Audyssey MultEQ seems to be a significant advancement in the Home Theater arena.

Or, is it, in your opinion?

What are your thoughts on it?

Have you used it in its basic form, in its XT form, in its Pro form?

What equipment have you installed that incorporates it?

Have you as a CI used it, or have you bypassed it and done your own calibrating?

Or perhaps you have used it as a basic calibration and then tweaked it?

Have you found it to be helpful? Does it do what it claims to do?

Are there places where you'll use it and others where you won't?

Any and all thoughts are welcome since it seems that this technology will be populating a number of the A/V receivers in the coming months, with separates planned down the road, along with outboard processors, and even PreMultiEQ for HTIB's.

I look forward to your thoughts and information, especially the experience gathered in the field.

Thanks!

Greg

Edited to add "and others" to subject, so that we can discuss the pros and cons of different EQ systems as well.

Any EQ not just Oddyssey is a bandaid approach to solving acoustic problems. It can't get rid of reflections, reverberation, standing waves, etc. And we don't use them at all in dedicated theaters. Actually, I'd prefer the manufacturers let you have some type of manual mode for these filters instead of having to use separate EQs.

However, in the real world and when you are doing media rooms, living rooms, etc. and probably little if any of the budget is going to used towards room acoustics it can help. The problems will still exist but will be tamed slightly and in these situtations something is better than nothing and the Auddessey, Lexicon and HK probably do a little better job than most, followed by Sherwood's SNAP and Yamaha's YPAO. The Graphic EQ's tend to do the worse such as Pioneer's MCACC but again is probaby still an improvement over nothing at all. This is my opinion based on measurements and listening. I'm sure as technology changes so will the EQ schemes.

Hope this helps.

Bob

We have done both the EQs in the Denon products and the stand-alone Audyssey EQ. Our take on them is preety simple. Use them where they help and don't use them where they don't. For instance in a media room with a 3806, we often use the Audyssey EQ with the cable box and VCR, but set it to off for the DVD player. We build the Audyssey on/off into the source macros, and also put it on the touch-panel in case they want to try it. We do not sell the EQ system in place of acoustic treatment, nor do we assume that the EQ will fix issues with speaker placement or poor acoustic design. We use it to make lower quality sources like cable and VCR sound better. And for this it works very well. Turn it on and the the customer will smile(once it is set-up right).

We have also used the Multi-EQ stand alone piece. We haven't used it in a theater, but have used it for DA applications. We came into a job where a former installer had placed speakers in very bad locations in a large room with vaults, wood floors, glossy walls, and lots of log furniture. Basically the acoustic room from hell. We used 4 channels of the Multi-EQ to run the 4 speakers in the room. The result was that it tamed the relflections, tightened the bass, softened the highs, and generally smoothed out the overall sound quality. Once again the result was worth it. Moving the speakers was not an option. We were charged with making the best with what was already there. We will continue to use the Multi-EQ for DA applications where the room is more challenging then we would like. Once again, not to take the place of good design, but to help in rooms where speaker placement is limited.

The nice thing with both of these units is the ability to calibrate it, then turn it on/off to see what it does. In the case of the Multi-EQ in a large room, the results are more subtle, but still noticeable.

My only gripe with the Multi-EQ thus far has been that there is a 232 port, but no documentation thus far on protocol etc. It would be nice to be able to make sure that the EQ is only on when you want it on and not just controlled from the font button.

Overall, it is a good product. My advice is to be careful and sell it only for applications where it helps, but don't let it take the place of other more important items like proper speaker placement and room design.

Jason

I have used both the Yamaha YPAO, and Integrated Audyssey (Denon) products in a number of installations.

I have found that I always utilize the yamaha YPAO on systems unless I am only doing a setup with 2 speakers.

As for the Denon, I have not had great luck with it. I usually test it, but end up leaving the feature inactive, and doing basic setup manual tweaks (distance/speaker size/spl/etc.), and the systems sound better then the audyssey. The other problem I have encountered with Denon/Audyssey is that about 70% of the time the automatic setup fails; sometimes it thinks the speakers are out of phase, doesnt find speakers at all, or thinks the subwoofer gain is set to high, and wont proceed.

The one thing I do like in relation to the Audyssey versus the YPAO is the multiple location setup, and store features allowing for a larger theorhetical sweet spot, or individualized seating locations.

Finally I am a huge fan of the automated setup and equalization systems, usually makes life easier, and the customer gets a system that they perceive as sounding 'better'. I rarely do much with acoustical treatments other then recommendations on furnishings, drapes, rugs etc, if the room is really bad (I rarely do dedicated theater/media rooms where treatments are in the budget, so these systems have been good for my customers...when they work).

Some great information already!

Here is a great article from Audioholics on AudysseyMultiEQ Pro. The article was written on October 1, 2006.

It immediately points out that speaker placement and the room are most important, but that proper EQ can enhance the room.

Better Sound Through Active Room Correction: A Primer to Audyssey MultEQ Pro