Audyssey MultEQ XT Pro Sound Equalizer review

[Phil Hinton]

Reviewed by Phil Hinton
Don't even consider buying another piece of equipment until you hear this unit, this will be the biggest and most cost effective upgrade you will ever make to your system……period.

More...

 

[Stuart Wright]

I have asked the UK distributors of the Audyssey if they would do a special offer for forum members and they have come up trumps.
£400 discount on the unit and the setup kit in the Power Buy here.

 

[AngelEyes]

Great review Phil, I have been looking forward to reading this one

Looks like my projector will be put off yet again

Out of interest, were you using any EQ for the sub prior to the Audyssey, and if so how did the bass compare?

Adam

 

[stevos]

Interesting review and something i would be very tempted with. However its just too expensive to justify at the moment. Let hope a cheaper, masses friendly, version is released sometime soon.

 

[Neil Davidson]

Great review Phil!

Note that the new version of the software allows your installer to supply you with a PDF version of the results without waiting for the glossy Audyssey supplied version.

Cheers,

Neil

 

[cuscus]

God i sometimes hate new products, just soooooo tempting.

Just wondering though if this would offer much / any improvement over a Tag AV32R DP unit, interesting shoot out if anyone could do a head to head test?

 

[Timbo21]

Lovely bit of kit, and if I had a large dedicated cinema room I would definitely consider it.

 

[Phil Hinton]

Lovely bit of kit, and if I had a large dedicated cinema room I would definitely consider it.

You don't need a big room to consider using EQ, my room is 14x 15ft, not very large, but the difference was astounding.

 

[DustySox]

I would sure love to "borrow" one of these babies and compare it to my MC12 with room eq.

Great review. I want I want...!

Go on Recruit you know you wanna

Darren

 

[Phil Hinton]

I would sure love to "borrow" one of these babies and compare it to my MC12 with room eq.

Great review. I want I want...!

Go on Recruit you know you wanna

Darren

Do not "borrow" one unless you are willing to pay for it, you will not want to give it back!!! Seriously I just cannot accept ever using my system again without one of these.

 

[acave]

I would sure love to "borrow" one of these babies and compare it to my MC12 with room eq.

Great review. I want I want...!

Go on Recruit you know you wanna

Darren

If he don't, I do

 

[recruit]

Great review Phil looks like it is a cracking peice of kit !!

 

[recruit]

If he don't, I do

I am sure i will get round to trying one of these out, probably going to change amp though 1st

 

[kryten]

<sticks fingers in ears>
La-la-la-la-la

Must resist....

Those response curves are pretty amazing!

 

[acave]

I really want one of these units but after seeing the USA retail price ($2500) I feel the unit it way overpriced. I thought the dollar was good value these days?

 

[JohnWH]

Hi Phil,

any comments on the impact of the unit when listening at levels above or below the reference level the unit was setup for? My main concern here is that as the unit is post volume control it will introduce distortion/noise when when the volume level is lowered as you ware no longer achieving full range into the ADC's.

Thanks,
John.

 

[mcmad]

was all ready to buy this until I saw the US MSRP..

Guess I'll be looking for a way to import it, looks a cracking bit of kit but whats with doubling the price for the UK ????

 

[Phil Hinton]

Hi Phil,

any comments on the impact of the unit when listening at levels above or below the reference level the unit was setup for? My main concern here is that as the unit is post volume control it will introduce distortion/noise when when the volume level is lowered as you ware no longer achieving full range into the ADC's.

Thanks,
John.

There is no difference in performance at differing volume levels, the unit certainly does not add distortion or compression. I have used it extensively over the last few weeks and I am still amazed at it's performance.

 

[Phil Hinton]

I really want one of these units but after seeing the USA retail price ($2500) I feel the unit it way overpriced. I thought the dollar was good value these days?

It's the old arguement and many people forget that pricing in the UK is in level with other economic factors. Pricing in the US is in line with their income and the value of their currency, the same goes for the UK. Taxes are always missed from US prices - varies from state to state and you have to factor in vat and import duties as well - as does any company selling US product. We would all like to see cheaper prices, it's human nature, but I happen to think that this unit is worth the outlay, especially when you consider The performance on offer. You also have to factor in things like Tag, Meridian and Lexicon's versions of room correction and the price of those add ons. They only use up to a maximum of 7 bands of EQ per channel, where as the Audyssey uses 1000+ and also corrects the most important issues such as phase and time correction. Plus the Audyssey is software based with a powerful calculation system that not only corrects the problems but does it in a way that adds no further distortion or compression to the sound. So pound for pound against what the competition offer, the audyssey is streets ahead and as far as I can tell delivers exactly what it promises and that is a full system, full range calibration, unlike the others on the market that concentrate more on the lower octaves.

