Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Should we trust Audyssey ?

Thanks for the video post Dana, I learned a lot from it. My experience with Audyssey has usually been negative. It always seemed to take away a lot of the low end of my system. After seeing the video, it could be because I was doing 2 things wrong. First, I was not quiet between the sweep periods, and second I had the microphone on top of my seating.

I'm going to try re-calibrating the system this week using the guidance shown in the video.

As someone who does a lot of audio work in acoustically treated rooms that are "tuned" and also uses professional studio monitors that have to be flat and accurate...

I think Audyssey is a bunch of hokum truthfully.

It reminds me of those stupid eq settings on HT receivers like: Stadium, Concert Hall, Men's Restroom, etc.

I opine that it's better to treat your room acoustically and/or work with speaker placement if you have weird nodes or reflections/anomalies and what not.

I would hate to futz with the Axiom speaker's eq myself. They are already correct.

Besides, there's much better software for analyzing your rooms acoustics. You will also need a very good professional microphone for such "accurate" data gathering.

If you are setting up an HT room and are not happy with your room's acoustics, I would definitely hire an acoustician to tell you what's is really happening, frequency wise, in your room.

There's lots of DIY acoustic treatments you can do for cheap. Bass traps are probably the most important, followed by diffusers.

I'm a firm believer in keeping your stereo eq settings flat. Always.

In fact, when I get into other people's cars I usually adjust their stereo. Invariably they have the bass and treble jacked up to 10.

They usually always thank me for sorting out their sound, lolz.

I’ve always suspected that the main reason I hear no improvement and sometimes poorer performance when using Audyssey is that I have never had and speaker placement constraints. In every room I’ve used, though not perfect, I’ve been able to play with speaker/seating placement to get everything dialed in. Plus my curtains double as room treatments for the mid and high frequencies. The only thing I’ve had problems dealing with is 200Hz and lower, and I agree at this point I would need professional help with that.

You quoted Alan, and I was responding to that, not your experience. I do not believe Alan has ever actually tested out Audyssey, but I know he often comments on caution when using any setup calibration routines. Again, my opinion is different as is many other people. Black vs White, Ford vs Chevy. That is what makes the world go around. I do not recall where I have ever said your comments are incorrect.

Sure, no problem!

Yea, once I followed "exactly" what he did in the video, I was shocked at the difference it made. In fact, the only thing I have altered was bumping my center level up to +1.5 db

Dana

It didn't make a difference, that is your opinion. Thanks, Dana

Randy,

If I disagree with you, then we're BOTH wrong! LOL

Dana

Look like 50/50
At the end, trust your ears huh !?

I think that's just here and if you look around you are likely to see it is more like 80/20 in Audyssey's favour.
Now that I have MultiEQ XT32 I ain't ever turning it off.
Anyone want to buy an AS-EQ1?

Also Known as: Ad Populum
Description of Appeal to Popularity

The Appeal to Popularity has the following form:

1. Most people approve of X (have favorable emotions towards X).
2. Therefore X is true.

The basic idea is that a claim is accepted as being true simply because most people are favorably inclined towards the claim. More formally, the fact that most people have favorable emotions associated with the claim is substituted in place of actual evidence for the claim. A person falls prey to this fallacy if he accepts a claim as being true simply because most other people approve of the claim.

It is clearly fallacious to accept the approval of the majority as evidence for a claim. For example, suppose that a skilled speaker managed to get most people to absolutely love the claim that 1+1=3. It would still not be rational to accept this claim simply because most people approved of it. After all, mere approval is no substitute for a mathematical proof. At one time people approved of claims such as "the world is flat", "humans cannot survive at speeds greater than 25 miles per hour", "the sun revolves around the earth" but all these claims turned out to be false.

This sort of "reasoning" is quite common and can be quite an effective persusasive device. Since most humans tend to conform with the views of the majority, convincing a person that the majority approves of a claim is often an effective way to get him to accept it. Advertisers often use this tactic when they attempt to sell products by claiming that everyone uses and loves their products. In such cases they hope that people will accept the (purported) approval of others as a good reason to buy the product.

This fallacy is vaguely similar to such fallacies as Appeal to Belief and Appeal to Common Practice. However, in the case of an Ad Populum the appeal is to the fact that most people approve of a claim. In the case of an Appeal to Belief, the appeal is to the fact that most people believe a claim. In the case of an Appeal to Common Practice, the appeal is to the fact that many people take the action in question.

This fallacy is closely related to the Appeal to Emotion fallacy, as discussed in the entry for that fallacy.