Has anyone had a positive experience with YPAO at all?

[PENG]

I have a feeling that higher quality mic would help ypao to get a more accurate results. I would like to check that. Any suggestions for the mic?

I think Yamaha would want you to stick with their MIC.

 

[PENG]

Te

Tempting but let us put this idea aside for now. I have mca 525 and my config is 4.2 so maybe a lower model would be ok? But after trying other options ideally.

Sorry I didn't realize it's the same Andre who has the 525. So yes the X3400H or SR6011,6012 will suffice. In terms of other options, you said in your opening post that you have tried everything so I am not sure what else you can do other than replacing some gear, or you can try Dirac Live that offers free trial but iirc you said you had no time for experiment..

 

[DIY Junky]

I have a feeling that higher quality mic would help ypao to get a more accurate results. I would like to check that. Any suggestions for the mic?

. I would get a SPL meter and sit in your favorite chair and adjust speaker levels to get equal readings

 

[Andrein]

Sorry I didn't realize it's the same Andre who has the 525. So yes the X3400H or SR6011,6012 will suffice. In terms of other options, you said in your opening post that you have tried everything so I am not sure what else you can do other than replacing some gear, or you can try Dirac Live that offers free trial but iirc you said you had no time for experiment..

I tried YPAO single and multiple points measurments. With results I described in the beginning. Bought umik1, minidsp and installed REW but did not get too far with it last year. Maybe it is time to try again if no a quicker way.

Are you saying ypao won't work with higher quality mic? I remember Gene said default mic is not great. Also i pointed it to the ceiling. Was it correct?

 

[Andrein]

. I would get a SPL meter and sit in your favorite chair and adjust speaker levels to get equal readings

Man, it is done long time ago)))

 

[PENG]

Are you saying ypao won't work with higher quality mic? I remember Gene said default mic is not great.

I did not say that, I said "I think Yamaha would want you to stick with their MIC." That's just my educated guess, that the YPAO software most likely are calibrated to match the mic's characteristics. If you use a different one that is more accurate, the result may actually be less accurate because the software will apply the same compensation based on the stock mic's characteristics. You should email them to get an official response.

Also i pointed it to the ceiling. Was it correct?

I don't have experience with the newer RX-A models, but looking at the picture of their mics I do believe you did it right pointing to the ceiling.

 

[TLS Guy]

Right. There were some suggestions. Let me draw my room plan. I get the point about proac brightness, but it minimal to me.

I can try diff mic, any suggestion which one i can try? I guess umic1 wont work here as it usb mic?

Btw my room is fully covered with 3in rug and we have curtains on 2 walls. No resonances or boomy bass at all.

I see why people might prefer DM but want to try more things before changing avr.

You can not use a different mic. You have to use the one that came with the receiver. The manufacturers know they are cheap horrible mics. So they build in compensation to compensate for the FR deviations in the mic. That is all on the Audyssey forum.

If you like your speakers, then turn off YPAO. Almost certainly that will get you the best performance your system can deliver. I did note that there are quite a lot of people who like the PROAC house curve and you seem to be one. Just bypass all YPAO eq and be happy.

 

[snakeeyes]

I think it may work better for you than YPAO alone, but to do it with REW, you have to invest $200-$300 on a Mic and a minidsp product. In my experience, it didn't really add much value to the Audyssey XT32 that I already have. I tried it on my two channel system but again it didn't do better than JRiver's parametric EQ filters. So now I have the hardly used minidsp back in the box sitting idle. That's just my experience, as far as I now @Pogre likes it a lot.

So the REW can still make graphs with mic measurements but you can’t affect any changes from REW itself to the sub without passing the LFE cable (or left right low pass) thru it, correct? If so you could still make before and after graphs after manual changes on the receiver I would think. Is that right?

 

[DIY Junky]

Man, it is done long time ago)))

And not happy with the results ?? Can not get more accurate than a SPL reading .. outa my league sorry

 

[PENG]

So the REW can still make graphs with mic measurements but you can’t affect any changes from REW itself to the sub without passing the LFE cable (or left right low pass) thru it, correct? If so you could still make before and after graphs after manual changes on the receiver I would think. Is that right?

Yes you can use it with the Mic to generate all sorts of graphs and create the eq filters. To implement the filters you need the dsp hardware such as minidsp.

 

[snakeeyes]

Yes you can use it with the Mic to generate all sorts of graphs and create the eq filters. To implement the filters you need the dsp hardware such as minidsp.

