Every room I have been in over the last 8 years, from over-damped, under-damped to everything in between, and speakers of all types, Audyssey served to "clean up" the sound. Everyone who has listened with and without Audyssey in those rooms is in agreement. Now that's not to say there may not be any venues where Audyssey messes things up; I just have not experienced them and neither have the people I know.
For those of you that may remember, bass and mid-bass was a huge problem in my basement space. I spent over a year moving my sub around, trying different settings, etc. Nothing worked in my "bright" space. In 2009, we renovated upstairs. We moved some stuff downstairs temporarily to get it out of the way. My room was no longer bright and I took the opportunity to experiment with the bass. I became so frustrated, I just gave up. For many years I listened like that. Then I got an Onk with XT32 because my 2000-vintage Denon died. Even though I heard the benefits of Audyssey at other venues, I didn't hold out much hope. What do you know? It worked! The only fiddling I had to do was to change the setting from "Music" mode to "Movie" mode. I find "Music" mode exaggerates the high end. When I turn on Audyssey in my space, the clarity is like night and day - no critical listening required.
So I am finally very happy with my bass and mid-bass and I owe it to Audyssey. If I was a speaker designer though, I might feel upset. If I was pulling my hair out taking thousands of curves and endlessly trying to optimize a speaker, only to have some neophyte come along and change its response through the flick of a switch, I might not feel very good. On the other hand, my well-designed speaker should sound better than a poorly designed one with Audyssey engaged.
I say it's whatever sounds good to you. Reality in audio is "your" reality as a listener. The more you listen, the more you start to understand which reality is best. Every time someone hears my M80s or my Audiobytes, they instantly know what they are missing with their systems. Some have purchased Axiom products as a result. Others couldn't for various reasons. Those same people that couldn't experience Axiom before, have been given the opportunity through AxiomAir. This is what I personally find very moving about this new platform.
