Incorporating MiniDSP With Audyssey XT32

[music4cities]

I did do that. I have a flat response down to 15hz with Audyssey off. You didn't read much of this thread, did you?

lol I read it but it's so long forget what I read by the time I finished reading it...Still I stand by the idea of removing variables and then slowly dialing them back in. But I don't listen to lots of music on my surround set up. I am old skool and have a different 2 channel set up for that.

So what do I know?

 

[Pogre]

Fwiw, I have a pair of Mirage MRM-1. They did not make many of this model -- it's not a typical mirage speaker. They Are smallish standmounts. So, no way they could
Compete with a big tower from the looks of them...

BUT....each weighs about 45 lbs (without the stand, just the speaker). They are made with mdf sandwiching a 3mm welded steel box, veneered in cherry. The front baffle is 2 inches of corian. The "tiny" woofer has super deep excursion and a voice coil the size of a small subwoofer. The rear port is tuned perfectly. Put these on lead filled stands, 3-4 feet from the back wall in a 15x24x10ft room with lots of openings to other rooms and the bass these things produce is unbelievable. And tight. And integrated with clear mids and highs.

Look, they are never going to be as good as bigger speakers for really bass heavy music at rave high volumes...the little woofers will start to break up and distort. But they were not designed for that -- rather they are pretty linear, well balanced, mid-rang warmth monitors with a slight rolled off high end (a bit British...A bit like old school spendors)

That's awesome. I'll bet they sound fantastic and I'd like to give them a listen someday. From your description they sound more than capable.

 

[lovinthehd]

Alright, you cats dig your dynamic eq. That's cool. I have it on all the time for watching films, tv etc. I even use it sometimes to listen to music. But for music I have to say it usually is just too much shaping -- it's not corrective so much as producing a wild eq curve that is almost
Like remixing. It can sound exciting but fatiguing in longer sessions.

It's like one of those super super sour candies -- just too much man.

Try listing to a well mastered and mixed DVD-a, blue ray audio or multichannel SACD album with the dyn eq on and with it off. I find that with it on the mix is a muddled mess. Turn it off and it becomes precise and clear.

Maybe it's the implementation of audessy on my marantz. But I have read as well dyn eq can be a problem for music.

But whatever dudes. I would just suggest it's worth trying turning it off, get the crossover and sub dialed in, then if you gotta have the juice, turn on the dyn eq at less extreme levels and go from there.

How do you set the RLO for DEQ for your music listening?

 

[Pogre]

lol I read it but it's so long forget what I read by the time I finished reading it...Still I stand by the idea of removing variables and then slowly dialing them back in. But I don't listen to lots of music on my surround set up. I am old skool and have a different 2 channel set up for that.

So what do I know?

Lol. I totally get it. It's a 20 page thread and when they get that long it's tough to read the entire thing. I did a lot of experimenting throughout this process including moving things around and taking sweeps in direct mode with the towers by themselves, then again with my subs until I got things as smooth as I could with positioning and placement before applying any kind of eq at all.

 

[music4cities]

That's awesome. I'll bet they sound fantastic and I'd like to give them a listen someday. From your description they sound more than capable.

They were given to me. I could never have justified them. Nor would they have been my choice necessarily for that money. But they are a testament to design and enginnering, sort like the result of a dare or
Something. It cracks me up when people
Come over and boggle at how much clean sound is being produced by them. Put some metalliaca or massive attack on and enjoy the incredulity.

To be honest sort have a love hate thing with them. The latter because I can't really justify getting a pair of electrostatics now. I do think a pair of ESLs would be amazing in the room. The limits of the mrm-1s show up , ironically, in most listening conditions not with bass heavy stuff but with the mid to high bass on symphonic music and such . One just needs a bit more area to create enough pressure at the lower sound levels of deeper strings and wind to be properly full. More percussive stuff -- ie a plucked cello versus a bowed cello -- no problem. But there you go. And my sun-fire vacuum tube control center appears to be giving up the ghost and needs replacement.

 

[music4cities]

How do you set the RLO for DEQ for your music listening?

It's been a while. Cause it's a pain. I end up going into the menus and turn off everything but the basic audessy settings. Or I may even turn that off and just use the manual eq setting (which I set up as a loudness curve more or less). There are a couple other settings I have never quite figured out from the manual what they mean exactly, like "d-max" that may need adjustment too (I'm thinking it's some dynamic compression headroom expansion sort of thing).

It's a pain. But when I am feeling like listening to my mutti channel discs of roxy music's Avalon or Rush's Moving pictures I find its the best way to Coax the little marantz 7.1 receiver into producing something that seems reasonably acurrate, details and not hyper cooked. But you cats likely have way more awesome surround set ups than I'm dealing with.

