Good day Gene,
Big fan of your site and I appreciate the info that you and your team provide! I have two audio related questions that I would love for you to answer.
1. With regards to AV receivers and their calibration software, it seems like the advice most given by you is to simply use it for channel gain level setting and distance calculations, but beyond that, just turn off any of the additional EQ settings etc that the auto-calibration has done. In 2018, it seems like most AVR manufacturers continue to incorporate some version of an auto-calibration software, with claims to make adjustments that will provide optimal sound in one's particular room. In my own case, my Pioneer Elite SC-99 (the last AVR made by Pioneer before the merger with Onkyo) uses a version of MCACC PRO that was engineered/tweaked with the help of AIR Studios in London. It seems like the auto-calibration tech continues to evolve and hopefully improve, especially now that we have Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. So in 2018 do you still recommend just doing the basics of gain level and distance and discarding the rest?
2. With regards to Front Speakers (and all other non subwoofers) in a surround sound setup, I've wrestled with finding optimal speaker placement as it relates to distances from the walls and listening positions based the rules that are suggested. In my case, the room is not a perfect rectangle. It is a barn shaped room where the side walls are 18 ft long, the front and back walls are 13 ft wide and the ceiling is 7.3 ft in height (but only in the middle 3ft of the ceiling). To the left and right of the 3ft flat portion of the ceiling, the rest of the ceiling is pitched down at roughly 35 degrees and meets the side walls at around 4.5 ft. These measurements along with a 7.2.4 setup and two rows of seating, make it very difficult to adhere to the rules. I've lost myself in reading about the rule of 1/3, rule of 1/5 and standing waves and their frequencies based on room dimensions, all of which I think would certainly play a major role if all I had was a stereo L&R setup with no subwoofers. However, I am using two separate subs (a pair of SVS SB-12 NSD currently positioned midwall to the left and right of the seats) which are supposed to handle all of the frequencies below 80hz. So with the Subs handling those frequencies (which I believe represent the bulk of standing wave frequencies), how much does it matter how far or close to the wall my other speakers are if they will not be reproducing these lower bass frequencies?
Regards,
Wellz