Audyssey MultEQ XT Pro Sound Equalizer Review & Comments

Hi Neil,

I probably should have chosen my words a little better, as you say the tool seems to do an excellent job at forfilling the goal for which it was created.

Even before I posted I started to think about the various options on the receiver that would allow some tweaking. From what I understand of the product having these options within Audyssey itself would obviously be the best option rather than tweaking 2 or more devices to achive a prefered curve.

However it is encouraging to think that with a user pack there may be (in the future) the option to make such features available.

I will definately be considering a demo although probably not for a while now ;)

Adam
 
Phil,

Looks quite an incredible result!

I've got a Denon 4306 running Gallo reference AV speakers and a velodyne DD-15. That receiver has the 6 position Multi-EQ and I'm distinctly under-whelmed by the results and always run with it turned off (though will try again after some room sound treatment currently in progress).

Out of interest, have you tried a simple Multi-EQ amp for comparison? Do you happen to know if they can fit 'in-line' between the processor stage of the 4306 and the power amp direct inputs?

Colin

p.s.
I would have to agree on the pricing issue. $2500 equates to £1605 allowing for duty and VAT, so using the old 'pound = dollar' approach seems somewhat unreasonable (even Velodyne/Redline don't go that far). Priced at £1750, or £2000 with setup kit they'd fly out the door if they're as good as your graphs suggest (and still give the UK distributors an additional £170 on top of the normal dealer margin)!
 
each to their own i just feel it's too overpriced if it was 900 quid less io would be ready to buy one but not at the uk price it's far too much!So how many of you think it's worth it? in a few yrs it maybe standard on top range amps so i'll wait.can i buy it from usa and skip these greedy middle men out?
 
Phil

If poss maybe you could use your contacts and do a comparison of sorts between outboard and inboard Audyssey with one of the new denon or marantz amps in 'processor mode' connected to your power amps and post your thoughts? Just a suggestion as many enthusiasts may not be able to go the full hog for an outboard Audyssey processor.

On another note I think read somewhere that the unit can be set up for four separate rooms with eq in each.(Can this be done?)

On that note the retail price of 2k seems reasonable for people with more than one 5.1 set up, equating to approx 1000 pounds per room if you have 2 with a 5.1 system in each

When I first heard Audyssey I also fell in love with it, although at the time was considering if I should wait for more amps to have it built in and now I am glad I did.

Looking foward to having Audyssey in my room more than HD dvd or Blue Ray:devil: :eek:

Mahmood
 
The price is actually going to be quite a bit more than £2500 - don't forget you'll be needing another 6 (for 5.1) or 8 (for 7.1) interconnects - given that my current AV8->P7 interconnects are Chord Chameleon that'll take the price for me to add an Audyssey to nearer 3k!

And for that I could change the front Contour 1.3MkII speakers for something from the Confidence line which definitely puts the cost of the unit into perspective.

Then again, the other day I had some music up at reference level and figured out that currently the bass actually sounds best from the downstairs toilet (!!) so maybe the Audyssey would be the better option.

Not that I'm going to buy one as I have willpower of steel....
 
The price is actually going to be quite a bit more than £2500 - don't forget you'll be needing another 6 (for 5.1) or 8 (for 7.1) interconnects - given that my current AV8->P7 interconnects are Chord Chameleon that'll take the price for me to add an Audyssey to nearer 3k!

And for that I could change the front Contour 1.3MkII speakers for something from the Confidence line which definitely puts the cost of the unit into perspective.

Then again, the other day I had some music up at reference level and figured out that currently the bass actually sounds best from the downstairs toilet (!!) so maybe the Audyssey would be the better option.

Not that I'm going to buy one as I have willpower of steel....

You ordered one yet then Kryten? Not sure why people seem to think a pair of speakers are better value for money though, surely if 2.5K worth of Audyssey makes your current speakers sound as good as 10K speakers then it's the better for value option.

I've not heard the Audyssey yet, but I do think room treatments can make more of a difference than equipment (hence I have some bass traps etc.), All I need to decide is if I should do more room treatments or sell my sole to the devil.

Slingshot
 
Phil - Fantastic write up. Will look to get one in the next few weeks. Hopefully the sound quality i used to enjoy with my setup will soon return. Bass and midband went awol when i moved my setup into our new extension :(
 
You don't need a big room to consider using EQ, my room is 14x 15ft, not very large, but the difference was astounding.

I know it would help a lot in my front room. It's just that because of kids always being around, and living in a terrace house, I just don't think I would really be able to use, and enjoy it enough, to feel I was getting my monies worth.
 
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.

I think this is an excellent point John.

If it were an analogue device, then things would be different.

The trouble is, is that if you have the peak listening level so that you are not clipping, but peaking at just under 0dB digital level, that is great. But if you then turn your volume down you will be getting a greatly reduced bit conversion.

If you listen to a fade of a song on a CD, as the song is fading, the bit resolution is continuously decreasing, until at the very bottom you get quantization noise, where it runs out of resolution, and is unable to distinguish between very low levels, and silence.

