Adam's Theater

[fuzz092888]

I like my Onkyo as well, but without the fan on top I'd have serious concerns about the HDMI board over time. It gets extremely hot in the back even though I'm not using the amp section.

I wouldn't expect Audyssey to be a huge improvement over YPAO, at least in terms of smoothing response. I think Audyssey is superior in setting distance (which is also setting delay) and one or two other minor things with the exception of subEQ, but is as mediocre as everything else when it comes to smoothing response. YMMV of course

 

[Adam]

YMMV of course

I think it might...I don't have YPAO.

 

[fuzz092888]

Hmmm no more posting and snake wrangling for me

 

[Adam]

Hmmm no more posting and snake wrangling for me

Ummm...WHAT?

 

[fuzz092888]

Ummm...WHAT?

Hmmm I had considered taking this joke further, but I can see into the future and I see myself looking back and remarking, "Wow, that escalated quickly."

 

[Adam]

"Wow, that escalated quickly."

You're bragging about your youth again, aren't you? B*stard.

 

[fuzz092888]

Either that or some mental disability where it's compulsive

 

[Adam]

Either that or some mental disability where it's compulsive

I think that's just called being a guy.

 

[Adam]

Well, the Denon has made it's way into my system. After a 41-minute firmware update (yeah, that sucked), I'm going through the onscreen setup. So far, it's really easy to follow. They did a nice job with it. One nit is that it goes through making connections...which...ummm...if you didn't know how to do, you'd never have gotten to the onscreen GUI.

So, it's ready to run Audyssey. I might be missing this, but it seems that Audyssey doesn't allow for multiple configurations like MCACC does. For example, I use three configurations: one for the couch, one for my chair off to the side, and one for on the floor where Niki and I eat. It really does make a significant difference switching between them. With Audyssey, it seems that it can't do that. If that's true, that's a huge drawback for me. My position relative to my speakers is significantly different between the couch area and the chair.

 

[fuzz092888]

Audyssey does not do that. What Audyssey does is allow for the multiple mic placements which you choose (or you can follow the Audyssey model) and then it creates a correction that gives the flattest possible response based on that "picture" of your room for all the mic placements.

I don't know if that made any sense, so I'll try again. With the multiple mic positions Audyssey gets the "picture" of your room. Then it creates a file that creates the flattest response for anywhere in the area of the mic placements. Sort of like averaging all the positions together and doing what it can across the entire space instead of maximizing for specific positions.

 

[Adam]

I don't know if that made any sense, so I'll try again.

You made sense. I know that's what Audyssey is trying to do, but my concern is based on the significantly different distances between the speakers and me depending on where I'm sitting. The best "compromise" is going to exist between those spots...where I never sit. But, it's running now - I'll let you know what I think.

 

[fuzz092888]

You made sense. I know that's what Audyssey is trying to do, but my concern is based on the significantly different distances between the speakers and me depending on where I'm sitting. The best "compromise" is going to exist between those spots...where I never sit. But, it's running now - I'll let you know what I think.

Which is exactly one of the reasons why Audyssey gets such mixed reactions Good for when your seating is clustered, not so much for people like you with a wide range of seating positions.

 

[Adam]

The Denon remote is ONLY for the receiver. What...the...?! A MSRP $600 receiver doesn't even come with a preprogrammed remote control? That's shockingly bad, IMO.

The HDMI pass through in standby mode is pretty cool, though.

 

[fuzz092888]

The Denon remote is ONLY for the receiver. What...the...?! A MSRP $600 receiver doesn't even come with a preprogrammed remote control? That's shockingly bad, IMO.

The HDMI pass through in standby mode is pretty cool, though.

I like the pass through as well, except it can be useless with an Onkyo since it means it basically stays hot 24/7.

 

[Adam]

After running Audyssey a few times, using between one and six measurements each time, and running it for the different places that I sit to see if it would work for any particular location, my overall opinion is...meh. I think that the best results (to my ears) were when I just ran one measurement location and sat there. It really did sound good in that case. When I ran all six locations for that same seating location, it didn't sound as good to me. Because I can't save more than one configuration, though, it's impossible to flip between them to really tell the difference - so I'm just going with what I liked and what I didn't like. The lack of multiple configurations is a big downer and main reason that I'm going to recommend MCACC for now. That, and I've been really happy with the results that I get from MCACC.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

It's gonna take me longer to decided and then pry the wallet open for a new receiver then it did to buy a TV...but you are helping...I think.

 

[slipperybidness]

It's gonna take me longer to decided and then pry the wallet open for a new receiver then it did to buy a TV...but you are helping...I think.

I run the VSX-82TXS, I'm not sure but it must be at least a year or 2 older than Adam's VSX-23. I think mine is pushing 6 years old right now.

I really don't see much reason to upgrade. It doesn't do all the HD Audio decoding, but big deal because the PS3 does. It isn't network capable, but big deal because I have a tower PC in my HT. It doesn't do 1080p upconversion (only passthrough), but big deal because I only feed 1080p signals anyway. The only reason I could see to upgrade right now is that it doesn't have HDMI port on the front, a small hassle every now and then. Oh yeah, I would like to be able to set crossovers independently for each channel rather than a universal setting.

The MCACC is great for movies and getting the dialogue dialed in, but for music I run direct or PD. I suspect that I may have an older version of MCACC than Adam, his is probably better.

It did have a steep learning curve, but now that I am very familiar with it, I don't feel like learning a new receiver either.

On the plus-side, it has a phono input, it has pretty beefy amps, I like to be able to dim the display, and I have had 0 issues (other than self-inflicted learning curve) over the 6 years that I have had it.

On the other hand, my Samsung 52" is about 5 years old and I drool over the sharp pictures on the newer technologies. Not that the Sammy is bad, and it was certainly very good when I bought it, it's just that I can see improvements in the technology since then.

 

[Adam]

I run the VSX-82TXS...

That's a nice receiver. I also wouldn't see any reason to upgrade as long as it can do what you want. When I got the VSX-23, I had a Pioneer VSX-1015 that was nice but didn't have HDMI. That was probably the biggest reason that I decided to upgrade in 2009. Because I had just bought my first new TV in ~15 years, I figured that I'd splurge and get a new receiver that could handle digital video. Well, that, and I also got a blu-ray player and wanted to try out the new codecs.

 

[Adam]

It's gonna take me longer to decided and then pry the wallet open for a new receiver then it did to buy a TV...but you are helping...I think.

Am I helping you decide...or take longer?

 

[Alex2507]

Am I helping you decide...or take longer?

He has decided to take longer. Longer than what I can't imagine but when he does open his wallet I bet it has that heavenly choral theme music accompanied by rays of sunlight beaming out of it as if from between perfectly puffy white clouds. Then he closes it and fishes out the exact change required to pay for his coffee. I bet Doug still has the first speaker wire he ever bought.