Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Auto EQ Setup Question

I have a Yamaha HTR 6080 and have a question on the Parametric Equalizer type. When doing the auto setup I have 3 choices
Natural - to average out the frequency response of all speakers with higher frequencies being less emphasized
Flat - to average the frquency response of all speakers. Recommended if all of your speakers are of similar quality.
Front - to adjust the frequency response of each speaker in accordance with the sound of your front speakers. REcommended if your front speakers are of much higher quality of your other speakers.

I have no idea which I should use. I have M60's and QS4's. Are the M60's and QS4's considered similiar quality or are the M60's considered much higher quality?

You could always try all three and compare...

That might be a pain though.

Daniel:
By and large, most here would recommend that you turn the EQ off and only use the auto-setup to gain speaker distances, etc....

If you DO want to try the EQ settings, you're the only one that could really determine if you prefer one or the other, despite the name of the choices...

I also would not use the EQ stuff, as I found my Denon EQ made the midrange freq's sound terrible. Of the three I would say "flat", but as Alan has mentioned time and time again, you don't want your good Axiom speakers to sound like crap.

Dan, with an earlier model Yamaha which I helped a colleague set up, we found that the equalization setting which emphasized lower frequency correction made a worthwhile improvement. It may be that the "Natural" setting on the 6080 is somewhat similar and I'd suggest trying that first.

The "Front" setting seems less useful, since the mains also need room correction, rather than simply trying to adjust the other speakers to match them.

I'm guessing the room itself and the version of autosetup can make a big difference but I thought I would throw in for statistics that I too preferred the sound without the auto-EQ calibration.

I used the autosetup for levels before I got my SPL meter but my experiments with auto EQ left me disappointed. I thought my square room with wood floors, no rugs and not much furniture and wall stuff would be the ideal candidate for an auto-EQ fix but things sounded dull, maybe even muddied. Red mud in fact, since I'm in PEI.

Well I decided to take the advice of most and turn off auto eq. I'll play a couple of movies and see if I hear a diff.

Thanks

IMO the MCACC feature on my Pioneer works great. I can turn it off and on while watching or listening to anything and the difference to me is clear. Everything sounds better with it turned on.

With it turned off the EQ is flat. I suppose that is the way we "should" listen to movies and other recordings so that they sound the way they were recorded. But I imagine that will only work if your room is the same as the one where the recording was made. In my room, the auto EQ makes a real improvement. The sound is much fuller, and richer, and even clearer in the dialog. Just my $0.02