Randy is right the graphs don’t lie. The Audyssey curve has a high frequency roll off which is exactly the design feature exhibited by many speakers which I bought Axiom’s to avoid. Now if your processor allows the selection of the “Flat” curve then you won’t have that problem however not all manufactures allow that choice.
I downplay Audyssey because I have tested it dozens of times and found it is not the end all and be all of home audio. It’s a tool and like any other piece of equipment it has it’s plusses and minuses. If it was ideal in it’s standard implementation they wouldn’t be selling a “pro” version for those who want more or something different out of it than what Audyssey has decided is best for the masses.
As I’ve mentioned before in my system the benefit is tighter smoother sounding bass from the LFE channel at the expense of less ambience from the rest of my speakers. This fits perfectly with how Audyssey describes their system working. It has a finer filter applied to the LFE channel and the Audyssey curve rolls off the highs. So for me the choice is easy to use Audyssey for movies but not for music.
I would also reiterate that besides being room and listener dependent as just mentioned Audyssey is also speaker dependent as mentioned earlier which is why Audyssey recommends only using direct radiating speakers. IMO selecting speakers based on the EQ program your planning to use is a little backwards as I’d prefer to select the speakers I want and then use EQ if it benefits.
