Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Ordered M60, VP150, now thinking M5's and VP180...

Compare with Audyssey on and off.

The gimmick you're referring to does work very well and it was designed to keep couples together.

I listened a little before running Audyssey and it was the same with the 2300.

Guess I shouldn't have said "gimmick", instead I should have said sound processing. I prefer more natural or "pure" less compression and artificial sound manipulations. The Audyssey LFC is supposed to help keep base from traveling through the walls but from some of the reviews I have seen, this also takes away from the quality of the sound. Not a big fan of any compression either. But I can play with them.

How does it sound without Audyssey? Do you like it better with Audyssey?

It sounds better with Audyssey then without. If I wasn't lazy, I would manually measure everything and see how it would sound based on my measurements but, well lol. Not sure how accurate using an Iphone is for measuring SPL but I hear it can get close enough.

Based on what I can see, Audyssey has gotten the distances pretty accurately though except for the bass speaker. It's the same distance away as the FR but Audyssey has it a few feet further way.

I turned off all the Dynamic Compression/Loudness stuff but did turn on Dynamic EQ I think it was. Left Dynamic Volume off. Tested Audyssey LFC but didn't really notice this doing anything one way or the other, although, the wife didn't ask me to turn the TV down lol so maybe it did work.

Honestly, I didn't really notice much change with any of these settings. My wife laughs at me when I spend a lot of money on expensive stuff like this with so many bells and whistles. She says" why spend the money on bells and whistles when you can't hear the bells and whistles" lol. I am not deaf, just loss of hearing at certain frequencies. Conversation frequencies mostly

With Audyseey on, the bass should sound less boomy, images should be better defined, mids sound better and the soundstage should spread out. As I said before, the degree to which all this happens depends on a lot of factors. In my room, it is very noticeable but not nearly as noticeable as when all my surfaces were completely reflective. You don't need a critical ear to hear the difference and everyone who has listened much prefers Audyssey on.

I'd bet Audyssey got the bass speaker (subwoofer) correct or pretty close to correct. There is an inherent delay in your sub that Audyssey is compensating for by setting the distance to further away. The Denon then delays the signal to the rest of the speakers relative to the sub to synchronize the sound. My 800 for example is set to 19 feet by Audyssey even though it's only 10 feet away. It sounds great!

Dynamic EQ works great for me. I also turn on the music enhancer which I am sure the Denon has too.

The dynamic compression does work. Try it with movies. It will really knock down those peaks so that it doesn't bother your lady.

The VP180 will really help with speech compared to the VP100.

Audyssey has certainly brought out the sub in a way that the Sony did not. During the Sony calibration, the sub volume was set and stayed at 50%. I was able to hear the sub but didn't really think much about it. Audyssey actually started out telling me to set the sub at 50% but then when it started the calibration, stopped and said the sub volume was to high and asked me to lower it down below 75dB if I had volume control. So I did and it's about 1/4 now. After Audyssey calibration, the level was showing set to -3.6 but the bass I get now is more full and noticeable compared to the Sony. To be fair though, I never did run a new calibration on the Sony with the M60 and VP180. But, I doubt it would have made much of a difference anyway. The Sony calibration is very quick compared to Audyssey. I can't imagine a whole lot of magic being done in Sony's software compared to Denon's.

The VP180 already does wonders for speech clarity. That alone was worth every penny. The M60's were just icing on the cake. Although, I am kind of wishing I would have dug a little deeper in the pockets for the M80's but really, the M60's are more than enough for this house. Need to get that replacement driver so I can enjoy the full potential of the speakers for one. Then I need to get this house renovated so I can really setup a true home theater with height speakers and surround back speakers. Really put this Denon 6500 to work.

Awesome. Audyssey did it's job!