Doing this process post volume just means that if you listen at a much lower volume than when it was installed, then you are likely to be listening to a greatly diminished dynamic range. You might say the benefits outweigh any possible negatives, but it's something which should have further testing if a prospective user intends to listen at considerably varying levels.

T.
 
I've not heard the Audyssey yet, but I do think room treatments can make more of a difference than equipment (hence I have some bass traps etc.), All I need to decide is if I should do more room treatments or sell my sole to the devil.

Slingshot

Mornin'

I thought the seame way about room treatment until I heard this system a couple of months ago, and it is night and day. It makes more of a difference than treatment and costs less in most instances when you consider the labour involved in treating rooms. Its also an instant result for the customer as you turn the unit off and on, where as the customer wouldn't have known how their home cinema setup would have sounded before the treatment unless of course you are treating an existing HC room.

It's just less work convicing the client, it has an instant result/reaction and the client ends up spending less. You should give it a try and see what you think.

It is abit like, Oh my God, I've been slaving away in the searing heat in loft spaces, getting fibreglass and rockwool rash all over my body with a mask strapped to my face all day while some git in a suit is down stairs in the air conditioned HC room shmoosing with the client and a cup of tea doing the the same thing with a nice silver box, to add to their toy rack, anda laptop!!! That's what I thought anyway!!! :suicide:

A great A/B comparison for the system is the storm scene with torrential rain coming down in Open Range, you suddenly have 360 degrees of surround sound rather than a 2 dimensional sound coming from the front, that's what it feels like after hearing the EQ on and then going to off.
 
On another note I think read somewhere that the unit can be set up for four separate rooms with eq in each.(Can this be done?)

On that note the retail price of 2k seems reasonable for people with more than one 5.1 set up, equating to approx 1000 pounds per room if you have 2 with a 5.1 system in each
From the origional review:
Moving to the rear panel......
......Here you will find 8 analogue audio inputs and 8 analogue audio outputs
and
The Audyssey also allows you to use two zones separately so you can have a 5.1 system in one room and a 2.0 system in another.
So with only 8 inputs it looks like you can only have the following setups:
7.1 single room or
5.1 & 2.0 in 2 rooms
Although not mentioned I should think you could have 4 rooms with a 2.0 setup in each, but not 5.1 setups.

Mark.
 
The inputs can be individually assigned meaning up to 4 stereo zones are possible.

HTH

Neil
 
I have 1 question if anyone knows.

I use a sub for movies however I use the full range main speakers for music will it cope, or will it somehow assume that the sub is still present, and chop the bottom end of the mains?

Cheers

Slingshot
 
I have 1 question if anyone knows.

I use a sub for movies however I use the full range main speakers for music will it cope, or will it somehow assume that the sub is still present, and chop the bottom end of the mains?

Cheers

Slingshot

Just tried this and yes that's exactly what happens when i switch to 2 channel and no sub signal. However what you have to remember is that you calibrate the system to fully interact with the room and the Audyssey sets these parameters. That means that when playing any material through your system the sound is just right for your room, even with the sub. You can manually adjust any channel through the processor, i.e adjust the bass volume but your fronts will be crossed over at the proper frequency to work with the room and with yoru sub. You have to remember that the crossovers are set for that very reason, each speaker will interact with the room differently and what the Audyssey is doing is making sure that across the whole system the sound and crossovers are just right and interacting with the room correctly. The end result is very good indeed and you are getting the best from your speakers even if they are not taking a full range signal, they are working at their optimum for your room. Hope that makes sense.
 
Just tried this and yes that's exactly what happens when i switch to 2 channel and no sub signal. However what you have to remember is that you calibrate the system to fully interact with the room and the Audyssey sets these parameters. That means that when playing any material through your system the sound is just right for your room, even with the sub. You can manually adjust any channel through the processor, i.e adjust the bass volume but your fronts will be crossed over at the proper frequency to work with the room and with yoru sub. You have to remember that the crossovers are set for that very reason, each speaker will interact with the room differently and what the Audyssey is doing is making sure that across the whole system the sound and crossovers are just right and interacting with the room correctly. The end result is very good indeed and you are getting the best from your speakers even if they are not taking a full range signal, they are working at their optimum for your room. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the in-depth reply Phil, yep that makes sense.

However it also causes me a problem in that my music sources (from Vinyl and CD) remains analog throughout, which means there is no sub signal generated.

I could switch to digital and process the signal, however this then means rather than use my expensive main speakers with bass response and timing that I love, I use £200 worth of home built sub that has only been built to provide big bangs and fairly high SPL's.

Cheers

Slingshot
 
Great review, I've read it with interest, especially with how disappointed people seem to be with the Denon implementation of this.
Really suprised to see the review come out as well as it did, I did for a split second contemplate getting one, seperate receiver and amp is the main stumbling block for me. I love my A1 and dont plan to replace it anytime soon.

Shame that, now time for an upgrade to the A1's software so it doesn't kill all the bass!!
 
Thanks for the in-depth reply Phil, yep that makes sense.

