Has anyone had a positive experience with YPAO at all?

[PENG]

I even went as far as keeping the cheap plastic Audyssey microphone in the same Sweet Spot for all readings. Was not happy with results. Cleared everything and sat my ass in chair and did all settings manually with my ears .Trust your ears its your system.. I call this the Audacity system. Who is listening to the system you or the microphone?

I see your point, and I think most people do. Regard to your last sentence though, while also true, but then do you trust your eyes and believe virus don't exist, or the electron microscopes that can show us they are there? I listen to music, but I trust a good mic and software much more than my ears, to tell me if my room is not negatively impacting on what I hear, relative to what the creators of the recorded music intended.

 

[little wing]

I don't mean one that you have "heard" meaning actually listened to, but "heard" meaning heard about it. I have only listened to one Pass lab amp when auditioning speakers, but I have heard about some Pass Lab amps might have been voiced in certain way. Some Carver, not sure about Sunfire's amps were also apparently voiced to sound like tube amps by design.

As for AVRs, they all appear to claim virtually flat FR 20-20,000 Hz and negligible distortions once you get pass the entry level models.

Very interesting post on the Ascends. I've read alot of amp reviews. Ati, Outlaw, Passlabs, Parasound etc etc, All the reviewers use adjectives to describe subtle differences they hear, or claim to hear with amps. I just take it with a grain of salt. I would upgrade speakers before I upgraded to an expensive amp.

 

[Andrein]

Any more advices for me?))) REW and minidsp or something else to try before that? I love how my speakers sound. But ypao while bringing somethig good to the sound, making other things worse at the same time. I suspect it cuts the midbass but increases mid range frequencies disproportionally.

Let us not start amp1 vs amp2 discussion here please.

 

[Andrein]

Also, just to be clear. I auditioned proac speakers before buying and liked its sound from the beginning. I am not trying to make bad good. But rather good a bit better))) This is what YPAO supposed to do, right? Proac bit on brighter side, but i can listen for hours without getting tired which means for me they are not too bright. Without YPAO. But ypao does bring a bit more clarity but at the same time makes speakers more difficult to listen. Dont know if i am clear enough.

The problem is i dont have much time for experiments. That is why thought maybe there is something i can try before diving into REW, umic thing. I have everything already though.

 

[DIY Junky]

I see your point, and I think most people do. Regard to your last sentence though, while also true, but then do you trust your eyes and believe virus don't exist, or the electron microscopes that can show us they are there? I listen to music, but I trust a good mic and software much more than my ears, to tell me if my room is not negatively impacting on what I hear, relative to what the creators of the recorded music intended.

Then you are not pleasing your ears. Use science and physics to please your ears. I don't want a system that sounds good on paper I want to sit down and crank that poop up and say WTF that kicks ass .. nothing else matters.. Love the auto edit on POOP

 

[little wing]

The thread did get off track, and I did mention that a few posts back. But in between the less relevant posts were some suggestions for you. TLS Guy called out the Proacs as not being the most neutral speakers, and may have a tendency toward being a bit bright. Probably not what you wanted to hear. A higher quality MIC and room eq was mentioned. Also, your room was mentioned and possibly posting pics, for some room treatment suggestions. Lovinthehd said that this was your 2nd Yamaha receiver( I believe he said you had the 860) And went as far as saying Yamaha may not be the ticket for you, and to maybe try something from D&M. Manually EQing your speakers was also suggested.

 

[PENG]

Then you are not pleasing your ears. Use science and physics to please your ears. I don't want a system that sounds good on paper I want to sit down and crank that poop up and say WTF that kicks ass .. nothing else matters.. Love the auto edit on POOP

I do trust my ears too, it isn't mutually exclusive and both are important. In my case, once it passes a certain point, i.e. when something already sound great to me, I would trust science and physics more, to help reveal the potential differences that I might find hard to discern with my hearing.

 

[Andrein]

Right. There were some suggestions. Let me draw my room plan. I get the point about proac brightness, but it minimal to me.

I can try diff mic, any suggestion which one i can try? I guess umic1 wont work here as it usb mic?

Btw my room is fully covered with 3in rug and we have curtains on 2 walls. No resonances or boomy bass at all.

I see why people might prefer DM but want to try more things before changing avr.

