Please make sure you
read part 1 first.
So we are now ready to run Audyssey without the center having a ridiculous 200 Hz crossover right in the BSC range, albeit with excessive BSC to the center channel.
So here is what Audyssey did. I have to post photos of the TV screen which is not the best, but it is readable.
Speaker Config.
Speaker Distances, all correct!
Speaker Levels.
The speaker levels are reduced. In this sensitive system this is not the best. The gain structure is not correct and done I think to optimize Audyssey Dynamic Eq. More about that later.
Crossovers.
Audyssey front left and right.
Audyssey Center.
Surrounds.
Surround backs.
This last one is totally off the wall.
I do have the Audyssey Flat plots. They are similar but with an HF boost which it makes it sound worse than Audyssey. If there is enough interest I can post them.
Well the fact is that Audyssey did not improve my system but to the contrary.
So here are my settings. Which are in essence what I have used for 10 years and sound excellent.
My Speaker config.
Speakers/Bass
Crossover (Global).
So now lets look at the room responses with Audyssey and my settings at each of the Audyssey mic positions.
Audyssey front row center.
No Audyssey front row center.
The sub level is excessive with Audyssey and it had a go at correcting the room null 60 t0 80 Hz.
Audyssey front row left.
No Audyssey front row left.
Audyssey front row right
Front row right no Audyssey.
Audyssey rear right
Rear right no Audyssey
Audyssey rear center.
Rear center no Audyssey.
Audyssey rear left.
Center lrear no Audyssey.
Aydessey rear left.
Rear left no Aydyssey.
So what was the effect. Did Audyssey sound really bad? If you exclude the assault on the center speaker no. However the results were significantly worse than the graphs would suggest. There was a significant change to the ambience and spacial sense. I think that Audyssey was trying to distinguish direct and reflected sound and attempting to time them differently with failed results.
I say the above because I like Dolby PL 2x, especially on really good ambient recordings. This is especially true for BBC choral evensong. Every week for over 90 years the BBC have broadcast from the cathedrals and college chapels of England. These are superb broadcast. The BBC must be very careful with phase. On this rig you feel right in the cathedral with the PA sounding as it would. Choir and organ in front and when the congregation join a prayer, the sound is largely from the surrounds and rear backs.
With Audyssey engaged the effect is totally lost. It sounds like seven channel stereo with the spatial effects totally lost and total loss of focus. The celebrants voice sounding totally defuse.
This tells me that Audyssey is upsetting time relationships, especially of direct and reflected sound.
In this exercise it has become clear to me that you can not Eq a speaker system like this. The speaker must be correct as the ear judges reality and quality by the first direct sound. Audyssey is providing Eq to the speakers to try and correct the room, ruining the first sounds the ear hears. I believe this concept is a total dead end. In particular speech clarity was far worse with Audyssey then without. Billy Woodman of ATC told me this a few years ago and he is absolutely right.
If a person speaks in this room his voice sounds like it always does. The brain is not upset by the room. It is severely distracted by changing the first arrival trying to correct the room.
This means that there is NO substitute for good speakers. All speakers must measure well at their location and NOT have their response altered by a mic at distant locations.
This second post is now long enough. I will right Part 3 later, and provide further analysis, and describe the total disaster that is Audyssey Dynamic Eq.