However it also causes me a problem in that my music sources (from Vinyl and CD) remains analog throughout, which means there is no sub signal generated.

I could switch to digital and process the signal, however this then means rather than use my expensive main speakers with bass response and timing that I love, I use £200 worth of home built sub that has only been built to provide big bangs and fairly high SPL's.


Cheers

Slingshot

I believe that this unit changes the rulebook and perception of traditional settings with regard to speaker settings.
The DVD front speaker setting can now be set to large, select CD direct on the processor and this will allow the Audyssey to process the analogue signal including the bass to the front speakers. This EQ correction replaces the conventional method of moving the front speakers front/back/toe-in/out to smooth the bass/improve focus etc.
When watching movies the processor settings can be used to set speaker sizes as normal (all small plus sub). BUT the fronts can and probably should be set to full range (large) and the bass is then distributed to them as well as the sub. This unit will ensure the bass is tight and corrected to the room.
 
I believe that this unit changes the rulebook and perception of traditional settings with regard to speaker settings.
The DVD front speaker setting can now be set to large, select CD direct on the processor and this will allow the Audyssey to process the analogue signal including the bass to the front speakers. This EQ correction replaces the conventional method of moving the front speakers front/back/toe-in/out to smooth the bass/improve focus etc.
When watching movies the processor settings can be used to set speaker sizes as normal (all small plus sub). BUT the fronts can and probably should be set to full range (large) and the bass is then distributed to them as well as the sub. This unit will ensure the bass is tight and corrected to the room.

I'm still not sure how you tell the Audyssey that your front speakers are large and don't need crossing over, from the sound of the reviews I've read it will automatically X-over all speakers regardless of processor settings. My front's have always been large, however this normally means that it doesn't redirect any of it's bass to the sub.

Not sure about the "EQ removes conventional positioning" since surely the less EQ has to do the better, surely it can't create a decent sound stage if the Left and Right speaker were next to each other.

Regards

Slingshot
 
The Audyssey does not have any form of cross over control built in. All channels are equalized as "full range."

When you are setting up the device you defeat all bass management on the processor before taking any measurements. The device then analyses the full range performance of all speakers including subs, basically identifies the natural roll offs from each.

Once the measurements have been made, the software analysis identifies the optimum cross over settings for each speaker - a different crossover can easliy be suggested for each speaker depending on room. Only at this point do you go back to the processor to apply the suggested bass management settings as accurately as possible. Depending on the processor you may be limited in the crossover that you can apply (for example single frequency used by all speakers). In this case you go back to the setup software and adjust the listed crossover for each speaker. You now click next and the system creates the optimal filters for the configuration.

HTH

Neil
 
The Audyssey does not have any form of cross over control built in. All channels are equalized as "full range."

When you are setting up the device you defeat all bass management on the processor before taking any measurements. The device then analyses the full range performance of all speakers including subs, basically identifies the natural roll offs from each.

Once the measurements have been made, the software analysis identifies the optimum cross over settings for each speaker - a different crossover can easliy be suggested for each speaker depending on room. Only at this point do you go back to the processor to apply the suggested bass management settings as accurately as possible. Depending on the processor you may be limited in the crossover that you can apply (for example single frequency used by all speakers). In this case you go back to the setup software and adjust the listed crossover for each speaker. You now click next and the system creates the optimal filters for the configuration.

HTH

Neil

Thanks Neil, looks like it will do what I need then, basically I just tell the software my mains have a 0Hz X-Over point and that's it. I mis-read the reviews it implied you set a X-Over actually on the Audyssey.
 
Thanks Neil, looks like it will do what I need then, basically I just tell the software my mains have a 0Hz X-Over point and that's it. I mis-read the reviews it implied you set a X-Over actually on the Audyssey.

Correct - you just tell the software what crossover point you have been able to set on the processor and it calculates the filters correctly.

You will find that speakers that can really handle full range will show "Large" in the software drop down menu.

I would encourage you to do some comparisons with bass management in place and full range with stereo material before deciding. The Audyssey does a great job of tightening up the bass and so you may find you become happy using the sub in all situations.

Neil
 
Phil, great review. I think I need to start saving now. I think I read that this unit works well with my Nad Master Series set up. Could someone please confirm this.
 
I'm still not sure how you tell the Audyssey that your front speakers are large and don't need crossing over, from the sound of the reviews I've read it will automatically X-over all speakers regardless of processor settings. My front's have always been large, however this normally means that it doesn't redirect any of it's bass to the sub.

Not sure about the "EQ removes conventional positioning" since surely the less EQ has to do the better, surely it can't create a decent sound stage if the Left and Right speaker were next to each other.

Regards

Slingshot

The Audyssey tells you to set the individual speakers to large if it feels that this is the best setting based on it's own measurements.
The FMJ 139 allows bass to be sent to speakers and sub. The room is EQ'ed to optimize each speaker and sub.
EQ removes conventional positioning with regard to location within the room within reason - obviously you have to get them somewhere in the zone so I'll rephrase that
This EQ unit reduces the critical positioning issues although it is helpful if they are close to an ideal position.
 

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