Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Audyssey.... Anyone??

So, Reading Nicks HT build he noted that his speakers sound wonderful. More so than he had remembered...


My question is, how much of a difference does Audyssey really make? Also, what is the benefit of the Audyssey pro "Installer ready" with the 32 mic location option? The equipment to take advantage of the installer ready costs about 500$, so it is not very realistic for an individual to buy the pro kit, unless our possibly looking for some extra income, or have a large amount of disposable income..

i think this would be something good for many of us to understand. Right now my equipment only has individual speaker gain adjust and the distance adjustment..

Here is a thread that i have found about the pro kit, for anyone that wants to look into buying their own pro kit.
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/a...ystified-4.html

Also, i called one of the local HT stores that is an Audyssey pro certified installer. They charge 375$ to do the pro calibration... At that price point personally i would rather spend the extra 125$, and own the kit so i can calibrate my room whenever something changes.....

Just a note that the sound was really good 30 minutes before I ran Audyssey, but completely balanced, crisp, and sound in the movie clip I watched, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, was more detailed and I was hearing things that I weren't even there before. It was great. I just didn't want people to think that I hadn't listened.to my setup in a year or something...

Alex, although I've studied Audyssey technology extensively and now have quite a bit of personal experience in using it, your "how much" question can't be answered with any degree of precision. Nick's post from last night that you're probably referring to said "a lot" and I'd use something like "quite significant".

As to the specific Audyssey equipment, I have no personal experience with the pro kit and certainly not with a pro installer. From my study of the situation I'd suggest neither, but getting the best home XT32 version and following tips such as those in the AVS Audyssey thread on how to make use of its adjustments(incidentally, again, no your equipment doesn't have a "gain adjust").

John, i agree i should have worded it as "level" adjust...

It is hard to quantify the experience, and I was leery to what results I might get. In the past I had a nice Pioneer Elite receiver that had MCACC, but it mainly did speaker distance and level compensation. That was it. Nothing to help with frequency issues in a room. I had quite the strangely angled room last go around too. Some higher level of correction would have been nice, but also tricky to get really good results. With my current room built and designed for the best "bang for your buck" acoustics, the speakers sounded pretty much the same as they always did. I had the levels and distances set manually, and I was happy. I wasn't getting the amazing sound that I thought I would get from the room, but I hadn't done any manual tweaking yet either.

I ran Audyssey and absolutely loved the new clarity and balance I got. Not things sound outstanding. How does one quantify that? I have no idea. Make a trip to Eastern Iowa and I can let you hear it for yourself.

As for XT32, if you have even a slight resemblance to a normal room as far as live/dead surfaces, reasonably rectangular in shape, etc, I would say that from what I was gleaming from the AVS forums you are going to get about 90-95% there with MultEQ XT, and then the XT32 will get you to the 95-98% of "as good as it will get". Not sure it is worth the cost.

Now if your space is really messed up for dimensions, etc, then maybe XT32 will help more, but there are even less options that offer XT32 and the price is obviously higher.

I am thinking about the Integra DHC-80.3

As far as audyssey goes, it has the following items...

Audyssey Room Correction & Calibration
MultEQ XT32
Audyssey Sub EQ HT
Audyssey MultEQ Pro / Installer Ready
Audyssey DSX (Front High / Wide Channels)
Audyssey Dynamic EQ & Dynamic Volume



John, you realize the audyssey thread over at AVS is 1000+ pages long right? While i am dedicated to learning... I was hoping to generate a condensed version.....

Nick, we live in bordering states yet you chose to live at the opposite side of it. It would be cool to check out your room if it wasn't a 5hr trip.

Well! Some people who're spending time on stuff like school or work need to get their priorities straight and hit that Audyssey thread!

Okay, maybe I was thinking mostly of the FAQs and setup guide at the beginning of the thread. Then, maybe reading Dr. Kyriakakis's posts would be a good idea.

Says the one who is quite artful at making links appear......

Ben, I used to live near Des Moines. You could have come over a couple of years back and visited both SirQuack and I...

Anyone got an extra time machine that they want to loan us?