Audyssey multeq problems.

[yepimonfire]

I've done it three times now exactly the same way and each time it spits out different distances and a totally different eq. The distances are usually only off by a foot except for the subwoofer, which is usually completely wrong. The mic is mounted exactly at ear level on a couch so I know it's not picking up vibration and there is nothing behind the mic or in the sound path, including a wall, and I'm using all 6 positions. No background noise.

Any idea what might be going wrong? I'm positive the settings are wrong because it sounds awful, and the sub sounds out of phase. The only thing that it's getting right is the volume levels.

 

[lovinthehd]

Distance (or delay) is also affected by room acoustics; your sub's amp also has some extra processing time inherent (so very common for the "distance" set to be different). Is your mic placement exactly the same in each run of Audyssey? What are you using to position the mic? How are you positioning the mic in terms of pattern of positions? Which avr/version of Audyssey do you have?

You might also try the official Audyssey threads over at avsforum.com, there's a helpful faq and some very experienced folk to help out but try starting with the FAQ.

 

[Diesel57]

Can you reset your receiver and start the whole process over again?

 

[highfigh]

I've done it three times now exactly the same way and each time it spits out different distances and a totally different eq. The distances are usually only off by a foot except for the subwoofer, which is usually completely wrong. The mic is mounted exactly at ear level on a couch so I know it's not picking up vibration and there is nothing behind the mic or in the sound path, including a wall, and I'm using all 6 positions. No background noise.

Any idea what might be going wrong? I'm positive the settings are wrong because it sounds awful, and the sub sounds out of phase. The only thing that it's getting right is the volume levels.

If the mic is too close to the cushion, the sound hitting the cushion is being absorbed (to whatever degree it can be) and Audyssey is trying to compensate for that.

Where are you, when Audyssey is being set up? Remove yourself from the area as much as possible.

 

[yepimonfire]

Distance (or delay) is also affected by room acoustics; your sub's amp also has some extra processing time inherent (so very common for the "distance" set to be different). Is your mic placement exactly the same in each run of Audyssey? What are you using to position the mic? How are you positioning the mic in terms of pattern of positions? Which avr/version of Audyssey do you have?

You might also try the official Audyssey threads over at avsforum.com, there's a helpful faq and some very experienced folk to help out but try starting with the FAQ.

Yes I'm aware of that, however the distance it's setting it at causes a bass vacuum because it's not right. Manually resetting it from 11ft back to 8ft solves the problem. The eq curve it keeps applying is also completely wacko and sounds boomy. I am entirely outside of the listening area during calibration and there is nothing behind the mic. It's propped on the edge of a box at ear height.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes I'm aware of that, however the distance it's setting it at causes a bass vacuum because it's not right. Manually resetting it from 11ft back to 8ft solves the problem. The eq curve it keeps applying is also completely wacko and sounds boomy. I am entirely outside of the listening area during calibration and there is nothing behind the mic. It's propped on the edge of a box at ear height.

Edge of a box? Phase can be tweaked with the distance setting. What pattern of mic positions? Are you looking at measurements or some eq graphic the avr provides?

 

[yepimonfire]

Edge of a box? Phase can be tweaked with the distance setting. What pattern of mic positions? Are you looking at measurements or some eq graphic the avr provides?

The first is directly in the middle of the seating position, second is 2 ft to the right, third is 2 feet to the left of the seating position, last three are the same but about 2ft in front of the seating position. It's a small square room with a massive null of low frequencies centering on 50hz in the middle of the the room, everywhere outside of this null sees as much as a 15dB gain at 50hz. I'm careful to avoid placing the setup mic anywhere near the null The seating position is past the critical distance of the room where the frequency response is less flat, so I'm keeping it inside of the main seating area, about 5'x3'.

 

[lovinthehd]

The first is directly in the middle of the seating position, second is 2 ft to the right, third is 2 feet to the left of the seating position, last three are the same but about 2ft in front of the seating position. It's a small square room with a massive null of low frequencies centering on 50hz in the middle of the the room, everywhere outside of this null sees as much as a 15dB gain at 50hz. I'm careful to avoid placing the setup mic anywhere near the null The seating position is past the critical distance of the room where the frequency response is less flat, so I'm keeping it inside of the main seating area, about 5'x3'.

What do you measure with?

 

[yepimonfire]

What do you measure with?

Room eq wizard.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd use a mic stand or boom or tripod or something rather than a box perhaps, maybe tighten up the pattern of mic positions (I use about a 3-4 ft diameter circle with my main position in the center and get good results fwiw). Did you try resetting the avr anytime during these different Audyssey runs?

 

[yepimonfire]

Would unplugging it count?

 

[lovinthehd]

Would unplugging it count?

That's a soft reset, was more referring to a full microprocessor/factory reset.

 

[yepimonfire]

That's a soft reset, was more referring to a full microprocessor/factory reset.

Didn't realize you could do that until you mentioned it and I looked it up in the manual. Should the receiver be reset before recalibration each time?

 

[lovinthehd]

Didn't realize you could do that until you mentioned it and I looked it up in the manual. Should the receiver be reset before recalibration each time?

