Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater took delivery of the m22 and m2 audyssey question

With a better/larger sub you get the ability to play lower for more shake and most likely a more linear playback. I also found that even the not so low notes are played with more authority even though it has the same SPL output of the lesser/older subs, most likely due to a more linear frequency response. This would be along the same lines of the VP150 and 180 having nearly the same SPL output but the 180 sounds better.

thanks for the answers. one more question: if audyssey originally set my m22's at 50hz and I have since increased to 80hz, I assume I can re-adjust lower to minimum of 50hz without buggering up the audyssey calculations?

Yes you can re-adjust it back down again w/o messing up Audyssey. The receiver retains the EQ curve it calculated until you run Audyssey again and generate a new curve.

One thing I’ve always done if I run Audyssey is to write down all the settings, speaker distance, level, crossover, etc. . . so I can always get back to exactly what Audyssey and the receiver calculated w/o having to run it again.

I wish I had done this although I don't care for Audyssey.

I know with YPAO...it allows you to skip over setting your content with or manually adjusted. Is this feature not available with audyssey or is it dependent on which version your receiver has?

I don’t care for Audyssey either. I find it does nothing to help the midrange. Kills the high end if using the “Audyssey” curve and what comes on my receiver isn’t powerful enough to help much for the really crappy room modes I have at the low end. OTOH the Audyssey installed on the SVS AS-EQ-1 does a killer job on the low end, 20Hz and below, but only for one seat.

That’s something I’ve always questioned about Audyssey is how you can apply one curve to each speaker to optimally correct for multiple seats especially when they are spread from wall-to-wall. Each seat is going to need a drastically different EQ curve and timing settings so in the end I just don’t see how it can help all that much unless used for just one seat or a small area fairly centrally located away from side walls.

But then I guess I just don’t know how to use it properly just like I didn’t know how much better an M80 center sounded to a VP150 center either.

Hi pheare,

I'd echo JohnK's suggestion of moving the crossover for the M22s up to 80 Hz (why push those modest 5.25-inch drivers hard at 50 Hz when the sub can cover that range with ease. . ).

As might be expected, I'd prefer you disengage the Audyssey EQ (it may help in the bass region) and see how things sound without Audyssey (and with it).

As to the elusive "punch" many listeners seek, after years of auditioning large and small speakers and subwoofers (as well as tons of live concerts), I've concluded there is a large audience who prefers the upper-bass (50 Hz to 120 Hz) emphasis (typically a boost of 3 to 6 dB over that range) often heard in clubs and concerts over truly smooth linear bass. It's also why some listeners like the one-note "disco bass" that issues from plenty of small cheap subwoofers. (Of course one can argue that if that disco bass represents what we actually hear in clubs, then an emphasized upper-bass hump is the more accurate one for that kind of pop/rock music.)

By the way, the Mirage subs of old are decent but in my experience (I have an old one in my storage room) they don't go as low as the Axiom EP350, EP500, 600 or 800.

Regards,
Alan

X-over points are based both on what your speakers are capable of in your room and by your preference. With any setup, there is a fuzzy middle-ground on x-overs where there's no "right" or "wrong" setting.

IMHO, 50hz on the M22's is too low.

http://axiomaudio.com/gallery_m22ti_diagram.html

They start to roll off at 90hz and are at -3db @ 60hz per Axiom's specs. I'd adjust their crossover to at least 60hz, if not 80hz. I'd bump the M2 setting up to 80hz as well. Whatever you set the M22's, I'd match the setting on the M2's since they use identical drivers and have similar frequency curves.

The difference between a "Good" sub and a "Bad" sub isn't necessarily quantity, it's quality. A "good" sub will amaze you with not only it's prodigious bass, but its ability to produce that bass cleanly and to seamlessly mesh with the rest of your system.

Good luck!

You've got it. Audyssey, and tools like it, can't "correct" anything. If you're far enough away from surfaces it may be able to fool your ears, but using the frequency domain to solve a time problem just doesn't work. But yeah, the farther you get from the sweet spot, and the closer you get to reflective surfaces, the more the flaws are exposed.

It's a shame, Audyssey has a really powerful EQing system. It would be great to linearize less than perfect speakers (where everything is still aligned in the time domain), but trying to correct a room with it is misguided. It just isn't possible to get the readings needed to correct a speaker outside of an anechoic chamber. So they're selling their tech the only way they can.

Just thinking out loud... If the upper bass punch was meant to be heard, wouldn't that be reflected in the recording, and not force listeners to adjust their sound system to produce it?