But isn't that why they call it Audyssey Room Correction? Its primary purpose is to compensate for room shortcomings, not poor speakers.
Not IMO. It’s an auto-EQ system which is designed to automaticaly equalized for frequency and AFAIK some timing anomalies regardless if they are speaker or room induced. So IMO calling it “room correction” is a marketing ploy so as not to further alienate speaker and other equipment manufactures, and probably also to make it sound more “friendly” to the layperson. Room correction is only a part of what systems like Audyssey do.
I’m guessing, since I don’t know what Alan thinks, that not using EQ is more than just philosophical. As Dr House mentioned it adds another step in processing into the chain of sound output. Auto-setup routines (the receiver not Audyssey) can miss identify speaker sizes and make less than optimal crossover choices. Even Audyssey recommends ignoring the processors auto-setup and resetting all speakers to small w/80Hz crossover. Audyssey also recommends using only direct radiating speaker an not using speakers like the QS8s.
My biggest problem with auto-EQ systems is trying to compensate for multiple seating. My seating is spread across 8 feet with 2 seats about < 3 feet from the wall and one about 6.5 feet. Show me the EQ filter that can flatten out all frequencies for each seat. Or the timing adjustments that can correct for the distance to all 3 seats from all 11 speakers + subwoofers. Maybe something is better than nothing or not in a case like this and as you say people should try it and find out if they like it.
I wonder if anyone has experimented with multiple speaker brands set up in the same room with auto-EQ applied. Theoretically they systems should sound more similar with the EQ applied than not? It would be interesting to test that.
AFAIK no one is saying never to use auto-EQ. Rather that with any tool to understand the benefits and costs involved in using it rather than automatically assume it’s a necessity. I just advocate that people should listen to their systems and tweak things a bit before using auto-EQ so they can get a better appreciation for what it can and can’t do.
