Hi Jonathan,
Set up and went through the auto setup. Used three mike positions (two ends and center of love seat) to calibrate. This is the main piece of furniture that I use for watching TV and movies.
First impression is pretty good. Overall surround is better balanced but sound seems a bit on the thin side as compared to the previous receiver. Could be new unit breaking in, etc. For now, I'm going to leave and see what happens.
Hi Gordon, I’d recommend doing as many positions as the product supports, most can do six.
I’d recommend doing the last three measurements in a tight little cluster +/- 2ft from the prime position (#1) and varying the height of the mic by six inches or so.
This will allow the process to ‘see’ more of the room, and to better correct for the fact that ML’s are big line sources, as well as get more of the vertical modes of the room.
A few questions on the values displayed after calibration.
1) On the "level check" display, all speakers, except for SW are set at 2db to 2.5 db. Seems reasonable. However, SW set at -8.5 db. Any explanations for this volume SW setting? I did set the volume on the Polk sub to the "noon setting" before starting the auto calibration.
Anytime there is a >6db delta between sub and the rest of the speakers tells us the sub is either too hot or not turned up enough.
In your case, it seems to be about 9 to 10db too loud, so turn down the gain control on the polk sub.
To check, do a three position measurement, and then check the levels. If they are within 3db of each other, then you’re fine, redo a six position measurement (and follow advice above).
2) The display indicates that all speakers are set to the "small" value. The frequency x-over values for the front and surround speakers are 80HZ and 90HZ respectively. Again, seems reasonable. However, the center channel is set at 40HZ. I thought that if all speakers are set to small, all would be cut off at 80HZ. Again, any reason for this?
This is probably due to boundary gain in your center, it must be right up against the wall, right?
I’d still recommend adjusting the crossover for this speaker up to 80hz, as even though the acoustical output is there, we probably want the sub handling 40hz
Also, no x-over frequency value shown for the SW? How can I determine the setting?
The sub will be handling all info below 80hz for the L/C/R, all info below 90hz from the surrounds and all info up to 120Hz for the LFE channel (the LFE channel is specified as being 20 to 120hz).
So you determine by looking at the crossovers for the other speakers and knowing what the bandwidth of the LFE is.
If tonality doesn't warm up, is there a way to get into the settings for the fronts, center, and surrounds to sweeten up the sound without defeating the rest of the Audyssey calibration?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Gordon
Most people take a few days to get used to the much cleaner output from an Audyssey corrected system.
Mostly because the big +10 or even +20db room-induced bass peaks are now damped.
But a rerun of the metrics with six measurement points will also probably help a bit.
After that, the only way to affect the tonality of Audyssey, is to use Audyssey Pro and select (or build) a more bass-aggressive target curve.
Are you running Dynamic EQ on? Please turn that on, as it really improves the low-end balance at lower volumes.