Audio Calibration via each Speaker? Help?

[ROMisONLINE]

Hello all, I have been looking and I’m sure I’m just missing it but it is driving me crazy. Is there a DVD, Bluray, PC file that I can use to play white/pink, what ever noise through each speaker? I use Audyssey on my Marantz AV7702mkII @ 9.3.2 and it does a good job but I am wanting to dial it in more but I can not figure out how to play audio through one speaker separately. I would use the white noise feature within the AV but my understanding is when you use it, it’s not at the Audyssey settings. So I’ve used a Bluray, but it is only 7.1. I’m sure you all have this figured out and would greatly appreciate knowing how you all manage it. Thank you for any useful info or advice and Happy listening.

 

[ryanosaur]

Well, REW and a Umik-1 are the best ways to tweak out on your system.
Frankly, my experience with Audyssey XT32 and the App has been very good.
I guess, the ultimate question is how deep down the rabbit hole do you wanna go?

 

[ROMisONLINE]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am totally willing to do all the calibrating myself, my main problem is just what can I use to play a sound/noise in any given speaker? When I used the 7.1 Bluray it got me to where I wanted to be but it was just a hassle to stop it and play it over and over again to get the left speaker correct, then again and again to do the center. I was just thinking there has to be a better way and now that I’ve grown to more than a 7.1 setup. Is there a 9.X.X or 11.X.X Bluray or PC file I can use instead?

 

[ryanosaur]

The problem with all those things id that you are dependent on the signal chain working right. If one item is out of whack, your attempt to "calibrate" will be likewise wonky.

This is why using your Rceiver's Pink Noise is the basic way of double checking the levels. After that, using a measurement program with a calibrated Mic is the absolute best way.

 

[Leemix]

The internal test tones are affected by the measured speaker level trims but not the audyssey correction filters, but i dont know of any bluray atmos calibration disc.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ROMisONLINE]

@Leemix That’s what I was wondering and haven’t found yet. I wanted to use Audyssey to get me into the right range and then tweak it further with a audio track played through my 4K player or Roku, etc, in order to adjust the Audyssey settings correctly. I guess I will just have to use the internal pink noise that will play in each speaker separately to make adjustments and not use Audyssey at all.

 

[lovinthehd]

What makes you think you need to tweak the Audyssey settings particularly, is there something sounding off to you now? Audyssey is likely going to do a better job for now than just fooling around with pink noise alone, i.e. without a measurement mic and appropriate software to analyze.

 

[ryanosaur]

Adding on to what Lovin' said, the other aspect of using an SPL meter or worse, an App on your phone, is that they are not perfect; either option. Good SPL Meters that may be more trustworthy are starting around $60-80. The real deal SPL meters are $200 and up.
Your phone mic is not a calibrated device, and while it may get you close, I'm pretty certain the Audyssey Mic will be better suited to dialing in your system.

 

[ROMisONLINE]

Thanks everyone for the input. I have used Audyssey and it works great but it does occasionally get some measurements wrong like distance or crossover setting. I have a pretty good 3rd party SPL meter suggested by other Audioholics and during the early 7.1 era I would go and tweak the settings of Audyssey to a more correct config. I did it with a 7.1 disc, it was fine but having to play the disk from the beginning each time was a pain. So now that there are more than 7 speakers, I was just wondering if there was a way to play a audio test tone in each individual speaker so I could dial it in more accurately. As Gene has stated in many of his videos, using the AV’s built in test tones bypasses the Audyssey configuration thus making any adjustments wrong when watching a movie or music or whatever. Thank you everyone again for your input.

 

[Pogre]

The distances have more to do with timing than the actual measured distances, especially for subwoofers, and especially if using any dsp. I would not mess with the distances. Ime Audyssey does a great job with that. I also trust the level settings and don't see any benefit to re-doing them. It's a way of dealing with room acoustics. Going behind Audyssey and changing all of that is likely doing more harm than good.

The crossover setting and large/small speaker settings often are off tho and usually need tweaked a bit. There is a tendency to mark a speaker as "large" and/or using lower crossovers than recommended. That's more to do with the manufacturer settings than Audyssey tho.

 

[ryanosaur]

Thanks everyone for the input. I have used Audyssey and it works great but it does occasionally get some measurements wrong like distance or crossover setting. I have a pretty good 3rd party SPL meter suggested by other Audioholics and during the early 7.1 era I would go and tweak the settings of Audyssey to a more correct config. I did it with a 7.1 disc, it was fine but having to play the disk from the beginning each time was a pain. So now that there are more than 7 speakers, I was just wondering if there was a way to play a audio test tone in each individual speaker so I could dial it in more accurately. As Gene has stated in many of his videos, using the AV’s built in test tones bypasses the Audyssey configuration thus making any adjustments wrong when watching a movie or music or whatever. Thank you everyone again for your input.