 

[PENG]

Also, just to be clear. I auditioned proac speakers before buying and liked its sound from the beginning. I am not trying to make bad good. But rather good a bit better))) This is what YPAO supposed to do, right? Proac bit on brighter side, but i can listen for hours without getting tired which means for me they are not too bright. Without YPAO. But ypao does bring a bit more clarity but at the same time makes speakers more difficult to listen. Dont know if i am clear enough.

The problem is i dont have much time for experiments. That is why thought maybe there is something i can try before diving into REW, umic thing. I have everything already though.

You don't want to bring up amp1 vs amp2, that's great. However, in case @ADTG forgot to bring this up by now, you really should try Audyssey' dynamic EQ. Would you be open to try out an AVR-X4400H ? Amazon's return is almost painless, so there is minimum risk. Dynamic EQ is not meant for just taming brightness, but I found that by restoring in room FR balance invariable make the sound "warmer" and likely perceived as "smoother".

The X4400H should also allow you to listen a little louder, so you can turn off DEQ and still perceive less brightness at near THX reference level.

 

[Andrein]

Te

You don't want to bring up amp1 vs amp2, that's great. However, in case @ADTG forgot to bring this up by now, you really should try Audyssey' dynamic EQ. Would you be open to try out an AVR-X4400H ? Amazon's return is almost painless, so there is minimum risk. Dynamic EQ is not meant for just taming brightness, but I found that by restoring in room FR balance invariable make the sound "warmer" and likely perceived as "smoother".

Tempting but let us put this idea aside for now. I have mca 525 and my config is 4.2 so maybe a lower model would be ok? But after trying other options ideally.

 

[Andrein]

Actually, btw i thought to buy a center channel speaker first but dont feel the need as can hear conversations perfectly in all movies.

 

[DIY Junky]

I do trust my ears too, it isn't mutually exclusive and both are important. In my case, once it passes a certain point, i.e. when something already sound great to me, I would trust science and physics more, to help reveal the potential differences that I might find hard to discern with my hearing.

Look up sound field and how the mind perceives sound... here is the door to the rabbit hole http://www.soundstage.com/audiohell/audiohell200111.htm its the mind that makes the sound stage work to our ears

Get the placement right to flip the audio switch in your mind ..

 

[Andrein]

My room. Sorry for the image quality.

 

[DIY Junky]

My room. Sorry for the image quality.

Ouch.. not ideal for music listening Again its your room do what works for you . I would start fresh and take out all furniture and add pieces back in one by one and see how it changes . Wife is a big factor too .. Good luck

 

[Andrein]

Ouch.. not ideal for music listening Again its your room do what works for you . I would start fresh and take out all furniture and add pieces back in one by one and see how it changes . Wife is a big factor too .. Good luck

I cant really change speaker positions much... Not just because of wife but also due to dogs i have...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Any more advices for me?))) REW and minidsp or something else to try before that? I love how my speakers sound. But ypao while bringing somethig good to the sound, making other things worse at the same time.

Then I would not use the YPAO.

That's the same for ALL room EQ. If they don't sound awesome to you, then don't use it. Only use it if it sounds awesome to you. Simple as that.

Nothing is black and white. Nothing is perfect. Bottom line, if it sounds good, then it is good.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

However, in case @ADTG forgot to bring this up by now...

Oh, I brought DEQ up alright. I always bring it up.

 

[Andrein]

I have a feeling that higher quality mic would help ypao to get a more accurate results. I would like to check that. Any suggestions for the mic?

 

[snakeeyes]

Also curious about REW. Not sure REW would be fun or not for me but I’m curious what manual improvements can happen on the Yamaha 2060 with the subwoofer frequency since I have one sub and not 2. (Same on the Yamaha 681 in my bedroom setup). This is below the frequency that the YPAO mics can read so REW might be a good way to see what is going on. My understanding is a good mic and mic stand are needed.

 

[PENG]

Also curious about REW. Not sure REW would be fun or not for me but I’m curious what manual improvements can happen on the Yamaha 2060 with the subwoofer frequency since I have one sub and not 2. (Same on the Yamaha 681 in my bedroom setup). This is below the frequency that the YPAO mics can read so REW might be a good way to see what is going on. My understanding is a good mic and mic stand are needed.

I think it may work better for you than YPAO alone, but to do it with REW, you have to invest $200-$300 on a Mic and a minidsp product. In my experience, it didn't really add much value to the Audyssey XT32 that I already have. I tried it on my two channel system but again it didn't do better than JRiver's parametric EQ filters. So now I have the hardly used minidsp back in the box sitting idle. That's just my experience, as far as I now @Pogre likes it a lot.