Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Still agonizing over new receiver

Mike I also enjoyed reading your review and I'm glad to hear of the improvements that you're experiencing. Another quibble that I'll comment on is that the low, middle, high priority feature isn't the one that allows increasing or decreasing output in those areas to taste. Although the manual doesn't fully explain(naturally not), it apparently means giving priority to flattening the response in those areas, not raising or lowering it. Presumably it would do this by using an extra one or two of the available 7 equalizations in that area and making less equalization elsewhere. Might be interesting to experiment with, although you wonder how to determine what frequencies need "priority". There's also of course a different provision for manually adjusting response in various frequency bands

Masa, on your comment, I'd rather doubt that YPAO is parametric to that extent. 7 adjustments are possible, apparently limited to a set of 25 center frequencies. Presumably if the center frequencies were fully parametric, no number such as 25 would be specified. The reports which users have posted list only the specific 25 frequencies as being equalized(although the bandwidth of the equalization may vary, as the Yamaha literature implies).

Hey, if Masa says that 7 cahnnels are "PLENTY", thats good enough for me! I think I need a tutorial on how to operate this thing(lol) because the manual dang sure doesn't explain much about all of these cool features. The manual throws all this stuff at ya but gives very little info on the-what, when, where, why or how to. It's as though, the folks that wrote the manual assumes that everyone is a "techie" (a club to which I'm not a member) and will inherently know what to do. Consequently, I'm doing a lot of experimenting. But it's all good.

As to the "presence channels", I'm really digging it. I always thought that it was a Yamaha gimick until I heard it for myself. I'm actually using KEFs all the way around. I have a pair of KEF RDM-2s that I snatched from my bedroom, to use as surrounds so I now have 7 KEFs hooked up to the Yamaha.

Sadly(he says, as he wipes away a tear), one of my M22s got knocked over and one of the drivers got smashed. I've contacted the good folks at Axiom and I'll be getting a new driver soon. I was shocked to learn that the replacement driver is only $25.00 - gosh, I love Axiom!

John, thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm still clueless when it come to some of the little intricaies concerning equalization.

And yes, the manual is a big sore subject with me. ARE YOU LISTENING YAMAHA!!!(lol)

That's funny. You should have told them your stupid roommate poked out the driver.. They might have replaced it for free.

I tried to use the old "the dog ate my driver" excuse, but they didn't buy it. I didn't think of the "stupid roommate" excuse - dang it!.

How do you guys put those faces into your posts?

when you hit the reply button, their should be a link above where you type that says UBBCode in your posts. Click on that and it'll explain all.

Hi mwc,

Just a few comments. Although I have not used the Pioneers with their auto-EQ facility, I'd caution folks not to rely too heavily on these features. The mikes do not "hear" in stereo and ignore all kinds of factors that audibly influence the sound you hear from specific speakers in your room.

I had a Yamaha some years ago with fairly versatile parametric EQ for the center channel. I found it useful to partly correct for some gross colorations of a lousy center speaker I was using at the time, but EQ, no matter how sophisticated, is not an electronic patch for colorations caused by frequency response aberrations intrinsic to a particular speaker.

By the way, I've had no trouble at all with an H/K AVR525 overheating. I've never heard the fan kick on, and it drives 4-ohm loads (M80s) with no trouble despite the stern "Use 8-ohm speakers" label on the back. The Denons are okay with 4-ohm loads as well.

I agree with Alan that a room/speaker EQ (whether it is automatic or manual, receiver-integrated or standalone) will NEVER be an alternative or quick workaround for careful optimizations of speaker placement and room acoustics. The EQ works best on top of the due homework by manual labor.

That said, I still wholeheartedly recommend the MCACC/YPAO type of system for anybody who is in the market of a new AV receiver. With the high-performance DSP chips constantly becoming cheaper and cheaper (and companies like BO$E also producing a similar auto-EQ system), I believe that this is the future trend. In my case, the MCACC audibly improved the timbre matching among my Hales, VP150, and QS8s (incidentally, even without the EQ, the VP150 timbre-matched with the Hales so well that the mismatch is in fact more pronounced between the VP150 and QS8's). Moreover, as Mike too indicated, the MCACC made the overall multichannel imaging/soundstaging more convincing.


By the way, it is truly reassuring and refreshing to hear that the former editor-in-chief of the Sound & Vision mag is personally using the "lowly" H/K 525, I mean, instead of those high-$$$ separates! So, Alan, would you care to disclose some of your personal AV gears that you actually own?

Alan,

I'm not sure that I'm getting your point.

Your post has my head whirlpooling with all sorts of paranoid, manic questions:

If folks should not "rely too heavily" on these features, then should they rely on them slightly or even not at all? Is parametric auto-EQ only good for a partial fix on a lousy sounding speaker? Is it just another marketing gimick to sell new products? Is this a classic example of the Emperor's new clothes? Is it all of the above or just some of the above? Have I spent money unwisely? OH! what to do-what to do, he says, as he wrings his hands raw.

Alan, I do jest with you here. But seriously, could you elaborate a little more on your comments concerning MACAA/YPAO. It is my understanding that they are designed to be useful in helping to "optimize" the room.

I do feel that MACAA/YPAO has been a great help in three areas:
1. Soundstaging
2. Imaging
3. That "you are listening within a big box" perception that I had with my old system.

Thanks Scott. I think I'm feelin' the "cheese" now !