I’m curious please; what distance measurements you’ve experienced as wrong?

 

[Pogre]

I’m curious please; what distance measurements you’ve experienced as wrong?

Me too!

Just to illustrate for op, processing a signal takes time. The more processing involved the longer it takes to convert a signal to sound. If you have more processing on one speaker over another it will take just ever so slightly longer to convert the heavier processed signal into sound and reach the listening position. That can result in phase issues or even distortion. One solution is to add a little bit more distance to the heavier processed speaker to bring it back in time with the rest.

Audyssey adds 4 and 5 feet respectively to my subs to make up for timing issues due to the fact that I have a MiniDSP 2x4 HD in the mix! The extra processing from eq'ing is slowing signal conversion down for my subs so the added distance tells them to start sooner which brings them back on track. I've actually found that adding another foot or 2 can improve my measured response even a bit more. I have a measuring mic and learned up on REW so I was able to run some sweeps and experiment a little bit. Which btw, I highly recommend if you really wanna dig in and make some improvements. A good calibrated mic really lets you see where any issues are and removes a lot of guesswork. Adding that to my arsenal really helped me make some meaningful improvements.

I hope that makes sense. My understanding is very rudimentary on some of this stuff and I had to labor a bit finding the right wording for that explanation, lol.

 

[ryanosaur]

To be fair, I have heard of other issues that can confuse the program into triggering Out Of Phase alerts or other weird measurements... I think open back or dipole designs can present confusing data for the program to process.
Regardless, the original question stands...

 

[Pogre]

To be fair, I have heard of other issues that can confuse the program into triggering Out Of Phase alerts or other weird measurements... I think open back or dipole designs can present confusing data for the program to process.
Regardless, the original question stands...

My Ultra towers used to trigger false OOP alerts. SVS warns you about that tho and says to ignore it. It's due to the dual opposing bass drivers on the sides, but yes. Other designs can trigger it too. On the flip side tho, it did help me catch it one time when I actually did reverse pos/neg on a different pair of speakers!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I guess I’d be curious to know exactly how much the spl would be thrown off by using internal test tones after Audyssey calibration. Since it’s such a wide spectrum of sound, I can’t imagine it would be off by much. I’ve always used my ol digital rat shack meter to double check after calibration and it’s always been very close. I have to think that not using audyssey to avoid a simple spl discrepancy would be a bigger offense than adjusting spl post cal without Audyssey filters in place. Especially with a phone app.
FWIW I use bypass on my mains.

 

[Pogre]

I guess I’d be curious to know exactly how much the spl would be thrown off by using internal test tones after Audyssey calibration. Since it’s such a wide spectrum of sound, I can’t imagine it would be off by much. I’ve always used my ol digital rat shack meter to double check after calibration and it’s always been very close. I have to think that not using audyssey to avoid a simple spl discrepancy would be a bigger offense than adjusting spl post cal without Audyssey filters in place. Especially with a phone app.
FWIW I use bypass on my mains.

I do think it's far less offensive, and even legit in some cases to tweak some spl levels than to change distances. Especially if it's actually audible. I have adjusted my surrounds by a dB or 2 before, but for sure leave distances alone unless I have the mic out and can verify what changing them does.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I’ve found that since I had my experience-a 3020 rebuilt with a new main processor board and an upgraded processor that every time I recalibrate it the left front channel is always out of phase no mater what you do I’ve switched wires on both end of the chain switched amps every thing I could think of to try . I was told by Yamaha unles there’s a huge difference in level when calibration is complete it’s to be ignored and is just a glitch in the Yapo program . Iam inclined to go with that as it sets my front mains levels .5 db apart . But that stuff drives a guy nuts lol !

 

[ROMisONLINE]

Again, thank you all for your input, very helpful and yes, a rabbit hole. But my main question would be, do you or any one, know of a way to play audio test through a individual speaker for say a 9.x.x and above system. Thank you all again for your help.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Again, thank you all for your input, very helpful and yes, a rabbit hole. But my main question would be, do you or any one, know of a way to play audio test through a individual speaker for say a 9.x.x and above system. Thank you all again for your help.

FWIW, I’m still not sure it’s necessary. But, iirc somebody on AVS made a speaker ID test file. You’d have to go and search for it. Ut I’m pretty sure it’s there. YouTube lists a bunch of speaker ID vids. But afaik they’re still only outputting 2.0. Seems dumb in 2021 YouTube is only good for 2.0. lol.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I think but don’t quote me but I think he may find what he’s looking for on the Spears&Munsel 4 k video calibration Blu-ray it contains audio setup white noise and sub setup tones . It’s been awhile since I used it my son has mine now so I can’t confirm that the one he’s looking for is there .