Yes the benefits of Audyssey are so subjective and vary with user, mic placement technique, and individual room, as we've all continue to read. I went wild tonight with the Audyssey set up and did 8 positions as recommended in the avs forum rather than the initial setup when I did only 3, after all we have only 3 seating positions but the idea is to create and enveloping sound experience. Funny I liked the EQ a bit better before, even though the sub was missing, Audyssey set the M80s at 60 hz crossover, the center at 80 hz, and the surrounds at 90 hz. Now tonight with a sub and the more extensive input as well as whatever the impact of the feature upgrade, it sets the M80s at no crossover, the center at 80 hz, side surrounds at 90 hz, and rear surrounds as 100 hz. As before M80s are large, everything else is small.
So far I don't like the dynamic eq or the dynamic volume, I mean not really at all. With Audyssey lots of people seem to shift their impressions though, so of course I will continue to experiment.
I definitely love the sound of the Audyssey itself (without the Dynamic modifications) for HT content, I mean it is way cool, even if it was a little bit better to my ear before with only 3 positions being measured. I mean, I am hooked on the sound, it is very rich, amazingly textured, focused, yet enveloping.
I agree with Mark, once you have it the network music thing is basically a must have feature, so I would recommend the feature upgrade to anyone, will follow up with a post if I flip flop as so many have with regard to the Dynamic EQ and begin to find it enjoyable as so many others have found. At this point I find it quite doubtful I will ever be a fan of the Dynamic Volume, I mean compression is the enemy of musical as well as HT excitement so I doubt the tradeoff will ever float my boat. When watching TV we have to listen at lower volumes of course so the commercials don't blast us out, but not that much lower, we fast forward through all commercials so we really don't need to compensate all that much.
Well initial impressions of course are bound to be superseded but the overall impression is one of excitement, the 3808 is a great unit and I feel I made a good choice that will stand me in good stead for a long time to come.
