Audssey and sub adjustment

snake1

How will the Audssey on my Onkyo handle adjustments for subwoofer placement? Will I be able to put it almost anywhere and it'll compensate and adjust as needed or am I going to have to experiment with placement more than I think?

Phasewolf

It should handle where ever you place it however there are still places in the room where it will sound better then others.

tonyb

snake1 wrote: »

How will the Audssey on my Onkyo handle adjustments for subwoofer placement? Will I be able to put it almost anywhere and it'll compensate and adjust as needed or am I going to have to experiment with placement more than I think?

It doesn't.....you place it and it sets the adjustment for that place in a given room as best it can. Doesn't mean it will sound right either thats why you need to tweek things after running the auto calibration to what sounds best to your ears.

kuntasensei

What Tony said. Ideally, you want to start by finding the optimal placement for best frequency response BEFORE running Audyssey. No room correction can fix serious nulls caused by placement.

Most importantly, once you DO get ready to run Audyssey, read some of the guides for using it correctly. For instance, USE A TRIPOD FOR THE MIC. I can't stress that enough. A cheap tripod will run you $15 and will make a world of difference over most people's common mistake of sitting in each location holding the mic or putting it in the seats/on the seatbacks. And make sure you run ALL the mic positions available in your AVR. Finally, once you have let it do its thing, LIVE WITH IT FOR A FEW DAYS. What sounds best to your ears immediately can often be based on the fact that you're accustomed to bloated un-equalized bass. However, if you give yourself a few days of listening to adjust to the equalized sound, you may notice detail you weren't hearing before. And of course, if after a few days it just doesn't suit you, CHANGE IT. Don't be so hung up on "reference levels" that you aren't happy with your system. Reference levels and flat response make a for a solid starting point (and for many, the ideal end point), but ultimately, it's about what sounds best TO YOU.

snake1

So for setting up the sub, I need to play music and set it in some different positions around the room and find the best one for best the sound in all listening positions? Then I'll run the Audyssey. I'll check around to see if I can find a tripod when the time comes.

tonyb

You first have to do some adjustments in the receiver before hand. Like telling it you have one and setting a crossover point. Then play around with placement using the same track of music or same dvd. Make sure your cable is long enough too to hit all those spots in the room and make sure the crossover on the back of the subwoofer is turned all the way up to it's highest value as you'll be using the one in the receiver instead.

chris23120

Use a tripod, and turn off your ac, fans, anything that is adding noise to the room. I typically wait till late at night to run the Audssey when there isn't any chance of kids outside making noise, or a car driving by. When i upgraded a few years back from my 8 year old Onkyo to my current one with Audssey, it was an amazing improvement.

snake1

Thanks Tony and Chris!! Excellent info as usual!! I like knowing what to do ahead of time.

Chris, hopefully be getting with you soon! Have to get a receiver sold, then I'll be dropping you a message.

kuntasensei

Another way to do what Tony's talking about is to get a long RCA cable and put your sub in your main listening position. Then, crawl around to each of your potential subwoofer locations and listen for which gives you the smoothest transition across the crossover range you have set. The best way to do this, if you have a SPL meter (which is a worthy $35 investment that you will use for years in this hobby), is to download or create a CD with 1/3 octave bass tones and take readings at each possible subwoofer location. The one that gets you the highest readings near the crossover point you have set will more than likely be the best position for the sub. Then when Audyssey does its thing, it will have more leeway to adjust things since it isn't having to fight any phase issues between your sub and your other speakers.

gigbyt

I wish someone would have a demo locally to me to figure out proper implementation of these eq"s.