Incorporating MiniDSP With Audyssey XT32

Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I haven't been keeping up with this thread very closely, but to get a raw response of the subs, why not just connect them to your computer directly (assuming your computer has analog outputs) and then measure the response?
I don't have analog outputs. That would make my life a lot easier...
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Your pic is from the minidsp.
Here man, I posted a pic of the mini screen earlier to show the PEQ filter. This is what I ended up with from last night's work. Just took these right now.

PEQ bypass no bypass.jpg

Just a couple quick sweeps this morning with the mini in the mix. I have Audyssey turned off for both of these sweeps. One the PEQ is bypassed on the mini and one is not bypassed. No smoothing at all. That matches the predicted response,
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Oh. Turn off the monolith too. Then you won't get any output from the speakers. Subs only. Add the speakers to see XO interaction.
I'm not getting anything from my speakers. It's all subs. Here's with the mini and taking it out of the picture. Both sweeps are with Audyssey off.

DSP No DSP Overlay.jpg


Is that not a massive imrpovement?
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
So I s'pose next is run Audyssey and take another measurement? I feel like I'm in the home stretch now.
Yep. Curious to see what you get. I do agree with 1/24 or no smoothing to see all the "warts" of the response.
 
TheWarrior

TheWarrior

Audioholic Ninja
So I s'pose next is run Audyssey and take another measurement? I feel like I'm in the home stretch now.
So where are the subs in relation to the the +/- 25ft, 19ft, and 15ft walls?
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
So where are the subs in relation to the the +/- 25ft, 19ft, and 15ft walls?
Dunno. I'm gonna run Audyssey right now and then I'll do another sweep with rew to see if there's more of an improvement. I'll post an overlay when I'm done.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I'm not getting anything from my speakers. It's all subs. Here's with the mini and taking it out of the picture. Both sweeps are with Audyssey off.

View attachment 22021

Is that not a massive improvement?
Looks pretty sweet to me!
Hopefully it will work to your preferences to turn the sub up if you like more bass (kind of sounds like you may), but this way, your bass is more even across it's range. In this sense, your sub level is analgous to a bass control and the crossover point acts as the frequency at which the bass control becomes active.

The real question most of us want to see is what you get after Audyssey and how it compares to your Audyssey w/o MiniDSP graph!

As far as the home stretch, I think this all begs the question of where to cross your towers to the subs. You have towers with legitimate bass, so you can cross them anywhere from 40Hz on up.

Stick with the basic plan and see if the miniDSP "enabled" Audyssey to work better to see if you get further benefits similar to what ATLAudio got.
Also compare miniDSP + Audyssey vs miniDSP + pure direct to see what your ears think. Many people believe that the biggest benefit of Audyssey is all "about the bass" and would just as soon have no processing at highr frequencies (witness ADTG and L&R Bypass).

You might measure just the bass frequencies from towers - both with and without Audyssey to see how good the response is. Worst case, if the Audyssey result of the towers is wonky at lower frequencies, you may decide you would rather cross at 100Hz than let the towers compromise the output of the subs. OTOH, you are essentially running 4 subs across the front of your room so that should smooth out the response.

This can really get convoluted. If you had all 4 bass drivers in play, the corrections you applied to the 2 subs via miniDSP may not have all been needed. You could run the sweeps with all four then tweak the two subs via miniDSP to get the best 4 driver response curve.

For now, I would stick with what you have and see how well it measures. I think it will be very good!
However, you might keep a note pad stashed by your system and write down "future investigations for rainy days". You may or may not ever touch them, but it is nice to have the list there and consider if any of them look like "low hanging fruit" after you have fully acclimated to your refined tunings!
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Stick with the basic plan and see if the miniDSP "enabled" Audyssey to work better to see if you get further benefits similar to what ATLAudio got.
Also compare miniDSP + Audyssey vs miniDSP + pure direct to see what your ears think. Many people believe that the biggest benefit of Audyssey is all "about the bass" and would just as soon have no processing at highr frequencies (witness ADTG and L&R Bypass).
Omg Kurt, I'm just gonna keep it simple for now. However what you suggesting this paragraph, I have measurements of.

Audyssey On-Off Overlay.jpg

I labeled the lines. Audyssey definitely improved things! I can hear it too! This is starting to become fun now.
Audyssey On-Off and Baseline   Sweep.jpg

This an overly of 3 sweeps. Pure direct, no DSP, DSP with Audyssey off, and the best one is with enhanced Audyssey with the mini. Man, that's the best I've ever measured here. I'm listening right now and it sounds awesome.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I'm going to relax for a few days, enjoy the improvements I've managed so far, and read up before I try to tackle this again.
I remember reading this and thinking "Who are you kidding, we'll see how long this lasts!", LOL!
That was 7PM Thursday and Friday night you have results!:cool:

2:00 PM Saturday and you are essentially done with what was on the immediate agenda!

Those are impressive results! Congratulations!
And thanks for the real time demonstration of what gains can be had by tweaking and using less than $200 miniDSP and mic to refine.
 
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William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
I will suggest doing a house curve with the mini once you get a little more used to it. Although deq performs similarly. Until peng recently got me thinking about it, I used a house curve without deq and it worked well. Definitely as Kurt suggests, keep a log. Every time you change distance, phase, XO etc, it changes the response.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
This is what I'm going with for now. I'm gonna get stuff cleaned up and put away. I have company coming over later to watch the fight.

Audyssey-Mini Hybrid.jpg


I'm pretty damned happy with that. I can hear the difference too and loving it. 2 things Audyssey did that it's never done before. It made me turn the gains up on both subs (both are still under half way) and it set the distance for my subs at 17ft. It usually sets them at 13.9. that's not a complaint, I like the results. It's just way different.

*Edit: That's with no smoothing. I didn't even think to see what it would look like with a little smoothing.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I will suggest doing a house curve with the mini once you get a little more used to it. Although deq performs similarly. Until peng recently got me thinking about it, I used a house curve without deq and it worked well. Definitely as Kurt suggests, keep a log. Every time you change distance, phase, XO etc, it changes the response.
Wut? lol. House curve? Isn't that what I just did?
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Wut? lol. House curve? Isn't that what I just did?
Umm, kinda. A house curve will provide a rising response from about 200hz to say 20hz(or wherever you want it to roll off. Usually +5 to 10. Not a lot unlike what deq does. I prefer one standard vs a moving target so... I am gonna try the offsets though.
Try home theater shack or google, house curve help. Really good info.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
If you really want to assault your brain, read the BFD user guide at HTS. It doesn't talk much(if at all) about minidsp, but it does talk about EQing your system. I think you'll be well served by reading it.
 

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