audyssey multeq xt32 is Killing Me and my Sierra-2s! Turning it OFF!

I own Sierra 2 NrTs and Rythmik sub. Great equipment!

I am pretty frustrated unfortunately but Audyssey is just doing crazy things to my sound. Just look at the EQ photos below. When I compare audyssey vs audyssey OFF, for movies the difference is not so big. I hear more treble in voices with it being OFF and bass is somewhat similar ... that's mostly with TrueHD sound. Now, when I watch music clips or movie trailers, the difference is huge. Bass is so much more pronounced with EQ being OFF.

Why is audyssey making such drastic changes to the low frequencies? My home theater is decently treated. I have 6 panels and heavy curtains. I clap and don't get that ringing sound of echo. Should I just forget about audyssey multeq xt32?

Thank you

P.S. In a perfect scenario, I would keep the toned down dialog that I get with audyssey but the lack of bass is just bad. Only problem is that I don't know how that can be done.


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I'm not very familiar with XT32. And I live in a building with neighbors, so I don't have much experience with subwoofers either.

But at first glance it appears the majority of the (over)correction is right around the typical crossover region (80Hz).

Do you in fact have the crossover set to 80Hz?

Does your sub have a switch for flipping the phase?

Also, where in the room is the sub located? In a corner?

What about speaker locations?

Can you post a pic of the speakers and sub location in the room?

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Originally Posted by Beave

I'm not very familiar with XT32. And I live in a building with neighbors, so I don't have much experience with subwoofers either.

But at first glance it appears the majority of the (over)correction is right around the typical crossover region (80Hz).

Do you in fact have the crossover set to 80Hz?

Does your sub have a switch for flipping the phase?

Also, where in the room is the sub located? In a corner?

What about speaker locations?

Can you post a pic of the speakers and sub location in the room?

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Sure ...

By the way, not sure how to increase the bass other than boosting it in Channel volume but that would only boost the sub ... what about boosting frequencies above 60hz as the chart shows that it lowered everything below 120hz.

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Those graphs you are showing are the main reason I ditched Audyssey and went with Dirac Live. Before purchased the XMC-1 I had 4 x Audyssey receivers (Onkyo TX-SR7005, Onkyo TX-SR876, Onkyo TX-NR809 and Marantz SR7008). All of them killed the response in my speakers at the point that listening to music was a challenge. To resolve that I got a Parasound Halo P5 for music listening only. Back in January I started researching for receiver or pre pros good enough for music and HT so I listening to the AVM60 and liked it better than Marantz but not enough to make the switch. Then I decided to try the XMC-1 and voila, after a couple of hours listening to music I decided to keep it and packet the P5 for sale, same for the Marantz SR7008. Both units were sold in less than 24 Hours.

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

I own Sierra 2 NrTs and Rythmik sub. Great equipment!

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I am using Sierra 2s RCL, Sierra 1s surround, and a pair of Rythmik LVX12 subs. And you're right, excellent equipment.

I'm feeding my system from an old Denon AVR x-4000, which comes with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 and SubEQ HT which I find to be excellent. But Audyssey can be picky to setup correctly, no question. The Audyssey forums are full of discussions about it.

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

I am pretty frustrated unfortunately but Audyssey is just doing crazy things to my sound.

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Audyssey, including X32, is fairly well known for setting up a nice flat frequency response. If you're listening at reference volumes. Which hardly anyone does (I usually max out at -10 if wife is out of the house, and -20 if she's watching with me). If you're listening at less than reference, the Robinson-Dadson curves show you what's happening to your highs and lows -- that is, how your ears deal with the highs and lows as they get softer. This is probably why you're hearing your sound as deficient at high and low ends. Turn it up, this problem goes away.

This is perhaps why so many people running Audyssey with sub(s) tend to run Audyssey, then tweak the settings (making all the speakers xover at 80 Hz for example, and turning up the sub levels in the +3 dB to +6 dB range. This is "running the subs hot" as it's called.

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

Why is audyssey making such drastic changes to the low frequencies? My home theater is decently treated. I have 6 panels and heavy curtains. I clap and don't get that ringing sound of echo. Should I just forget about audyssey multeq xt32?

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Your room has some treatments, but I'm not seeing any bass traps in your pictures. Bass traps are used to help tame room modes in small rooms. By small I mean rooms having at least one dimension less than about 18m (call it 60 feet). Why so big? Because a 20Hz tone has a wave length of just over 17m (56 feet).

