Tweaking Audessey results?

drummer86

After re-running Audessey with some more precise mic placement I'm totally unhappy with the results. It compensated the volume for nearly every frequency from the center channel so low that the dialogue in movies is almost inaudible. Even when I adjust the channel level to +4 or 5 it is still not as clear as it used to be.

Any ideas why this happened and what I can do to avoid it when I rerun the auto setup?

FWIW the house was totally quiet when I ran the setup. Even let the dog out, turned off the HVAC and unplugged the fridge.

Mikey081057

How is your speaker placements. it is sometimes difficult to optimize, but center channel height and angle could use a tweak. Someone had a string angled to ear level which makes good sense.

tonyb

Did you place the mic where your ears will be in your listening position ?

nhhiep

there is a warning in the manual saying that you must use the mic that came with avr during the setup.
different mic will give you different results.

tonyb

As a last resort, he could return everything to the default settings and just adjust everything manually.

drummer86

Mikey081057 wrote: »

How is your speaker placements. it is sometimes difficult to optimize, but center channel height and angle could use a tweak. Someone had a string angled to ear level which makes good sense.

Center channel height is non-negotiable. I'm happy to have it on top of the AV cabinet. Doesn't explain why frequencies would register hot in the mic though

tonyb wrote: »

Did you place the mic where your ears will be in your listening position ?

Yup.

nhhiep wrote: »

there is a warning in the manual saying that you must use the mic that came with avr during the setup.
different mic will give you different results.

Got it. Used it.

tonyb wrote: »

As a last resort, he could return everything to the default settings and just adjust everything manually.

Does MultiEQ give you the option to manually adjust the individual frequency ranges?

kuntasensei

MultEQ doesn't let you adjust frequencies after calibration (though the pro version lets you shape the filtering). Are you using a tripod or boom mic stand to place the mic? And can you provide some pics of the room so we know what you're dealing with? It could well be that your room has some acoustic issues that you need to deal with before trying to use Audyssey. It's a great piece of tech... but garbage in = garbage out, no matter how you swing it.

drummer86

I'll post pictures when I get a chance. I know there are some issues with bass bloat is some areas and echoes with hardwood floors in adjacent rooms but for ONLY the center to get results like that seemed odd to me. Especially since it raised a lot of the same frequencies from the LR speakers.

Here are results for the center:
63Hz: -7dB
125Hz: -7dB
250Hz: -5dB
500Hz:-5dB
1kHz: -3dB
2kHz: -4dB
4kHz: -1dB
8kHz: -3dB
16kHz: -4dB

L+R had most of the frequencies boosted 1 or 2, with few exceptions.

drummer86

Oh yeah, I used a boom mic stand with the audessey mic perched on top.

jeremymarcinko

That seems typical to me. The center channel is often ( maybe not your case) closest and aimed directly at the mic. Therefor the levels of the center are lowered because it's louder than the others. The only way I could get audyssey to sound good to me was to only run three positions and keep the mic at my listening position for all three readings. It may sounds like **** to everyone else in the room but my seat sounds great. Moving that mic around the room, I think just compromises the optimum sound from my seat; which is the only seat that matters.

kuntasensei

It's not uncommon for center channels to be more sensitive than the mains, so don't get too hung up on whether the L/R got boosted and center got cut. Take some pics and we'll see what we're working with. If you're saying that your center is located ABOVE your mains (on top of an entertainment center), one problem could be that you're placing it at an angle to the mic that lets the mic read highs more. The Audyssey mics are made for grazing instance, meaning you want the front three speakers to be roughly 90 degrees from the center axis of the mic with it facing straight up at the ceiling. Naturally, you can't change mic position between speaker chirps... but it may be worth angling the mic slightly away from the center channel to get it closer to 90 degrees off-axis. The trade-off will be that your mains may be affected.

I used to have similar issues with my center channel not calibrating well and you know what fixed it? Acoustic panels at the reflection points on the side walls and a nice thick rug on the hardwood floor. I also put my center on some Auralex MoPads and aimed it toward ear level.