhancement for lossy formats.

Doing all of the above adds a certain liveliness that is otherwise lacking, plus adds in certain missing bass frequencies.

Edit: I'm going to start using a better method of monitoring and adjusting as soon as I can find something that works. I have an SPL meter, but I need a good sound source that I can play that will sweep all frequencies through all speakers concurrently, and do it slow enough that I can see the readings.

Sounds to me that you now discovering how much bass or lack there of, there actually is in some sources and are not liking it so you turn it downup as required to suit your tastes, nothing wrong with that other than the constant changing.

I would start using that SPL meter. First rerun MCACC, recheck all the speaker levels manually with the test tone from the Pioneer to ensure all speakers and the sub are equal and then leave it alone as this is the way what ever you are listening to was recorded.

Once you get into a full sweep you may find you want to start doing room treatments and then getting an eq and then.......

I wasn't aware the Pioneer had test tones.

Edit: I think I know what you mean, there's an option to adjust where it just plays some pink noise, one speaker at a time.

Hey Cat - yup - just go into manual speaker setup menu option and you can cycle through all speakers at will with the test 'noise'.

There is also the possibily that your room has a lot of holes and peeks that affects differently the more prominent frequencies for music and the ones for LFE. I had that problem once. The old peeks could have been less loud until you upgraded the sub and now they stand out more.

Another thought is to do the subcrawl to find the smoothest placement point for the sub. Your current position could be over accentuating some frequencies causing the boominess.

Actually, I'm back to square one concerning frequency response. Using the pink noise from my receiver to set the speaker levels isn't going to help here. They are already set evenly by MCACC. I need a sweep that I can run through individual speakers and through all speakers at once, that is slow enough that I can tell differences on my SPL meter. Preferably with some sort of indication as to what frequency is being output at the time.

The software solution (forgot the name) that was brought up a few weeks ago, I tried and ran into a stumbling block every step of the way. The last one was when I connect the PC's sound card output to the receiver's speaker pre-in, I get a loud hum.

I have this sweep on a blu-ray disk, but it's fast and doesn't tell you what frequency is being output at the time. Perhaps I can use this in conjunction with the software program, I don't know.

I'm going to try this disk again, maybe between then and now, I'll notice something I didn't see before.

Avia disks have bass sweeps that matches your needs.

I think Digital Video Essentials by Avia is the one I have. I'll be taking another look at this. Or, perhaps it's a different disk. I'm looking for a sweep from 20 hz to 20k hz, that's slow and tells you what freq you are hearing at the time. With this I can try room and eq modifications in an attempt to flatten out the sound.

Oops Avia is a different brand than the one that makes Digital Video Essentials.