Hi All,
Apologies for the long post, figured I'd make a post as I feel like giving up with this stuff, think I need to start from scratch again as I think there's important things I missed but want to get the calibration steps down. There is lots I want to say but will try and keep it more concise and short, if you want to skip to the questions I have scroll to bottom.
Setup:
- 1 x Denon AVC X4700H (Using the 0 - 98 scale on the receiver typical listening levels are between 60 - 70)
- 2 x Monitor Audio Bronze 6 Towers (FL, FR)
- Tweeters are at ear level
- Plugged
- Very slightly towed in, kept 210mm from wall behind them
- 2 x Monitor Audio Bronze 1 Bookshelf (RL, RR)
- Tweeters are at ear level
- Plugged
- On speaker stands
- 1 x Monitor Audio Bronze Centre (C)
- We have a glass TV stand, the Center is in-between 2 of the shelves (which I know is very bad)
- Rubber Feet added to front so it's angled and the tweeters are facing our faces
- Sound dampening foam added behind it
- 2 x SVS PB3000 (ports plugged)
- Purchased the Audyssey MultEQ iOS app
- Layout below:
- Ignore the staircase area
- Floor in the living room is carpet
- Floor in the Dining Room is tiled
- Numbers are in Meters
- Height from floor to ceiling is around 10ft
- Arrows in front of the speakers show which position they are facing.
- MLP is the single seater sofa, SLP is the seat to the left of it
Problems I had recently:
- The Mandalorian season 3 episode 1, the action sequence at the beginning and the action sequence towards the end (26m), the music was too loud, the horned instruments had spikes which were a bit too loud and harsh on the ears.
- The Mandalorian season 3 credits music seems to get very loud as well.
Originally in mid 2021:
- Ran Audyssey cal, 8 points and used it's Dual Sub EQ.
- In the MultEQ I set the MultEQ Filter Frequency Range to 0 for the LFE channel and use the PEQ's on the SVS app to adjust the subs so the tone sweeps sounded as linear as I could get them up to 80hz.
- All speakers at set to small, crossover for all is at 80hz
- Turned off Midrange Compensation for all (Front, Centre and Surround)
- Turned off Dynamic Volume
- Turned off LFC
- Used the Curve Editor on the MultEQ app to do the Fronts, then Surrounds, then Centre
- Manually measured speaker distance to MLP with measuring tape and inputted those values into the MultEQ app "Speaker Detection Results"
- Adjusted the Level (dB) in the MultEQ Speaker Detection Results when I was doing listening tests.
- Have found the living room has bad or over resonance in the 100-400hz ranges so dipping that area greatly helped and confirmed it with films like Tron Legacy (around 41 min mark when crowds are cheering and the stage announcer is speaking to everyone)
Lost count of how much time I've spent doing listening tests with the same scenes of TV Shows or Movies or tone sweeps till ear fatigue sets in, over time I've edited the MultEQ curves and for a long while now things have sounded great, recently with The Mandalorian season 3 there was a couple of times I was asked to turn the volume down (listening at 70) which makes me go back and look at what was wrong.
Typically when something sounds off or I get asked to turn the volume down I would listen to exactly where the problem is (find the minute/second marker), I would then extract the audio channels from the file into WAV tracks, load those into a DAW (FL Studio), put a visual equalizer on the main output and find where the peaks were in that section of audio, apply EQ to where I think the problem is and listen, then I would then adjust the curve on the MultEQ app to dip in that area which helped greatly with various tests and especially when I was adjusting the centre channel which I spent a whole day doing.
Watched
Audyssey Room Correction Performance Tips for Your Denon/Marantz Receiver - YouTube with Gene and Theo which has given me some ideas to try, along with finding out Audssey has a bug with pre 2022 receivers setting the
wrong time alignment doesn't help, the calculation to fix this was explained but I honestly don't know how to do those calculations (if FL is showing at 2.7m I don't know how to do to calculation to correct that distance). I did also find out about MultEQ-X which has the corrections built into the app although it is a steep price for a license. I want to start from scratch again as I think I have a lot more "ear" experience with what I will need to listen for and adjust, however I want to make sure I get the step by step process down so the fundamentals are done right at least.
- Original Room Correction Results with no adjustments/editing (this was before I turned off Midrange Compensation as well):
- After reading the specs on the Bronze 6 towers I have found the crossover on them is at 2.5khz where it looks like they already have a dip there built in to them.
-
- What I've been using for a long time now:
Something I don't understand while editing the Curve Editor is when I dip above 1khz it seems to make areas around 100hz and below rise ? (like in the 2 pictures above), I don't think it's supposed to have a seesaw like affect so not sure what's happening there ?
Steps I have so far to start from scratch and questions:
- Reset Subs to factory default.
- Due to the room layout and placement the only speakers I can change location of a bit are the front ones (FL, FR and SUB at the front)
- Connect up the Denon mic to X4700H and run the Audyssey calibration for 8 points.
- For dual subs Gene and Theo in their video advised when using the Audyssey app which makes you lower sub level keep it in the upper Green area and then raise sub level afterwards by around 5db.
- Recline sofas around where the mic will be placed
- Don't go further than 2ft from the MLP or around 450-500mm (I think Theo said a bit less than 2ft)
- Use tripod with mic mounted to it
- Turn off Midrange Compensation
- Turn off Dynamic Volume and LFC
- At this point I think I would want to correct the distances from speakers to MLP which I think should also fix the time delay ?
- I think 1 solution was to send the cal to the receiver and then go onto the receiver and set the distance values there ?
- Other option is to get a license for MultEQ-X which applies those corrections automatically.
- Once time delay is set I don't know how to confirm/measure this ?, do I need to learn REW and use a mic to check this before proceeding any further ?
- Would I now start tone sweeps and listen at the MLP to determine if there is any phasing/mode issues ?
- To fix phase I would need to adjust the speaker distance setting in MultEQ ? or physically move the speaker ?
- The subs have a Phase setting which allows me to go from 0 - 180 I think.
- Mode issues I think can only really be fixed by speaker placement ?
- Would I now do listening tests with scenes I'm familiar with ?, adjusting the curves in the MultEQ app for the Fronts, then Centre and then Surrounds to taste ?
Do apologise for the long post, any help would be most appreciated.