Has anyone used the Yamaha automatic audio setup mic? I guess you place it in the middle of the room and press GO! Does it do a good job?

There is really nothing on the market that compares to Audyssey, however, for basic calibration from the primary seat, YPAO, MCACC, etc. do well for distance and dB levels for each speaker. They do not take the room into consideration like Audyssey.

From the Audyssey FAQ:

"The first is that MultEQ is not based on parametric equalization. Parametric equalization relies on a few bands that are centered at certain frequencies. These bands do not provide sufficient resolution to address many room acoustical problems. Also, parametric bands tend to interact so that changes at one frequency have undesirable results at nearby frequencies. Moreover, parametric equalization methods use a particular type of digital filter called Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) that only attempts to correct the magnitude response in the frequency domain. These filters can cause unwanted effects, such as ringing or smearing, in the time domain particularly as the bands get narrower. MultEQ uses Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters for equalization that use several hundred coefficients to achieve much higher resolution in the frequency domain than parametric bands. Furthermore, by their nature, FIR filters simulatneously provide correction in the frequency and time domains. FIR filters had been considered to require too many computational resources. But Audyssey solved this problem by using a special frequency scale that allocates more power to the lower frequencies where it is needed the most.

The second major difference is that MultEQ combines multiple measurements to create equalization filters that better represent the acoustical problems in the room. Most other methods only perform a single point measurement and this can result in making other locations in the room sound worse than before equalization. There are some methods that use spatial averaging to combine multiple room measurements. Although this is a step above single-point correction, it does not provide optimum correction when discussing spatial averaging. For example, it is common to find a peak at a certain frequency in one location and a dip at the same frequency at another nearby location. The averaging methods will add the peak and the dip and this will result in an apparent flat response at that frequency, thus causing the equalization filter to take no action. MultEQ uses a clustering method to combine measurements so that acoustical problems are better represented, thus allowing the equalization filter to perform the appropriate correction at each location."

Michael, a couple years ago I assisted a colleague in setting up his new system that included a Yamaha receiver with YPAO. The calibration part of the system(setting speaker levels and distance delays)is fine, as is typical with the auto-calibration available on receivers these days. Don't be surprised if the subwoofer distance shows as greatly different from the actual physical distance, since there are various delays which are being taken into account. One change that you might want to do is to skip the auto size and crossover setting procedure and instead manually set all speakers "Small" with probably an 80Hz crossover.

The other part of the system besides calibration is the room equalization. This is more controversial and the Audyssey system, as Randy points out, is widely considered to be superior for that purpose to YPAO. Nevertheless, we found it to be useful, using the setting to emphasize adjustments to lower frequencies(available on that model Yamaha)and you should certainly fully experiment with it when you have some time.

What do you want to accomplish with running the auto setup? Speaker calibration, equalization adjustment or both? The manual that comes with your AVR should have some basic suggestions on mic placement.

YPAO works fine on my reciever. I set the mic at my listening position, about head level. Speaker Level and parametric EQ are fine. I use Yamaha's "natural" setting that has less emphasis on the highs. I prefer this mostly because of the heavy loud music I favor. It does set the subwoofer distance wrong every time though. Go with the actual distance plus 4 ft if you have a DSP type subwoofer.