Audyssey Pro Kit

[Grassy]

Hey guys i have the upgraded AVPA1HD pre/pro and am wondering if it is worth getting the Audyssey Pro kit and licence for my setup.After the upgrade on my Denon i noticed a huge improvement in my centre channel clarity but was wondering if the pro kit will add to that.

 

[Grassy]

Well i ordered the Pro kit anyway and found that Audyssey was really good to deal with and the kit is now on the way, Really excited.I made a request to Gene over at youtube to make a video on setting it up and to my surprise he answered with a positive voice of doing a video as i cant find one anywhere on the pro kit. Thanks Gene you have made my day.

 

[PENG]

Have fun, please post some graphs after you have done your fine tuning.

 

[Grassy]

Will do PENG, it will probably be about a week as i am based in Australia and its coming from La Verne in USA. I guess the kit might lease a whole new life on my AVP processor as after the upgrade to 3d and xt32 i did not think it could get any better, but time will tell.

 

[SurvivalDad]

Need one of these.

-------------------------
SurvivalDad
Father Time!

 

[Grassy]

Mine arrived today.I was thinking before i set it up should i reset my AVPA1HD to factory settings before doing a calibration with it.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

How much did you have to pay for your kit? Seen that kit with pretty nice price tag. Hopefully you will benefit from your kit!

 

[Grassy]

I paid full retail price for it with no discounts but hopefully i can get the full use out of it and i hope it will make a difference. I know some fellow forum members who have the same pre/pro as me and after using the kit they have given great reports, so i am a little optimistic.

 

[fuzz092888]

So you had to pay for the kit and the license for the Denon correct?

 

[Grassy]

So you had to pay for the kit and the license for the Denon correct?

Yea the licence is the standard $150 plus the price of the kit which is $550, but for us here in Australia with delivery it totals around $870.00 but if you are overseas in the states it would cost you the price that is listed. Its just the Australian dollar that counts for me and that's why it came to a little more.It was also insured for the full amount while in transit.

 

[Grassy]

I also had to get rid of the power adapter and replace it with one that has a plug to fit the Australian power points.

 

[PENG]

I paid full retail price for it with no discounts but hopefully i can get the full use out of it and i hope it will make a difference. I know some fellow forum members who have the same pre/pro as me and after using the kit they have given great reports, so i am a little optimistic.

I know for a fact Audyssey XT32 flattens my room response curve and that's what I want. However, not everyone will like their room curve flat. To many people, accurate sound is not necessarily the sound they enjoy, ask the bass heads if they like what they hear in live classical concerts. Just prior warning..have fun!

 

[Grassy]

I know for a fact Audyssey XT32 flattens my room response curve and that's what I want. However, not everyone will like their room curve flat. To many people, accurate sound is not necessarily the sound they enjoy, ask the bass heads if they like what they hear in live classical concerts. Just prior warning..have fun!

I totally agree mate. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and i believe sound works the same way to our ears.

 

[Grassy]

Is there anyone else with this kit.

 

[JonnyFive23517]

I have the AV8801 and have seriously considered purchasing this kit for several reasons.

1) It allows you to turn off MRC Mid-Range Compensation which is Audyssey putting a hole in your frequency response graph ~1.8 kHz because they are stuck on a 65 year old advice by the BBC that speakers suck and need to be helped in this mid-tweeter crossover region. Why, Audyssey, why?

2) It allows further tailoring of the FR graphs (up to some limit, 3-6 dB I think). I'd enjoy the ability to tinker and possibly find a setting that doesn't force me to use "Bypass L/R." I don't like Audyssey's effect on the high frequency response of my mains.

(Note that Audyssey could fix both of the issues I've suggested if they would just implement a correction cutoff frequency (i.e., 300 hz) like Anthem and other room corrections do).

 

[PENG]

I have the AV8801 and have seriously considered purchasing this kit for several reasons.

1) It allows you to turn off MRC Mid-Range Compensation which is Audyssey putting a hole in your frequency response graph ~1.8 kHz because they are stuck on a 65 year old advice by the BBC that speakers suck and need to be helped in this mid-tweeter crossover region. Why, Audyssey, why?

Audyssey already told you why, the same 65 year old reason you mentioned lol..
By the way, I also have the AV8801. I plotted many graphs with my Umik mic and found that little notch or hole people have been spreading around on forums are really overrated to the nth degree.

I can hardly see it on the graphs Audyssey on, off, flat you name it, it is not significant at all yet people made such a big deal of it. I do wish Audyssey give the option to get rid of it just to calm people down, though in reality, moving your speaker by even an inch probably has a more pronounce effect than that little notch. It used to bother me somewhat (mostly psychological)but not any more after I saw the FR response graphs with my own eyes.