Shouldn't have to do it unless something goes screwy. Soft resets I would do first because you don't lose settings and like a lot of electronics you just need to reboot sometimes. You will lose settings with a full reset but if you're doing Audyssey all over again anyways that's a chunk of it (but any Pandora, Spotify etc app account signins I believe will be wiped clean).

 

[yepimonfire]

I seem to have mostly solved my issues by replacing the mic.

The one problem I am having now is the highs are a little bit siblant, which they never were before, and the trim levels were a bit off. Impressively enough my sub now measure +-5dB flat and there is no more massive 15dB peak at 52hz.
Also surprising is the cheap Dayton bookshelves I was using to experiment with height channels now have the exact same timbre as the klipsch in front. Audyssey also must be doing something with phase in different frequency bands as well because the phase issues with the poor sound from the cheap highpass only xover seem to have vanished.

What could be causing the sibilance? Also I only used 4 of the 6 positions because the listening area is small, and if I go too far forward from the listening area there is a bass vacuum where the critical distance converges, obviously this would skew the eq results. The only thing I could do is use all six measurements but keep them less than a foot apart.

The setup is also in a bedroom. The height I'm measuring at is ear height when sitting up, however, sometime I recline lower than that, could the other positions be use 6" lower or is it best to stay at the same height?

 

[highfigh]

I seem to have mostly solved my issues by replacing the mic.

The one problem I am having now is the highs are a little bit siblant, which they never were before, and the trim levels were a bit off. Impressively enough my sub now measure +-5dB flat and there is no more massive 15dB peak at 52hz.
Also surprising is the cheap Dayton bookshelves I was using to experiment with height channels now have the exact same timbre as the klipsch in front. Audyssey also must be doing something with phase in different frequency bands as well because the phase issues with the poor sound from the cheap highpass only xover seem to have vanished.

What could be causing the sibilance? Also I only used 4 of the 6 positions because the listening area is small, and if I go too far forward from the listening area there is a bass vacuum where the critical distance converges, obviously this would skew the eq results. The only thing I could do is use all six measurements but keep them less than a foot apart.

The setup is also in a bedroom. The height I'm measuring at is ear height when sitting up, however, sometime I recline lower than that, could the other positions be use 6" lower or is it best to stay at the same height?

What could cause the sibilance? "cheap Dayton bookshelves". They use a cheap polycarbonate tweeter and those don't have a history of great sound if they're driven hard or tehir resonant frequencies are excited.

Are you still using a box to support the mic? That's a huge problem and you really should use the OEM mic because the program is calibrated to that, not something randomly chosen.

Audyssey is trying to create a large "bubble" where the sound is consistent- since moving from one place to another changes the phase relationship between you and the speakers, this is very nearly impossible but because of the long wavelength of low frequencies, it's less of a problem than at some of the shorter wavelengths/higher frequencies.

If you shut off the front speakers and the sibilance remains, it could be the Dayton speakers (post the model, please) but if it disappears, it could be what's often called a 'beat frequency', which is the sum and difference of the signal from two speakers, reaching your ears at different times. It's more likely to happen when the frequencies are slightly different and it can be so bad it sounds like chirping.

 

[highfigh]

What could cause the sibilance? "cheap Dayton bookshelves". They use a cheap polycarbonate tweeter and those don't have a history of great sound if they're driven hard or their resonant frequencies are excited. I'm not saying they're necessarily bad, but they have their limitations. If they have the textile dome, it's less likely to be the speakers causing the problem.

Are you still using a box to support the mic? That's a huge problem and you really should use the OEM mic because the program is calibrated to that, not something randomly chosen.

Audyssey is trying to create a large "bubble" where the sound is consistent- since moving from one place to another changes the phase relationship between you and the speakers, this is very nearly impossible but because of the long wavelength of low frequencies, it's less of a problem than at some of the shorter wavelengths/higher frequencies.

If you shut off the front speakers and the sibilance remains, it could be the Dayton speakers (post the model, please) but if it disappears, it could be what's often called a 'beat frequency', which is the sum and difference of the signal from two speakers, reaching your ears at different times. It's more likely to happen when the frequencies are slightly different and it can be so bad it sounds like chirping.

 

[yepimonfire]

Not using Dayton bookshelves in the setup. I only used them for height channels to experiment with height. All 7 speakers are the new klipsch reference series which are very neutral speakers +-3dB except for a 3-4 dB spike from16khz-20khz as demonstrated by an outdoor close mic measurement. The replacement mic is the original model mic.
I'm no longer using the box. The model of the klipsch is R-15m for LR and surrounds, R-14m for the LR wides, and R-25c for the center.

The tweeters are horn loaded aluminum compression tweeters. Woofers are copper-spun injection molded graphite, crossover is 1.5khz for the larger bookshelves and center, 2.2khz for the R-14m. Frequency response of all bookshelves is 62hz-22khz +- 3dB. In room measured response is 50hz for the bookshelves, 70hz for the center. The problem disappears when disabling audyssey.

 

[lovinthehd]

Which Audyssey curve are you using?