Yes, it may appear expensive, but how much would it be to add in other items to your room to get the same results? To me, before people go out and buy expensive components like amps and speakers, they really should think about the room and how to get the best out of what they have, this is the solution in my eyes, I really wish I could show everyone in person what the end results are like! I don't normally rave about much these days, but the unit is just so good and actually delivers on the promise of perfect room response.

 

[andymsa]

Hi all,

I recently was very lucky to have a demo with the importers of the Audyssey and all I can say is WOW. The biggest impact for me was how much difference to the sub it made no more booming, even the wife was impressed with it and thats saying something.

If your serious about home cinema no system should be without one yes its fairly expensive but if your outlay is around £20k to 50k for a system then percentage wise its not that big an outlay to make. Yes its cheaper from the states but you have the hassel of getting it here then all the taxes to pay and most importent no installer backup, and if it goes wrong would you expect some one from the Uk to support you.

Regards

 

[JohnWH]

There is no difference in performance at differing volume levels, the unit certainly does not add distortion or compression. I have used it extensively over the last few weeks and I am still amazed at it's performance.

Thanks Phil. Sometimes I think its easy get wrapped up in the pure signal path arguement (mess with siginal in digital domain, convert to analogue and then stay analogue) and loose sight of the the fact that the benifits of a unit like this massively outway any detrimental effects it may have...

Hmm, so here I was thinking that the only hardware outlay for the HC this year would be an HD1 to replace the ruby...

John.

 

[olliemac166]

If it was around £1600 i would have one today but at £2500 no way far too much no matter how good they say it is















on price why do the yanks always get a better deal than us

 

[recruit]

If it was around £1600 i would have one today but at £2500 no way far too much no matter how good they say it is

on price why do the yanks always get a better deal than us

This is a great peice of kit and i wish people did not keep on about ref to price comparisons to the US we all know the reasons and Phil has already gone into that with quote -

It's the old arguement and many people forget that pricing in the UK is in level with other economic factors. Pricing in the US is in line with their income and the value of their currency, the same goes for the UK. Taxes are always missed from US prices - varies from state to state and you have to factor in vat and import duties as well - as does any company selling US product. We would all like to see cheaper prices, it's human nature, but I happen to think that this unit is worth the outlay, especially when you consider The performance on offer.

which to me explains everything quite clearly and tbh £2500 is not bad considering what it can potentially do for you're system !!

This is a review not an argument thread pls keep it from digressing into one

 

[AngelEyes]

Does the Audyssey allow for custom presets? I get the impression it does not from the lack of controls.

If this is the case it seems rather arrogant for Audyssey to assune that 'they know best'. I am thinking of my own personal taste of having a flatter response for music listening and a a house curve for HC.

Maybe I missed something here but it seems a major flaw to me.

Don't get me wrong I woulkd still love one as I am sure it would improve both Music and films in my far from idilic (?) room, it just seems like a rather glaring omission.

Thanks.

Adam

 

[Neil Davidson]

At the moment the device does not allow for preset or custom curves outwith the predefined curves. This is something that could be added in the future though such is the power of the DSPs. Each new software release (PC rather embedded) brings one or two extra features.

I do not agree that it is arrogant of Audyssey to take the approach they have taken. The device is intended to remove room induced artefacts in the audio presentation with the goal of presenting the source material as faithfully as possible. In some ways this could be seen as the EQ equivalent of using the direct on the transport in order to make the delivery as faithful to the original as possible.

One thing to note is that because the device goes between the processor and power amp you are still free to use all of the controls on the processor to tweak the sound. I did a demo last week using an Arcam AV9 and similar to you (Adam) the owner of the system preferred a little more bass presence in movies. On the AV9 we could click the bass up by 0.5db and save this to one of the four profiles on the device. Similar things can be done with most processors.

HTH

Neil