 

[lovinthehd]

It's been a while. Cause it's a pain. I end up going into the menus and turn off everything but the basic audessy settings. Or I may even turn that off and just use the manual eq setting (which I set up as a loudness curve more or less). There are a couple other settings I have never quite figured out from the manual what they mean exactly, like "d-max" that may need adjustment too (I'm thinking it's some dynamic compression headroom expansion sort of thing).

It's a pain. But when I am feeling like listening to my mutti channel discs of roxy music's Avalon or Rush's Moving pictures I find its the best way to Coax the little marantz 7.1 receiver into producing something that seems reasonably acurrate, details and not hyper cooked. But you cats likely have way more awesome surround set ups than I'm dealing with.

Could be the source of your displeasure, since music generally needs a different level setting than movies...IMO/IME. D-max does sound like it may be a dynamic compression adjustment and I'd leave that set to off but not familiar with Marantz, but @Pogre has one so maybe he can confirm. In my Denon the Audyssey Dynamic Volume compression thing has off/light/medium/heavy settings.

 

[Pogre]

Did some more tweaking and finished up just a little bit ago.

Tamed down a peak at 90hz and bumped up a null at 21hz-ish. No smoothing, main speakers and subs together.

This is an overlay of before I tweaked it today and after. Then, just for @William Lemmerhirt ... "Pogre Style". How's that for a house curve?

 

[Pogre]

Could be the source of your displeasure, since music generally needs a different level setting than movies...IMO/IME. D-max does sound like it may be a dynamic compression adjustment and I'd leave that set to off but not familiar with Marantz, but @Pogre has one so maybe he can confirm. In my Denon the Audyssey Dynamic Volume compression thing has off/light/medium/heavy settings.

I don't remember seeing a "D-max" anywhere in the menus. I'll flip through 'em real quick.

*Unless he means M-DAX. "Restores compressed audio signals". Is that compression? Denon has it too, but under a different name in the audio menu.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Did some more tweaking and finished up just a little bit ago.

View attachment 22128
Tamed down a peak at 90hz and bumped up a null at 21hz-ish. No smoothing, main speakers and sub together.

View attachment 22129
This is an overlay of before I tweaked it today and after. Then, just for @William Lemmerhirt ... "Pogre Style". How's that for a house curve?

Love it! It's a masterpiece!
How you like this?

 

[Pogre]

Love it! It's a masterpiece!
How you like this?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Lol! Yep. All dat

 

[Pogre]

You gonna get started tonight? I'm in for the day.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Well, I'm working on the honey-do list. Then fire the grill, and MAYBE then I can start to play. Lol
Did you get a free code for the plugin? Iirc, you didn't. I was surprised to find it in my box.

 

[Pogre]

Well, I'm working on the honey-do list. Then fire the grill, and MAYBE then I can start to play. Lol
Did you get a free code for the plugin? Iirc, you didn't. I was surprised to find it in my box.

I did, but I didn't immediately see how to redeem it so I just paid the ten bucks.

 

[lovinthehd]

I don't remember seeing a "D-max" anywhere in the menus. I'll flip through 'em real quick.

*Unless he means M-DAX. "Restores compressed audio signals". Is that compression? Denon has it too, but under a different name in the audio menu.

M-Dax sounds like "restorer" in my Denon (and think my Onkyo calls it the same thing). Sort of an uncompressor for highly compressed mp3s. Have no idea how it works but it can make Pandora sound smoother....

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

M-Dax sounds like "restorer" in my Denon (and think my Onkyo calls it the same thing). Sort of an uncompressor for highly compressed mp3s. Have no idea how it works but it can make Pandora sound smoother....

Interesting. My 808 uses (probably) the same thing but it's called music optimizer. Same idea, restore lost sound. I do use it for streams, but can't say it's very dramatic.

 

[lovinthehd]

Interesting. My 808 uses (probably) the same thing but it's called music optimizer. Same idea, restore lost sound. I do use it for streams, but can't say it's very dramatic.

You're right, my Onkyo calls it optimizer now that you mention it.

 

[Pogre]

M-Dax sounds like "restorer" in my Denon (and think my Onkyo calls it the same thing). Sort of an uncompressor for highly compressed mp3s. Have no idea how it works but it can make Pandora sound smoother....

M-DAX and restorer were very similar to my memory. They even share the same spot in the menus. When it's on "high" I've noticed it really does make Pandora sound better.

I also noticed that it's "unavailable" with a lot of my cd's and lossless rips. My guess is that there's nothing to restore?

 

[lovinthehd]

M-DAX and restorer were very similar to my memory. They even share the same spot in the menus. When it's on "high" I've noticed it really does make Pandora sound better.

I also noticed that it's "unavailable" with a lot of my cd's and lossless rips. My guess is that there's nothing to restore?

I just use the low setting (mode 3) for Pandora. I can apply it to analog or pcm sources that don't need it, but it is restricted to some sound modes (not avail with direct/pure direct)...