Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Question about Audyssey

No the old manual use to give a “clock” position which I read incorrectly and set way to high. Scared the hell out of me. I think when I finally set it lower and ran the auto setup and it ended up setting the LFE channel to -10dB (the range was +-12db). So I turned it down lower and ran auto setup again to get a level setting closer to 0 so I had some room to play with adjusting the sub up and down from the receiver. I would go with Axiom’s recommended settings and then check the levels that auto-setup set your subwoofer to and if it’s up around +-10 I would adjust it accordingly at the sub and re-run auto-setup.

If you’re using your receiver’s bass management like most people then I would set the subwoofer’s crossover to the highest setting or bipass if it has one.

Funny story. When I got my Pioneer to replace an ancient Sony receiver which only had manual test tones, I figured since the Pioneer auto set the sub level, I'd just turn the sub up all the way and let the receiver cut it back as needed.

So the MCACC test begins. It plays a quick pink burst through each channel. When it gets to the sub, the thing makes a horrible sound and tries to crawl across the floor. The a message appears on the screen, something to the effect of, "please turn down the volume on the sub-woofer and try again."

I guess it was out of the ±10dB range. At least it stopped me early instead of trying to continue through the test.

Rick, that sounds like a manufacturer which hasn't studied the complex Audyssey parameters enough and is passing out advice which would forfeit one of its major features. I use Audyssey at all times with the EP500.

This cracks me up. Seriously, I'm sitting here giggling. Fortunately, I do this sort of thing often enough that my wife doesn't even bother giving me funny looks any more.

Looks like Axiom needs to study a bit more too then.

I just read the updated manual and there is still no mention of how to adjust the distance setting to account for the DSP. So if not using the auto-setup what is Axiom suggesting to add to the distance to make for the delay?

Also not sure if it’s intentional but Axiom appears to be specifically saying not to use auto-setup and not some form of EQ. I think in the past I’ve read Alan mention to avoid using the auto-EQ features in general but I’m curious on this particular issue since this is really the only area (LFE) where think I’ve noticed any benefit from Audyssey.

Its common for manufacturers to not recommend auto correction programs. Salk Sound does not recommend using Audyessy with their products either. I posted it in another thread a while back but I can't find his response in regards to this using the search function.

When using an automatic EQ program, it modifies the sound characteristics of a manufacture’s speaker. You will never hear a speaker manufacture recommend doing that. If they did, they would essentially be saying that there is something wrong with their design. They always recommend room treatments, but never EQ. Don’t expect Axiom to recommend this, ever.

Audyssey always refers to itself as "room correction" and downplays the idea of speaker compensation. That way they can avoid saying negative things about speaker manufacturers.

-Dave

Correct, which is why speaker manufactures recommend room treatments before EQ to correct issues generated by the room that may be undesirable for proper sound. The EQ programs work by applying filters and changes to the frequency response of each speaker, which, in effect, changes the way the speaker sounds. It is an unrealistic expectation to think a speaker manufacture will ever get into bed with any of the “room correction” software / hardware manufactures. I did see an exception to this once. I do not recall the manufacture, but each speaker has an electronic EQ of sorts built into it. It’s been a long time since I saw these and I’ve forgotten the details. At the time I was looking at them, I felt they were very gimmicky, and expensive.