Cool, I mostly want a measuring tool. Thanks.

 

[PENG]

Cool, I mostly want a measuring tool. Thanks.

Then all you need is one of this: umik-1 for USD75. REW can run on Mac OS X, Linux or Windows XP through Windows 10, quite easy to use.

I don't find Denon/Marantz manual EQ features helpful but JRiver (or others I assume) parametric EQ very good, The REW generated graphs allows me to set the parameters properly instead of going by ears. As you mentioned, you can then compare the before and after and fine tune the parameters either to the best look or to your satisfaction (by ears). I actually find the results better than using using the REW generated filters/equalizers loaded into the minidsp. That's why my minidsp is back in the box.

 

[PENG]

Man, it is done long time ago)))

I think you know it already but just to be sure, if you run YPAO or other well known REQ systems properly (using the newer versions, and follow instructions to the letter), for the subwoofer distance/delay, and level results could actually be more accurate (acoustically/not physically speaking) than using the cheap Radio Shack spl meter and measuring tape.

 

[DIY Junky]

some people think otherwise....

 

[PENG]

some people think otherwise....

I assume you referred to my post#73. I read most of the AH AV research articles including that video, but thanks anyway. My comments were meant for subwoofer distance only so for clarity, I edited the post accordingly. It is not always the case either, but it is not uncommon that people found the tape measured distance and RS meter measured level may not work as well as the latest auto EQ system such as Dirac Live, Audyssey XT32 etc. I used both, plus REW, just to counter check one way against the other but that's over kill.

 

[Andrein]

I think I will try REW and minidsp in the comming weeks. My minidsp model has 2 hdmi, 1 for input and 1 for output. Each hdmi covers upto 8 channels. I can try to put it in between Oppo player and yamaha. I think dsp has passthrough mode. So until i finish configuration i can always switch it to passthrough and get my current config. Think yamaha also allows to save configs.

I guess delays will change when i enable minidsp. Hope minidsp can offset this. Otherwise will have to switch profiles in both minidsp and yamaha. But probably too early to ask these questions. Will ask them once i am ready.

 

[Alex2507]

I have a 663 and a 2600 w/ YPAO. On the 663 there is auto eq, graphic eq (manually set) and off. So I had YPAO do its thing and then checked it with REW mostly to eq the subs but I adjusted the lower eq points in the rec'r according to rew and reduced the adjustments YPAO had made in the upper frequencies. Those settings are saved under graphic eq and I can cycle through the auto and off eq positions for comparison during playback.

One TV audio source is stereo only and I found that speech was most easily understood with the auto eq setting. It didn't sound 'best' but that's what that's how that source gets played ... and the speakers are set to small with a 100 hz xo. For music I use the graphic eq settings and the speakers are set to large because that does sound best and that's what I care most about. We live in a condo so stereo tv gets watered down with dynamic compression and a high xo point and then the subs get turned off until we want LF.

The rule of thumb is to not mess around too much with anything much past a few hundred hz. I had set up YPAO on the 2600 but had not done any meaningful comparisons if it would even allow for switching during playback. It has different YPAO features and I haven't set it up since the last speaker maneuvers.

 

[snakeeyes]

Which model Yamaha do you have? What speakers are you using? Do you use a sub? YPAO sounds fine to me. When I ran it, it set my speakers to large so I just changed them to Small and use a 60hz crossover to the sub. when I go back and forth between YPAO and No YPAO "Through" setting, YPAO sounds better to me. Imaging is better, the music just seems clearer and more focused, if that makes sense. YPAO volume is designed for times when you want to listen at lower volumes. I have not measured, but it seems to boost the midbass or midrange frequencies a bit for sure.

Definitely leave YPAO volume off and only use when you have someone trying to sleep in the same room or in the next room and you are trying to hear dialogue at low volume. And don’t forget to turn it off afterwards...

 

[Andrein]

Definitely leave YPAO volume off and only use when you have someone trying to sleep in the same room or in the next room and you are trying to hear dialogue at low volume. And don’t forget to turn it off afterwards...

You are probably confusing ypao volume setting with dynamic range compression. Ypao volume just adds some decibels in the low and high freq ranges so that you can enjoy music at low volumes too. This is based on the fact that human ear is less sensitive in those regions.

 

[lovinthehd]

Definitely leave YPAO volume off and only use when you have someone trying to sleep in the same room or in the next room and you are trying to hear dialogue at low volume. And don’t forget to turn it off afterwards...

You thinking of Adaptive DRC?