Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions What to do with EP600 for Audyssey calibration?

How many years away is the processing power required, do you think? What kind of processing is it? Would a general-purpose type processor work, or would it have to be specialized?

The kind of processing power required is the type in your PC or notebook, which you are not going to find in a receiver or dedicated equalizer anytime soon. Audessey has a PRO version that connects to a PC. It takes longer to run and requires some technical savvy but it is more accurate. In the meantime it has the inaccurate version which it liscences to to receiver manufacturers. Those versions are somewhat effective for HF correction but their effectiveness drops pretty quickly at the lower frequencies.

The most effective bass equalizer which does power off a notebook or PC is the Room Equalization Wizard which is also free software. It finds optimal settings for the Behringer equalizers.

One product I have been watching with some scepticism is a new product development by Audessey which attempts to correct time and frequency domain problems. Ringing can do just as much to hurt sound quality as uneven FR. Lingering notes at all frequencies caused by soundwaves continually resonating around the room can mask detail and articulation. In the bass region it contributes to boominess and less tight bass. The Audessey AS-EQ1 as its called is supposed to cure both FR and time problems but it is way behind schedule no doubt because of the even greater processing power requirement and the fact it can't be slickly packaged into a receiver.

While we are on the subject, what exactly does the Audyssey room eq in the 3808 do? (besides adjust speaker levels and distances)

Terzaghi. The Audessey website will give you much better info that I ever could.

http://www.audyssey.com/technology/multEQ_products.html

http://www.audyssey.com/technology/dynamicEQ.html

Just be mindful of the intro section:



From what I have heard and measured in various friends rooms those programs all mess up the low frequencies and its a coin toss whether they correct or wrong the upper frequencies. Nevertheless, they are worth experimenting with to see if those programs actually improve sound in your room. I'd suggest you would be better off with selective room treatments and concentrating on postioning your equipment. Equalization is only a last resort and one that only really works in the one sweet spot. Also keep in mind that using too much equalization to correct FR can and does contribute to ringing in the room.

I’m not convinced Audysey does much with the LFE channel other than set distance and DB. It set my distance at 23’. My sub is 10’ away, so I changed this to 16’. It set the DB approximately 3 DB over the mains, which is just where I prefer it.

If you go into the manual set up screen on the 3808, you can copy the curve that Audysey created. After you copy it, you can tweak the EQ levels for each channel. There are 9 frequency ranges that you can adjust (63H, 125H, 250H, 500H, 1kH, 2kH, 4kH, 8kH and 16kH). Considering that there are only these 9 ranges that can be adjusted, I’m guessing that’s all that Adysey adjusts, and only one of them is in the LFE range.

Mdrew, Audessey set my sub at 20.8 ft when the distance is actually closer to 10 or 11.

I thought when I mentioned this in the 3808 thread your reccomendation was to leave it as is.

Do you think I should change the distance of the sub?

If you have an EP600 sub 10.5 ft away, I would set it at 13.5 ft. The delay of 3ft accounts for the longer DSP time difference in the sub. You should be able to blend with your speakers better with that delay.

I have an EP 500, but I assume the DSP time difference would be the same?

My 600 is 11 feet away and I have it set to 19 feet. Now whether it should be 19 or 15 is anyone's guess but I can tell you that if I go above 21 or below 15, the 600 sounds too "loose".

Is there any way to determine the best distance to set the sub or is it just by ear?