Auto Room EQ Good or Bad?

[gene]

Is Auto Room EQ and Setup In A/V Receivers Useful?


Since the dawn of the HiFi age, audiophiles have loved to tweak the sound of their audio systems. Some do it with cables, while others employ more aggressive measures like bass and treble controls. As time progressed, our technologies advanced and we've come up with more sophisticated tone controls such as Graphic and Parametric Equalizers to offer more finely tuned adjustments. A/V receiver manufacturers and companies such as Audyssey and Dirac have also developed their own EQ systems that measure your room response with a microphone to further tune your system. But are these auto setup and EQ systems to be trusted? Are they really useful in helping setup and fine tune your home theater system?

Watch our Youtube Video on Is Room EQ Useful? and please share your experiences on our forum.

Vote in our poll for your favorite Room EQ system.

 

[gene]

 

[PENG]

I wish I could vote but aside from Audyssey I have only experienced the older version of YPAO so I have to abstain.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I wish I could vote but aside from Audyssey I have only experienced the older version of YPAO so I have to abstain.

Just vote anyway.

I like Audyssey Dynamic EQ & Subwoofer EQ, but not Room EQ.

 

[PENG]

Just vote anyway.

I like Audyssey Dynamic EQ & Subwoofer EQ, but not Room EQ.

You are right, I forgot DEQ and Sub EQHT. I will vote in a minute.

 

[Adam]

You are right, I forgot DEQ and Sub EQHT. I will vote in a minute.

You should vote for MCACC. I feel lonely.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I voted for YPAO because it's the only one I have experience with. That said, I don't find it user friendly - the version in the RX-V1800 anyway...

 

[3db]

I voted for YPAO because it's the only one I have experience with. That said, I don't find it user friendly - the version in the RX-V1800 anyway...

Same here.

 

[3db]

I wish there were blind listening tests done to see if there are any audible preferences among them. All claims indicating which is better have been based on theory and uncontrolled listening tests.

 

[Adam]

Agreed - I'd like to hear them back to back. To the poll master's credit, though, it just asks which is our favorite - not which is the best.

I've only tried no correction, MCACC, and Audyssey. I greatly prefer correction over none, and I think MCACC and Audyssey (at least, Audyssey "Bronze" that I've used) are very similar. I just prefer multiple configuration storage in MCACC, so that's what I use.

 

[fuzz092888]

I've tried no RC, audyssey multEQ, audyssey XT32, Dirac (briefly), and REW auto/manual correction + miniDSP. I've played with MCACC, but not on my home system.

Correction is better than no correction IMO.

 

[lsiberian]

Blind comparing these would be nearly impossible to do correctly IMO. I'd think when done properly they definitely improve sound quality. Done improperly they would hurt sound.

 

[herbu]

I've used both Audyssey and YPAO, and found them both useful, especially for the beginner. Even after I began learning a little and got a good SPL meter, I still kept the distances set by the software, and only played a bit with the volumes. Also, it initially found one speaker I had miswired and told me to reverse the wires. So I like them both and recommend using whichever you have as a starting point.

 

[Suphawut]

Is Auto Room EQ and Setup In A/V Receivers Useful?


Since the dawn of the HiFi age, audiophiles have loved to tweak the sound of their audio systems. Some do it with cables, while others employ more aggressive measures like bass and treble controls. As time progressed, our technologies advanced and we've come up with more sophisticated tone controls such as Graphic and Parametric Equalizers to offer more finely tuned adjustments. A/V receiver manufacturers and companies such as Audyssey and Dirac have also developed their own EQ systems that measure your room response with a microphone to further tune your system. But are these auto setup and EQ systems to be trusted? Are they really useful in helping setup and fine tune your home theater system?

Watch our Youtube Video on Is Room EQ Useful? and please share your experiences on our forum.

Vote in our poll for your favorite Room EQ system.

there is a difference between using multi eq n not... as sampling rate is totally different.. i will go without multi eq unless nessary *movies concerts etc...

 

[randyb]

I have trinnov pro mc and love it, but it is expensive. Lots of flexibilty to tweak auto results. Only one of eq with 3d mic.

 

[billy p]

One big thumbs up for Anthem's ARC....only other REQ...I've experienced was YPAO(RX V1800) and while it was just ok...it had no sub EQ, user flexibility or on the fly adjustments...if you have a sub...some sort of EQ is always welcomed...IMO.

 

[djreef]

I have Audyssey built into the Onkyo in the living room. Never even hooked thi mic upto it. I just prefer to tune everything by ear. Hell, its my rig I should set it up to where it sounds best to me.

I'm lucky in that we have an open concept, so there's not much in the way of modes or standing wave issues, so it makes it easy to get things right just by moving things around.

The 2 channel rig is as basic as I can make it, so thre really isn't a place for EQ. I just treated the hell outa the room to get where I needed to go.

DJ

 

[Thunder240]

I don't mean to threadjack, but it seems relevant so I'll ask it.

Do these technologies throw away hi res sample rate and bitdepth information? In other words, if I'm watching a Blu-ray that's got a 96/24 Dolby TrueHD audio track, will any of these room corrections downmix it 48/16 in order to perform their wizardry?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RichB]

I voted for None since I never got a good result from YPAO or Audyssey XT32.
Just setting the sound to flat with all EQ and adjustments off, I notice a difference in the sound-stage.

Someday, I would like to try just bass-eq; that is when I have a processor again

After watching the video, these options were shown.
Apparently, Audioholics viewers are also into sexy Asians

Merry Christmas to all.

- Rich

 

[RichB]

I don't mean to threadjack, but it seems relevant so I'll ask it.

Do these technologies throw away hi res sample rate and bitdepth information? In other words, if I'm watching a Blu-ray that's got a 96/24 Dolby TrueHD audio track, will any of these room corrections downmix it 48/16 in order to perform their wizardry?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most down-sample 96/24 or above to 48/24 due to the limitations of their DSP chips.
The top-of-the line Anthem's can process up to 96/24.

Digital stream handling varies from processor to processor. Some think nothing can go wrong in the digital domain, I am not one of them I expect there are implementations where there are no issues.

Don't believe me? USB DAC users try fiddling with the driver choices, Direct Sound, WASAPI, Kernel Streaming. I wish these were indistinguishable

- Rich