Professional Audio Calibration?

gadgtfreek

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
May 29, 2006
22,105
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Lower Alabama
I was wondering if a professional calibration on my 3.1 system is worth the cost as compared to letting the audyssey 6 position setup run and setting the speaker size and xover right?

Denon 1909
Klipsch 12" Sub
Def Tech Fronts and Center

Would prob let Gregg Loewen do it while he's over for my plasma
 
Thanks. The price he gave me to add that next Friday is REAL cheap, and even he said it may not be worthwhile. Im going to let him do it once, just to watch someone who is a professional do it. I like Gregg, he explains what he's doing and why while he's doing it.
 
I've heard great things about Gregg so I'm sure he'll treat you right. I'm curious how much it costs.
 
Ok, so we spent a little time on speaker placement, crossover settings(per thx), speaker measurement, then we turned the audyssey eq OFF (dont tell anyone at avs :) ) and then tweaked with his radio shack analog meter.

Im watching I Robot now, and feel it sounds better than ever. One thing Gregg stated is that Audyssey is OK but far from perfect. He also said it was set up for a square/rectangular room, and when you have weird shaped rooms like mine its not as effective.

We basically set the speakers in a way he recommended (better sound field), measured distance off, entered, set everything at 80hz, and then adjusted the levels.

All I can say is I Robot sounds very good, and I feel Im getting more side to side surround out of it. Could be the speaker placement or not, but it is def giving more of a surround feel.
 
The problem with sound is that it is so dependent on what is in the room. A TV image is fairly easy to calibrate because you really only have to worry about ambient light and most situations it can be controlled to a level that works well without much effort (i.e. don't have sunlight beaming right on the screen).

With sound you have to worry about the shape of the room, what is on the walls, where the furniture is, what materials are on all the objects in the room, etc. This is where a dedicated theater room works best when you can have a square/rectangle room with symmetrical furniture placement, and have walls that are all treated to minimize reflections.

Audyssey is a huge compromise, but tends to do a fairly good job, but it is not going to cover for the furniture arrangement or wall treatments.
 
I agree. I think for plug and play, the audyssey does a great job, especially the 6 and higher position units.

Some of the difference coulda been in my speaker placement too, but I feel it did improve the fullness of the sound.

Plus the fact I had my fronts and center at 80hz and the sub at 120. Gregg had me change the sub to 80 also.
 
Placement is a HUGE issue! It can make or break a system. Audyssey can improve things if placement is not optimal but there really is no substitute for proper placement. I spend a lot of time when setting up anything new or in a new room. Moving, listening.....sometimes the process can take days or weeks of listening sessions with known material. It's the difference between a good HT experience and a great one!
A home theater (or any audio system) is only as good as it's weakest link whether that be insufficient power, low quality speakers or bad room acoustics (the list goes on).
 
Placement is a HUGE issue! It can make or break a system. Audyssey can improve things if placement is not optimal but there really is no substitute for proper placement. I spend a lot of time when setting up anything new or in a new room. Moving, listening.....sometimes the process can take days or weeks of listening sessions with known material. It's the difference between a good HT experience and a great one!
A home theater (or any audio system) is only as good as it's weakest link whether that be insufficient power, low quality speakers or bad room acoustics (the list goes on).

While I agree with that, the fact is that we live with the systems we have, not the ones we want. Everyone makes compromises, and the real key to proper setup is how well you can optomize around the things we can't change.

For example, the ideal theater room is a double walled and insulated box with offset studs for isolation. It has dedicated HVAC and a minimal number of sound proofed doors. Risers have been added to promote good sight lines and the room has been designed to minimize re-enforcement of reflections.

OK, how many of us have that room? Even Rocky had to start with a standard ceiling height and dimensions that were already known. Most of us are dealing with a living or family room where the doorways and dimensions are fixed.

The problem then becomes how to position stuff and add treatments to get the best sound available. Gets even tougher when your housemate says that you cannot move the speakers out 18" into the room simply because they sound better. Actually, I need to agree somewhat with that statement. Speakers sitting out in the middle of the room look amateurish, and the theater experience is as much about the visual impact as the audio one.

So you compromise. You buy better carpeting to deaden the floor. You may add a few wall coverings. You endlessly adjust the speakers a bit here and there. You run audessey and then tweak the results. And at some point, you have to say "good enough"

I probably annoyed some of the purists, but i see these forums as more of working toward everyman getting the most out his system. And everyman has to make compromises.
 
