Pioneer's MCACC

[thegreenmenace]

Ok right off the bat, my question does not have to do with some high end reciever, or any advanced technical question, in fact its not even about getting an answer, though that would be great, its more a rant. The issue pertains to a lowly pioneer vsx-815k. But come on, its for my mom's home theater system. I just got her a 42" Grand Wega (42we655), the Klipsch Quintet II with a 10" sub, and the upconversion dvd how many of your mom's can compete with that?
Anyhow, the problem I am having is with the Multichannel Acoustic Calibration System (Auto MCACC), first, I don't even know if its a good idea even having a mic calibrate the system rather than a human ear, after all its a human ear that will hear it but either way the auto MCACC won't work. It keeps giving me an error after it calibrates the front speakers, the manual explains that "something" with the wiring is wrong, please don't tell me to check that the (-) and (+) ends are hooked in right like pioneer did, I checked that, and the wiring, I am using midgrade wiring, Monster XP (sorry if I sound pissed off, but I'm sure you've all been there, I mean this auto callibration is supposed to make things easier).
Any suggestions? I feel like taking the reciever out to an empty field and going Office Space on it.

 

[Josuah]

What's the error message? Odds are, it is correct in telling you that your speakers are not wired up correctly. Either at the receiver end, or the speaker end, or somewhere in-between.

 

[Thunder18]

Is there a possibility that there is a short...either a wire that is broken somewhere in the middle...or a stray wire is touching the back of the receiver shorting it out.

Here's the easiest way to troubleshoot it...run the MCACC, but disconnect a different speaker each time you run it. When it runs successfully, you will have narrowed down your problem. Maybe even start out with just the 2 front left and right speakers, then add another speaker each time you run the MCACC. You'll find the problem...might even be a short in one of the speakers. If you have a multimeter you could check the resistance across each positive and negative speaker cable. If you get an off the chart high reading, then you know you have an internally broken wire.

 

[Takeereasy]

There is also the possibility that the speakers are wired out of phase internally as a part of the design process. Some speakers are built that way. I don't know why that is but this topic has been brought up before regarding Yamaha's YPAO. I guess that speakers wired out of phase make the receiver incorrectly believe that you confused the negative and positive connections from your receiver to the speaker. In the case of the 815 I'd let your ears do the tweaking. The review on this site of the 815 was pretty glowing but one of the main issues was with the caliber of the MCACC setup.

 

[brian32672]

I feel like taking the reciever out to an empty field and going Office Space on it.

This is not the answer, The MCacc and YPAO actually work quite well and are pretty accurate. Great accuracies with speaker level, distance, eq settings, size, etc...

 

[thegreenmenace]

Crisis Averted

Thank you all for your suggestions, it seems the problem was indeed a speaker wire. It must have broken while I was feeding it under the carpet. But to be honest, I kind of liked the manual callibration sound better overall, I'm not sure yet though, have to watch something to find out. Which leads me to my next question, any suggestions? I mean I have been using the Lord of teh Rings set to test the sound, is there a movie that would work better?
PS Thanks again!

 

[brian32672]

Thank you all for your suggestions, it seems the problem was indeed a speaker wire. It must have broken while I was feeding it under the carpet. But to be honest, I kind of liked the manual callibration sound better overall,

Most will agree with this. I use the auto calibration. Because its pretty accurate for distance and eq. But then I go in and tweak slightly

 

[Xsound]

I use the MCACC on my Elite VSX-54 tx. Being the curiously stupid kind'a guy that I am, I have even tried changing the positions of the mic and/or speakers slightly just to see if these things are noticed. The MCACC always seems to be consistent on distances, etc. I am not skilled enough with an SPL meter to really set it completely manually, though that is one of the next things I want to fool around with.

 

[Snap]

Use the MACC for your start up settings. Then get you a $35 Radio Shack SPL meter. Then you can use your ear, and the SPL to really dial it in! Having that radio Shack SPL meter is a GREAT investment, you will NOT be upset about getting it.

Movies.....I am a big fan of Gladiator! It is recorded in THX 6.1 surround. It has some awesome Fights in the very begining that has lot of good effects. Explosions durring the first big fight sceen will give your sub a decent work out. And it has some good music as well. It will also give your display a good work out as well. I mainly look at sceen 2 "Hell Unleashed"

 

[SweetVW]

JUST REALIZED this banter between you three was in 2005... Ah well... Thank you anyway. It made me truly laugh out loud. I will look more closely at my speaker wire, as I am frustrated with my MCACC erroring since installing a Klipsh 10" sub. Haven't had any issues til now. Thanks again -- It was a pleasure to read this thread, and I will be buying Gladiator to check my system.