Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Yet Another Audyssey Question

After much searching, I seem to be at a loss to find a simple answer to my simple question:

When setting the Volume on my Denon AVR to -10 Db for most movies, what is the correct Dynamic EQ Offset setting for this level.

I've been using an Offset of 10. Is this ideal/correct?

TAM

Did a bunch more searching. Dynaqmic EQ is a very poorly explained feature in my Denon AVR; however, I found this in an obscure forum that sets it out for my slow mind:

Audyssey got too tricky with the unfortunate naming of the different RLO aggressiveness settings, so think of them as:

0db = MAX
5db = High
10db = Medium
15db = Low
OFF = OFF

This graphically shows what happens at -10 Db MV & 10 RLO that are my settings right now - read the whole page for more info:

http://www.avforums.com/threads/turning-off-audyssey-dynamic-eq.1155031/page-4

Kinda makes sense now...

TAM

I watched 'Air America' Blu Ray last night & played with Dynamic EQ a bit. Dynamic Volume is always OFF for me.

I set the RLO at 0 with MV at -10 Db where I normally listen to movies. I toggled DEQ On & Off & found that with it OFF, the sound was generally 'thinner'. I preferred it ON.

Some find that with DEQ ON, bass becomes bloated and/or muddy. Similarly the surrounds are too loud in the mix. This didn't happen to my system; however, I believe that those that find that their bass response becomes too much, they probably are running their subs hot already...

TAM

Tam , I just added a DSpeaker Antimode to my subs in my bedroom system and Wow, its amazing the improvement it made. I have begun my foray into using REW (Room Eq Wizard ) and will be ordering a mini dsp to adjust my subs in my main setup. I love technology , it takes listening to a whole new level. Plus I don't have to get out the hammer and nails LOL

Rich:

You are way ahead of me when it comes to gizmos & tinkering.

The older I get, the less that I tweak, especially if it requires physical effort, ha!...

TAM

That's the thing with the Antimode, it is perfect for those who don't want to tinker like I do. I was always curious about the antimode and after seeing what it can do I wanted to go to the next level. The sub is the most important part because the wave lengths are so long that they come back on themselves and cancel out each other causing messy sloppy bass. The guy I got mine from is selling them new for 325.00 and regular price is 475.00 , heck of a deal imho.

Tam , I have never used any of those features . I just use whatever decoder plus what audyssey set when analyzing the room. When would you need the DEQ.?

Rich:

DEQ is a very sophisticated software feature based on years of human hearing research that is something like the old, crude 'Loudness' button - remember those?, ha!

The way that I understand it, the content of movie mixes & Audyssesy Compensation is based wholly on Reference Level, ie, 0 Db. Well I (& many others) cannot run 0 Db MV level in my room because it is just too loud. Hence, as you decrease the MV level, DEQ ON gently increases the Bass & Treble output to maintain the apparent balance level with the mid ranges in accordance with human hearing curves as SPLs decrease. So at my -10 Db MV Level with the RLO at 0 (max aggressiveness) I'm getting a slight bass & treble boost to maintain frequency balance across the freq spectrum in accordance with human hearing curves. At 0 Db MV Levels, DEQ ON supposedly bows out & does nothing & it runs just the calibrated Audyssey room compensation.

Whew - I hope that this is all correct, ha!

Anyway, with DEQ ON at RLO of 0 (Denon's setting) at -10 Db MV, it sounds better (fuller?) in my system but evidently not in some others out there. As with anything to do with speakers, it is all personal taste. Sonnie at HTS really likes it in his setup.

I don't use my HT system for music very often; however, I would probably turn DEQ OFF, but I'll have to experiment with this now as I run Concert DVDs/Blu Rays at about -20 MV...

TAM

Ok that makes sense. I will try it out some time. Most of movie watching is on my bedroom system which is Yamaha , no audyssey. I don't turn mine near that loud. As I get older I just don't like it like that , even though my hearing is poor. But since its there I will give it a whirl.

Richard

Tom, yes I'd say that your description of Dynamic EQ, which I always use(I never need the volume compression of Dynamic Volume), and the RLO setting for it is substantially correct. When the system is correctly calibrated at 0, using a lower volume setting such as -10 would result in slightly lower apparent bass and treble response and less surround effect. Dynamic EQ corrects for this by slightly increasing bass and treble at lower levels and also making the surrounds slightly louder at those levels.

The RLO setting should be left at the 0 default if the material being played has about the same volume level characteristics at which movies are supposed to be produced. Some recordings of pop music aren't like that and are uniformly very loud with practically zero dynamics. That sort of stuff doesn't need the full DEQ lower volume correction for lower settings of the main volume control and it could be set at maybe 10 or even 15, but for well-recorded material leaving the setting at 0 should be satisfactory.