 

[Grassy]

After somewhat 6 measurements i am getting a "communication Data error". This has been happening each time i attempt to measure so i am forced to save after each measurement and then upload later. Once you get this error you cannot continue unless saved. This believe me is really annoying as it takes a lot longer to complete a measurement than the standard Audyssey.I have home theater seats which have high backs on them so i might just have to lay the seat backs down on the back row.Getting all this correct with other problems has been a trial and error situation and has taken me a full day and a half to get to this stage.I hope the results are worth it.

 

[Grassy]

All good now and watched my first movie last night after a real struggle getting it set up but the struggle was worth it.I must say Audyssey were a great company to deal with and never at any stage of my problems setting it up left me high and dry waiting for a response. Thankyou Audyssey. First thing i noticed was the difference in the subwoofer as when i was taking my first measurement(the most critical)i was getting an error telling me to reverse my polarity so i had to go into my subs(velodyne dd15plus) settings via the video out and change the polarity from positive to negative and the results when finished were amazing.So i got passed that and then i could continue with my measurements.After about 4 measurements another error this time it was a "communication Data error",now i had no idea what this meant so i reset everything and found out much much later that the error i was getting was the way i was taking my measurements and what was staring me in my face.My home theater seating was the issue, as the backs on the chairs were high especially in the back row,so i had to lay the recliners down a little and all was good as i took 10 measurements and saved them one after the other. In some measurements i had to raise the mic a little but not to a great extent.The biggest pain i came across was the final save this was the one that tore me to pieces. After i saved all measurements to my desktop(just in case i got another error message and had to start over again)another error message and this time it was a "Fail to transfer filters because of communication timeout error". At this stage i was ready to pick the kit up and throw it in the bin but not after smashing it up with a sledge hammer. Don't forget guys this is 2 days later after sorting these errors out this happens on the very last click.IF YOU GUYS ONLY KNEW HOW I WAS FEELING MAN I WAS PISSED. Anyway at least i had all my measurements saved,but the ordeal was far from over as i thought to myself i could just close the software down and load the measurements in again so i started to load all 10 measurements in to the program separately (BIG MISTAKE) not realizing that all 10 measurements were on the last measurement that i saved being the 10th one.I get to the final click to save and get another error reading the same as the last "Fail to transfer filters because of communication timeout error" Now after this a was ready for bed and was too tired to continue so the next day i was into it again and kept getting the same error and it wasn't till i got on the phone to a fellow forum member of "Stereo net" here in Australia that he walked me through it over the phone as all i had to do was load the 10th measurement and it went through on the last save without a problem. If you guys only know how happy i was to have got through this experience as words cannot describe how relieved i was. So I had a great opportunity to watch a movie tonight so i placed Exodus gods and kings in the dvda1ud and found out it was in 7.1 which was great. The first thing i noticed was the amount of bass going through the movie previews which sounded better,i think maybe because i spent the time sorting out my sub errors when setting up Audyssey pro for the first measurement.Thanks Con219 for making me sort it out and not skip over it as it paid off.The movie was no Blockbuster so to speak and i thought it would of had a bigger sound track with lots of punch but it didn't.Having said that i just think that was just the sort of movie it was and the way it was made. The sub is definitely deeper than before and the most impressive difference to me is that center channel as it had more depth and was clearer,so it seemed louder. The movie itself i would rate a 7/10.What impressed me also was the separation in sound giving it more detail and accuracy.I did also notice that the sound was very realistic and there was very few unnatural sounds in the movie,maybe that was the way it was made.For example if someone got punched in the head i did not hear the subwoofer going crazy.It was a very natural sounding film and did not go overboard with sound and that reflected the Audyssey experience that i had while watching.Like i said Not a blockbuster but enjoyable never the less.Its still only early days yet and i am sure there are more great times to be had with the kit and heaps more to learn along the way.So far its been hard work for me getting it up and running but it can only get better from hear and i am glad i have purchased it as it has been a learning curve and a reward in itself. I still have not made up a certificate yet but will get round to it soon.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Nice to hear that you got it working and running. And you also like the results!

Maybe you should write a tutorial how to use it and so on while you are on it!

 

[Grassy]

Nice to hear that you got it working and running. And you also like the results!

Maybe you should write a tutorial how to use it and so on while you are on it!

I followed this and also a dedicated tutorial for my pre/pro http://installer.audyssey.com/files/Audyssey MultEQ Pro User Guide 4.0.pdf