Audyssey Step 4: Check and Fine-Tune

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Audyssey’s settings are a good start, but a few are worth checking. None of these changes undo the calibration.

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The settings worth checking

Beginner

Crossovers

Audyssey measures where each speaker’s bass runs out and suggests a crossover from that. If yours came out below 80 Hz, Audyssey’s own advice is that 80 Hz is a safe choice, because it sends more bass to the subwoofer, where Audyssey’s correction is strongest. Don’t set a speaker lower than the value Audyssey measured, because nothing below that point was corrected.

Levels

You can nudge a speaker’s level up or down if it sounds too loud or quiet. The EQ isn’t affected. If a level has hit the -12 dB limit, something was wrong in the measurement, usually the mic too close to a speaker, so run Audyssey again rather than working around it.

Dynamic EQ

Dynamic EQ adds bass and surround as you turn the volume down, because our hearing loses them at lower volumes. Leave it on. The Reference Level Offset tells it how the material was mixed:

OffsetUse for
0 dBFilms
5 dBClassical music with a wide dynamic range
10 dBMost TV, jazz and other classical
15 dBPop and rock, which is already mixed loud

If films sound too bass-heavy at your usual volume, try 5 or 10 dB.

Which Audyssey mode

Reference rolls off the treble slightly to suit an average room. Flat doesn’t. Try both on material you know and keep the one you prefer. Use Off only to compare.

The one upgrade worth buying

Audyssey builds a small, deliberate dip around 2 kHz into its target curve, called midrange compensation. On many speakers it makes voices and detail sound slightly recessed. The receiver has no setting to turn it off, but the MultEQ Editor app (about US$20) does. For most Audyssey owners it’s the most useful upgrade you can buy. See Midrange compensation below.

You’re done

Check the result and go further

That’s the calibration done. Listen for a few days, then decide whether to go further.

Measure with REW
Target curves
Room treatment
Back: Step 3

MultEQ Editor app and MultEQ-X

Advanced

MultEQ Editor app

A paid phone and tablet app (US$19.99 on Apple’s App Store) that connects to your receiver after you’ve run Audyssey. It lets you:

  • See before-and-after graphs for each channel.
  • Edit the target curve for each pair of speakers.
  • Limit how high up the frequency range correction goes.
  • Choose between two treble roll-off curves.
  • Turn midrange compensation on or off, which the receiver menu can’t do.
  • Save and reload calibrations.

Midrange compensation

Audyssey’s target curve includes a deliberate dip centred around 2 kHz, where most speakers cross over from the midrange driver to the tweeter. Audyssey calls it midrange compensation. It comes from BBC speaker research: making that region perfectly flat can make voices sound harsh, because many speakers change how widely they spread sound at the crossover.

Audyssey recommends leaving it on. Many owners turn it off, because on speakers that are already smooth through the crossover the dip can make vocals and detail sound recessed or dull. You can only change it with the MultEQ Editor app or Audyssey’s professional software, not from the receiver’s menu.

How to decide:

  1. Open the app’s before-correction graph for your front speakers. If there’s already a dip near 2 kHz, the speaker was probably designed that way, so leave compensation on.
  2. If the response is smooth there, turn compensation off and send the calibration to the receiver.
  3. Compare both on voices you know well, at your usual volume, and keep the one you prefer. Surrounds carry a lot of dialogue in some mixes, so listen to those too.
  4. Leave the receiver’s Audyssey mode on Reference. Changes made in the app are applied to the Reference curve.

Source: Ask Audyssey: Midrange Compensation; Simple Home Cinema; Digital Noesis: Running Audyssey with the MultEQ Editor app; App Store listing.

MultEQ-X

Audyssey’s Windows and Mac software, sold as a licence per receiver (US$199.99). It adds detailed per-channel graphs, a full target curve designer, manual control of distances, levels and crossovers, and more control of subwoofer correction. It’s for people who want to tune by hand.

Which to choose

The Editor app is enough for most people who want to see what Audyssey did and adjust the bass and treble balance. MultEQ-X suits people who want full control. If your receiver supports it, Dirac Live is the other upgrade path. See the Dirac Live guide.

Source: the App Store listing and Audyssey’s MultEQ-X announcement. Prices are in US dollars and may change.

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