Onkyo 805 Setup Help Please

[esqueejy]

I ran the Audessey MultEQ last night to set up and it keeps setting the fronts and surrounds at 20Hz too high according to the speaker manufacturer's pamphlets (fronts are supposed to be 80Hz, surrounds at 100HZ, but it's going with 100Hz and 120Hz for some reason). It's measurements for distance seem to be spot on and I can only assume the speaker level settings it produces are reasonable as they do not show a lot of variation and sort of make sense given the speaker distances.

The question is, should I just do it all manually, entering the appropriate ferquency crossover for the speakers but keeping all the other Audessey results the same? Or is there something I'm losing by not going with the Audessey function?

 

[Nomo]

I'm not sure what speakers your are using, but speaker manufacturers are a bit generous in their frequency ratings. the 100/120hz setting may not be terribly inaccurate, especially if they are bookshelf speakers.

Try manually setting all speakers to small and rerunning the auto set-up without distance and polarity check. Very few speakers are capable of producing full range sound. regardless of what Audissey sets them at, always manually set all your speakers to small and LFE to Sub only.

 

[sptrout]

Audyssey is setting the crossover frequencies based on the frequency response of each speaker in your room, which is always much different than what the speaker spec sheet will say. Therefore, the settings Audyssey set are very likely correct. For more reading (a lot more) on how to set up Audyssey go to: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=795421 Since this thread is very, very long, I recommend that you start on the last page and read backwards. You will see many replies from "audyssey" or Chris, who is the person who developed Audyssey.

In this thread you will also find an excellent guide on how to properly setup Audyssey: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14456895#post14456895

Another good place for information is: http://www.audyssey.com/index.html

 

[jostenmeat]

I ran the Audessey MultEQ last night..

Its Audyssey MultEQ XT. Be thankful.

to set up and it keeps setting the fronts and surrounds at 20Hz too high according to the speaker manufacturer's pamphlets (fronts are supposed to be 80Hz, surrounds at 100HZ, but it's going with 100Hz and 120Hz for some reason). It's measurements for distance seem to be spot on and I can only assume the speaker level settings it produces are reasonable as they do not show a lot of variation and sort of make sense given the speaker distances.

What Nomo said. Some people were surprised that their Bose-style cubes were being xover'd as high as 200hz+, IIRC. Well, it seems that knowledgable folks tend to recommend leaving it there.

If I understand how XT works (which is a stretch I admit), it will only apply correction down to the point of the xover that Audyssey chose. Therefore: if it chose full-range for any speaker, you can bump the xover up, while still having corrected audio so to speak. In the opposite scenario, where the xover is high and you want to lower it, your speakers will be playing frequencies that Audyssey never corrected for. Make sense? This is my understanding, anyways.

However, just do whatever sounds best to you.

The question is, should I just do it all manually, entering the appropriate ferquency crossover for the speakers but keeping all the other Audessey results the same? Or is there something I'm losing by not going with the Audessey function?

What Nomo said. You ought to list your speakers here.

 

[MatthewB.]

sptrout I have to disagree. I have the Denon 3808ci and the Onkyo 805 and they both use Audyssey and although they get the distance spot on, they both did a poo job on frequency response. It set my four AR Phantom 8.2 speakers at different frequency ranges in a perfectly square room with the mic in center of room and it gave different frequecies vastly different for each speaker. I tend to look at the manufactorer stats and to be on the safe side go up one notch from there. So say my speakers are rated down to 60Hz, I use 80hz. I have a pair of DT Mythos gems that DT claims is rated down to 70Hz (when pigs fly maybe) I had to set those at 120Hz because anything lower and I would get distortion (even at 100 Hz) better to be safe than sorry I say. I praise Audyssey on most everything it does to calibrate, but when it comes to setting the crossover frequencies, it does a pretty poor job and you should adjust accordingly. My rule of thumb is if the speaker has a mid range driver 5.25"-6.5 you can set at 60-80Hz, 4" driver at 100hz and anything smaller set at 120Hz or higher.

 

[sptrout]

MattewB.,

I am not an Audyssey expert by any means, but I have been reading the long thread at AVS that I referenced earlier for many months. Chris has had questions similar to your results and usually has good answers for why Audyssey does what it does. If you have never visited that thread I highly recommend it; very interesting and it covers about every possible piece of equipment and room situation.

 

[sptrout]

Note that Audyssey just reports the -3dB points of each speaker to the AVR. The AVR then decides if the speaker should be set as large or small. For example, Audyssey reports that the 3dB point is say 70Hz. Depending on the AVR manufacturer, the the AVR may set your speaker to large when it really should be setting them to small. I believe that Onyko for one will go with "large" if Audyssey reports any 3dB point that is lower than 80Hz.

As Chris explains many times in the AVS Audyssey thread, they have been beating-up on the manufacturers to get away from this "small or large" thing, which is causing all kinds of incorrect settings, and confusion.

 

[MatthewB.]

