Is the Audyssey app better than the one built in on the AVR?

Nagaraj S

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My receiver is Marantz SR6013. I had purchased the Audyssey app a long time ago, but had run an Audyssey set up using the app only a few days back.

After the Audyssey set up through the app, to my complete, but pleasant astonishment, Audyssey has transformed my entire HT rig. Now, the scale, the attack, the intensity of movies are far superior than earlier when I had set up Audyssey without the app. See the before and after FR curves below. In the before curve, there are dips in the very uneven frequency response, which I presume was the main reason for an underwhelming HT performance earlier. The after FR curve with the app is almost table top flat.

Does this mean that the Audyssey app is far superior than the stock one on the AV receiver? This means an additional expense to optimise your HT rig. Would like hear if you have had a similar experience with the Audyssey app.

My speakers are MA Silver, with Klipsch 15 inch sub.
42F42EA9-6957-4456-ADD6-5EDC4BF6683D.jpeg
 
While the curve on the right is what the app thinks what it will sound like, the actual results are nowhere as flat (have cross verified with a back test)
However your other point on the app returning better results than the regular setup is bang on. The results from the app are excellent.
Just one suggestion, for at least your capable main speakers, change the room correction target curve range to 20-400/600hz instead of full range correction - i think you will prefer the results over full range

Needless to say, the sub should have full correction applied
 
20-400/600hz instead of full range correction
Is this got to do with Audyssey app setting my front L and R speakers to “Large”/ full range? Conventional wisdom says keep the L&R to “small” always. I did that, but the “Large” setting, surprisingly, sounds much better.
 
There are many advantages to the Audysey app over the built in on the AVR. The built in app results in much better dynamics over the avr which I have also noticed.
1.Two high frequency roll off graphs to choose
2.Disable midrange compensation
3.Easy to save and load multiple room correction graphs
4.Limit the room correction frequency range.
 
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My receiver is Marantz SR6013. I had purchased the Audyssey app a long time ago, but had run an Audyssey set up using the app only a few days back.

After the Audyssey set up through the app, to my complete, but pleasant astonishment, Audyssey has transformed my entire HT rig. Now, the scale, the attack, the intensity of movies are far superior than earlier when I had set up Audyssey without the app. See the before and after FR curves below. In the before curve, there are dips in the very uneven frequency response, which I presume was the main reason for an underwhelming HT performance earlier. The after FR curve with the app is almost table top flat.

Does this mean that the Audyssey app is far superior than the stock one on the AV receiver? This means an additional expense to optimise your HT rig. Would like hear if you have had a similar experience with the Audyssey app.

My speakers are MA Silver, with Klipsch 15 inch sub.
View attachment 60532
Hi Nagaraj,

To my ears the app turned out to be better and more flexible than the inbuilt Audyssey XT32.
You can keep midrange compensation off and play with the MultEq frequency filter range to what suits your ears.

Regards,
Nitin
 
Anyone has experience here with the app on iOS? Wanted to check it is reliable before burning 1800 more :p
 
Anyone has experience here with the app on iOS? Wanted to check it is reliable before burning 1800 more :p
I am using it in IOS and even I was very sceptical seeing the reviews. Been using it for more then 2 years and haven’t had any issues
 
Thanks! I just wanted to check if it is reliable on the iOS. Have seen this app being recommended more than once here on this forum.
 
Another thing is that by default Audyssey sets your front speakers to large even if they are small and not full range.
You can later change them to "small" after calibration if you are using a subwoofer..
Some users keep the fronts large if they have full range speakers.
 
I too noticed the same when I first used it with the X2600H , after that have never used the inbuilt AVR audyssey run till date. But there have been few times when the app errors out regularly during the correction upload to AVR and then I need to do the entire measurement process again. However despite the hiccups , worth the 1800 bucks one needs to pay.

@Rosenarayanappa This will work & give similar benefits even for a 5.0 setup and will consider the fronts as large and do the corrections I believe.
 
Audyssey App is a must have, it not only improves the dynamics with subtle tweaks but also quick customization can be done for each speaker.
It gives a lot of options which can be tweaked according to your taste.

Pro Tip: Save the 1st calibration file, rename default and don't make changes on it. Make multiple copies of the default and play around with crossover, frequency range, curve editor and check.
 
Does this mean that the Audyssey app is far superior than the stock one on the AV receiver?
It's the same Audyssey Engine (XT/XT32) whether you use the built-in tool or Audyssey App for calibration. As opposed to the built-in tool, the Audyssey App allows you to save the target Curve locally (.ady) for further tweakings like Midrange Compensation or High-Frequency Roll-Over within the Audyssey App or via 3rd party tools like Ratbuddyssey.
 
Is this got to do with Audyssey app setting my front L and R speakers to “Large”/ full range? Conventional wisdom says keep the L&R to “small” always. I did that, but the “Large” setting, surprisingly, sounds much better.
Which will indeed be the case if you are not using a sub.
If you do however have a decent sub hooked to the system, it may be worthwhile setting FL/FR to small with a cutoff set to whatever you feel is the lowest your Fronts can handle with zero distortion (with MA silvers, I'd set it to 80hz)

With fronts set to large, your front speakers are being fed everything from 20hz -20khz
If you set them to small with a cutoff of say 80 (and in parallel setting LFE cutover to 80), everything from 20-80 will go to sub and 80 onwards to FL/FR
With fronts set to large, 20 onwards to whatever your LFE cutover is set to to (100?) is going to both FL/FR and sub.

If this dual bass reproduction sounds better to you, by all means, keep it that way
although it may not be a bad idea to bow to conventional wisdom and as a small cheat, bump up the subwoofer gain a bit if you feel the bass is lacking with the recommended method.


As for the reason to set the Audyssey cutoff to 400/500 hz, that is a bit more complicated - the assumption being that the user chose his/her primary speakers for their sound signature and not a clinical flat curve.
Now add the fact that most room distortions are due to reverbs in the lower frequencies - so thats where room correction helps the most.
By keeping correction curve applied to only the lower frequency ranges, you get to correct the major bass issues while getting to keep the originally preferred sound signature too .
Kinda like having your cake and getting to eat it too :)
 
With fronts set to large, your front speakers are being fed everything from 20hz -20khz
I guess when crossover is set to 80hzs, all below 80hzs from fronts will go to Subwoofer even if set as "Large". One can listen carefully while changing crossover keeping fronts as large while movie is played, he can certainly hear change in sound(say from 60 to 80hzs).
 
I guess when crossover is set to 80hzs, all below 80hzs from fronts will go to Subwoofer even if set as "Large".
Interesting, Audyssey doesn’t allow to change the XO when the speakers are set to Large/full range. The XO setting for fronts is disabled.27FF7BBB-295D-4950-893C-29AD1BDEDC72.jpeg
 
Interesting, Audyssey doesn’t allow to change the XO when the speakers are set to Large/full range. The XO setting for fronts is disabled.View attachment 60561

It will not let you change crossover frequencies because your fronts are considered as Large aka Full Range , play the full frequency spectrum and it does nothing by allowing to set crossovers then
 
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