Great post! Once again we are bludgeoned with reality! Or perhaps I should say that more placidly: where we live and what we can afford shapes our own reality, for better if not best.

I'll never align with the purists anyway. (Those would be the same guys who think (pre)amps shouldn't have tone controls, right?) We strive for the best we can personally achieve according to our own ears in our own environments, and that's going to be very subjective at any price level. It leads to a lot of debate and equipment upgrades, but we may still be far from utopia, however that's defined.

I suppose I might change my tune a bit if I could spend some extended time in the "ideal" theater environment. But I live with what I have and don't regret for even one moment that it's not perfect. What I have presently installed sounds darn good to me now and for the foreseeable future. No sense fretting over the nuances that are beyond my control...

(Note to self - Better push those columns back into the corner some more...! :o)
 
It's refreshing to read such "sound" thinking, quite a change from the idiots that have taken over AVS. For the record - Audyssey has corrected my room very nicely. In the real world, this is a nice compromise.
 
It's refreshing to read such "sound" thinking, quite a change from the idiots that have taken over AVS. For the record - Audyssey has corrected my room very nicely. In the real world, this is a nice compromise.

Yep, I am all for audyssey, except when someone says it is gospel. It's one of those tools that gets you close to what you want, but in the end, your ears are the only ones that count.

Still, getting "close" is a big deal as without it, you may never get even in the same zip code :)

It's much the same for me as the difference between a professional video calibration and simply convincing my neighbor to push the movie preset and watch for awhile. After ten minutes, you get the "this is so much better" comment. You will never get him to spring big bucks for Greg, but that single button push just did a lot to make his experience better.
 
Those guys on AVS, including the Audyssey guy, push the use of Dynamic EQ, which is very funny to me.

I agree on the room config and the Audyssey correction. Read the FAQ's, place your speakers and calibration mic as BEST you can, then run it and enjoy.
 
While I agree with that, the fact is that we live with the systems we have, not the ones we want. Everyone makes compromises, and the real key to proper setup is how well you can optomize around the things we can't change.

For example, the ideal theater room is a double walled and insulated box with offset studs for isolation. It has dedicated HVAC and a minimal number of sound proofed doors. Risers have been added to promote good sight lines and the room has been designed to minimize re-enforcement of reflections.

OK, how many of us have that room? Even Rocky had to start with a standard ceiling height and dimensions that were already known. Most of us are dealing with a living or family room where the doorways and dimensions are fixed.

The problem then becomes how to position stuff and add treatments to get the best sound available. Gets even tougher when your housemate says that you cannot move the speakers out 18" into the room simply because they sound better. Actually, I need to agree somewhat with that statement. Speakers sitting out in the middle of the room look amateurish, and the theater experience is as much about the visual impact as the audio one.

So you compromise. You buy better carpeting to deaden the floor. You may add a few wall coverings. You endlessly adjust the speakers a bit here and there. You run audessey and then tweak the results. And at some point, you have to say "good enough"

I probably annoyed some of the purists, but i see these forums as more of working toward everyman getting the most out his system. And everyman has to make compromises.

You make a good point........at some point you have to say "good enough". Otherwise you would never sit down and enjoy it!
I used to think I was a purist but I came to the conclusion that I can not afford the equipment or the time necessary to achieve what I would like to hear. I do like simplicity and I am not a big fan of electronic processing. The simpler the audio path, the cleaner the sound, leave the tweaking up to the recording engineer. For the masses, I think tweaks such as Audyssey do have a place. But for the hardcore tweakers (or purists) I think most of them can do a better job of making things sound good.......at least to them.
 
lol - I guess one of my favorite locations (days gone by) is just to the sides of my listening chair, about 18" away from each ear!

The common theme above is..."It's all in the ears of the beholder!"
 
lol - I guess one of my favorite locations (days gone by) is just to the sides of my listening chair, about 18" away from each ear!

The common theme above is..."It's all in the ears of the beholder!"

Lol. Remember those quad days in the '70s when you got 4 huge speakers and put them in a square pointing right at the single listener in the middle?
 
Someone gave me a bunch of old audio gear today, among it is a Muntz unit with 8 track built in. I'll have to check and see if it is quadraphonic.

I used to do something similar with my parents old stereo, it involved laying on the floor with one speaker on either side of my head........the separation was incredible! lol
 

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