This is why I use Audyysey as a starting point, then I use the speaker speqs to adjust the proper crossovers and then use a soundmeter to get the proper levels after adjusting the crossover. So far it has worked beautifully and both my 7.1 HT systems sound awesome.

 

[sptrout]

This is why I use Audyysey as a starting point, then I use the speaker speqs to adjust the proper crossovers and then use a soundmeter to get the proper levels after adjusting the crossover. So far it has worked beautifully and both my 7.1 HT systems sound awesome.

Yea, I did more or less the same thing. My 805 set all speakers to "large" except for two small cheap ceiling speakers that I am using for channels 6 & 7. I then readjusted the crossover frequencies up to 60Hz (one octive above spec) for my main speakers. My subwoofer is nearfield, behind the seating area, so I want as much bass up front as possible.

I also used a SPL meter to trim levels, but at the same time wondering why I thought my cheap Radio Shack SPL Meter was more accurate than the auto setup system

 

[esqueejy]

Thanks guys. I'm using CSW's MC305 with the P205 subwoofer. The subwoofer has a x-over adjustment knob, so I suppose I could just turn that up and the sub would kick in at higher frequencies to cover the gap? It also has a "-3dB button" that sets the sub's floor at either 25Hz or 35Hz (the latter to help people like myself not bother the people who live in the apartment upstairs). Should I also maybe put that back at 25Hz and just turn the level down a bit?

I'm curious. The mannual for the 805 says that if I now go in and adjust anything, I'll have to run the auto-setup routine again. Does that mean it will reset everything or can I just go in and putz with the settings now to tweak them to where I think they should be and it will leave anything I don't touch where Audyssey set it?

As an aside...I'm also a Matthew B. hehe...small world

 

[sptrout]

Thanks guys. I'm using CSW's MC305 with the P205 subwoofer. The subwoofer has a x-over adjustment knob, so I suppose I could just turn that up and the sub would kick in at higher frequencies to cover the gap? It also has a "-3dB button" that sets the sub's floor at either 25Hz or 35Hz (the latter to help people like myself not bother the people who live in the apartment upstairs). Should I also maybe put that back at 25Hz and just turn the level down a bit?

I'm curious. The mannual for the 805 says that if I now go in and adjust anything, I'll have to run the auto-setup routine again. Does that mean it will reset everything or can I just go in and putz with the settings now to tweak them to where I think they should be and it will leave anything I don't touch where Audyssey set it?

As an aside...I'm also a Matthew B. hehe...small world

Yes, turn up the crossover knob; you want do not want your subwoofer getting in the way! I would also kill the -3dB switch.

You do not have to rerun the Audyssey setup any time you change anything. However, I recommend that you first read the setup guide that is in the link I provided earlier; it is an excellent step by step reference. It was scrubbed for several weeks by numerous audio experts and blessed my Mr. Audyssey (Chris). Note that the placement of the microphone is critical, and it is also very, very important that you run all 8 positions as described. If you feel that you have already done everything that is recommended fine. However, if you think you may have made any errors run Ausyssey again; it only takes about 20 minutes and it may make a big improvement!

 

[jostenmeat]

This is why I use Audyysey as a starting point, then I use the speaker speqs to adjust the proper crossovers and then use a soundmeter to get the proper levels after adjusting the crossover. So far it has worked beautifully and both my 7.1 HT systems sound awesome.

TWO 7.1 systems, noice. Um, what was I gonna say... oh yeah... I've found that greater variation with levels between L/R, or SL/SR, etc, has a lot to do with the exact measuring positions. (duh)

Thanks guys. I'm using CSW's MC305 with the P205 subwoofer. The subwoofer has a x-over adjustment knob, so I suppose I could just turn that up and the sub would kick in at higher frequencies to cover the gap? It also has a "-3dB button" that sets the sub's floor at either 25Hz or 35Hz (the latter to help people like myself not bother the people who live in the apartment upstairs). Should I also maybe put that back at 25Hz and just turn the level down a bit?

You will want to rerun calibration after defeating sub's xover. If you can't defeat, yes all the way up. I'd also forget the -3db, and only apply that if you desire post calibration. Just use your receiver's xover, because by also using sub's xover, you now have "cascading xovers".

I'm curious. The mannual for the 805 says that if I now go in and adjust anything, I'll have to run the auto-setup routine again. Does that mean it will reset everything or can I just go in and putz with the settings now to tweak them to where I think they should be and it will leave anything I don't touch where Audyssey set it?

I think it depends on what exactly. However, stuff like new LP or speaker positioning, or sub's xover, are major enough to warrant a rerun.

However, if you think you may have made any errors run Ausyssey again; it only takes about 20 minutes and it may make a big improvement!

I actually timed myself from the point of hitting go, with mic at first position. It took me 26 minutes with one beer chugged. My goal for the next calibration is to beat that with two beers chugged.

Go jostenmeat, you can do it!!

 

[Adam]

My goal for the next calibration is to beat that with two beers chugged.

But, but...my Mama says that calibration is the work of the devil.