Another way to help deal with room modes is to use dual subs. One sub fills the room with peaks and nulls. The second sub (if properly placed) can help even things out by filling in the nulls and lowering the peaks to a surprisingly large extent. This can effectively enlarge the "sweet spot" where you're sitting to listen so that everyone is presented with a more or less flat frequency response.

Ideally of course you do both bass traps and dual subs.

Audyssey will try to deal with your room modes as best it can, but if it raises the level of a particular frequency to compensate for a null, a couple of feet away it's adding to an existing peak at that frequency. It can get ugly quickly, and there's only so much that Audyssey can do since it can't bend the laws of physics.

There are huge long discussions on the Rythmik forums (the AVS Rythmik forum in particular) about how to find and fix peaks and nulls, and how to deal with Audyssey and subs.

More information, and a tool to help you visualize what's happening acoustically inside your room can be found with products like REW (room EQ wizard).

The bottom line is that it's not as easy as setting up your speakers where it's convenient, running Audyssey once, and you're done. It always seems to take more tweaking than we'd like.

What is your crossover frequency set to?

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Originally Posted by Beave

What is your crossover frequency set to?

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I switch between 60hz and 80hz but most of the time 60hz sounds better (lower frequencies)

I'm using 'Bypass L/R' so that Audyssey doesn't mess up my Sierra-2s but I still get the equalization on my surrounds and dual subs.

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Originally Posted by natetg57

I'm using 'Bypass L/R' so that Audyssey doesn't mess up my Sierra-2s but I still get the equalization on my surrounds and dual subs.

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What about your center channel?

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

What about your center channel?

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It's supposed to equalize it to the L/R channels. It seems fine to me.

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Originally Posted by Bruce Watson

Audyssey, including X32, is fairly well known for setting up a nice flat frequency response. If you're listening at reference volumes. Which hardly anyone does (I usually max out at -10 if wife is out of the house, and -20 if she's watching with me). If you're listening at less than reference, the Robinson-Dadson curves show you what's happening to your highs and lows -- that is, how your ears deal with the highs and lows as they get softer. This is probably why you're hearing your sound as deficient at high and low ends. Turn it up, this problem goes away.

This is perhaps why so many people running Audyssey with sub(s) tend to run Audyssey, then tweak the settings (making all the speakers xover at 80 Hz for example, and turning up the sub levels in the +3 dB to +6 dB range. This is "running the subs hot" as it's called.

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Can't you turn on Dynamic EQ to help with this issue, so that you don't have to turn up the LFE channel?

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Originally Posted by N Boros

Can't you turn on Dynamic EQ to help with this issue, so that you don't have to turn up the LFE channel?

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I use Dynamic EQ and generally like what it does. I have it set at -10 offset

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Originally Posted by natetg57

I use Dynamic EQ and generally like what it does. I have it set at -10 offset

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Okay great. I have an older receiver with only MultiEQ XT, so it doesn't have Dynamic EQ. While I did boost the LFE channel 2 or 3 dB, I could see myself not doing it if I had Dynamic EQ.

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Originally Posted by N Boros

Can't you turn on Dynamic EQ to help with this issue, so that you don't have to turn up the LFE channel?

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I like what Dynamic EQ does, so I use it. A fair number of people don't like it, especially with music.

What I'm reading is that a significant number of people do both (I'm one of those). That is, use Dynamic EQ and run subs hot a few dB. Because I don't really want a flat bottom end, I want it exaggerated a bit for movies to give the LFE some "heft" and let you feel it as much as hear it. For example, when a car door slams, or a book drops onto the floor, and of course the ever popular explosions. :eek:

I'm just sayin' that there's more to getting what you want from an audio system than just running Audyssey once and excepting what it does without question.

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

I own Sierra 2 NrTs and Rythmik sub. Great equipment!

I am pretty frustrated unfortunately but Audyssey is just doing crazy things to my sound. Just look at the EQ photos below. When I compare audyssey vs audyssey OFF, for movies the difference is not so big. I hear more treble in voices with it being OFF and bass is somewhat similar ... that's mostly with TrueHD sound. Now, when I watch music clips or movie trailers, the difference is huge. Bass is so much more pronounced with EQ being OFF.

Why is audyssey making such drastic changes to the low frequencies? My home theater is decently treated. I have 6 panels and heavy curtains. I clap and don't get that ringing sound of echo. Should I just forget about audyssey multeq xt32?

Thank you

P.S. In a perfect scenario, I would keep the toned down dialog that I get with audyssey but the lack of bass is just bad. Only problem is that I don't know how that can be done.


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You have the SEAS woofer and the NrT tweeter?