What's the best mic/sofa positioning to EQ with?

S

Sendu

Audioholic Intern
I've got a pair of FLR speakers which I'm running full-range for 2ch music (and also for a surround setup with movies, but that's not so important).

I want to EQ them with Audyssey, and possible also with their built-in ARC calibration for the bass, and probably also with REW to generate filter impulse responses to use in Roon's DSP. Audyssey and ARC have their own mics, and I have a UMIK-1.

My seated listening position is on a reclining sofa, and my ears are virtually touching the headrest, just under the top of it.

My main question is how to position the mic and sofa when taking measurements?

Should I simulate the reality and have the mic right up against the headrest, and then EQ out whatever reflections and absorptions the mic mics up in that position?

Or should I fully recline the seat so that the headrest drops down more, leaving the mic in more free space while it is still at listening position height?

Or move the whole sofa well out of the way even?

I've done trial measurements and the results of the headrest being up or down make a big difference across the higher frequencies.

When confirming the results of Audyssey with my own measurements, and then going back in to the app to tweak the curve to fix things Audyssey didn't get right, should my confirmation result be an average of my own measurements taken at multiple positions around the MLP, similar to what I did during the Audyssey process? Or how else would you do this?

Any other tips?
 
Y

YoutubeUniversity

Enthusiast
I always leave the room exactly how it's going to be when I'm going to be listening. You can always move coffee tables around and stuff to see what changes they make for reference. I move the mic at ear level across the couch and do multiple measurements and then average them.

I like to look at the individual measurements just to see where the main differences in FR are between the seats. Not just the average. I'm more comfortable changing EQ for a frequency range that doesnt change much between seats vs a very variable range since it already sounds different depending on how you are leaning in the seat.
 
TheWarrior

TheWarrior

Audioholic Ninja
The mic should be as close to where your ears would be, and be pointed at the ceiling - which is a different calibration file for UMIK users....

If the head rest is in anyway blocking your ears, there is no calibration to overcome that! Although you're only listening in 2ch, the room helps convey the sound to your ears, and so you do lose some of that information having a head rest.
 
Y

YoutubeUniversity

Enthusiast
I’ve actually measured with the mic straight up as well as pointed forward. It never changed the measurement in any way. I use a Dayton mic
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
I always leave the room exactly how it's going to be when I'm going to be listening. You can always move coffee tables around and stuff to see what changes they make for reference. I move the mic at ear level across the couch and do multiple measurements and then average them.

I like to look at the individual measurements just to see where the main differences in FR are between the seats. Not just the average. I'm more comfortable changing EQ for a frequency range that doesnt change much between seats vs a very variable range since it already sounds different depending on how you are leaning in the seat.
I always do too. In fact, instead of a mic stand, I use a short stack of pillows to put my tripod on. The pillows(with gel inserts) simulate my body in the actual LP.
 
VoidX

VoidX

Audioholic Intern
From the official Dolby guide:

Take the following precautions when positioning the angle and elevation of your
microphones:
1. Position each microphone near the typical ear height of a seated person, but with
enough distance from the seat to prevent frequency response errors due to sound
reflections.
2. Place microphone capsules no closer than 6 inches (15.24 cm) from the top of a seat
and oriented straight up.

Screenshot_2021-12-25-16-57-31-737_com.google.android.apps.docs.jpg


Use the 90 deg calibration file for the UMIK, and don't use the Audyssey mic as it's uncalibrated thus its results are invalid.
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
I’ve actually measured with the mic straight up as well as pointed forward. It never changed the measurement in any way. I use a Dayton mic
It could affect setting the volume levels for each speaker so that it's not the same at main listening position, and similar for EQ applied at higher frequencies (depending on what the room EQ does).

For the lower frequencies it does not matter that much where you point the measurement microphone, and as you go higher up in frequency it does but might not be an issue after all. As an example, my Earthworks Audio M23R has an on-axis frequency response of 3Hz -23kHz ±0.5dB, and that is before any calibration is applied to it. Below is the 90 degrees calibration file for it, and you can see it turns down. This is a very good measurement mic and many cheaper ones will perform worse than this, especially if they are not individually calibrated.

Even without a 90 degree calibration file my M23R performs better than many others with one applied.


1640449082291.png
 

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