CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Jeremy112]

I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-80TXV, my first and current "decent" home theater reciever. It gets treated like a god and in return it supplies me with reliability and great sound.

My question about the reciever pertains to the MCACC auto setup with the pioneer mic that is supplied. I have never used this because I felt that I could do a better job than a primitive reciever. I want to know if anyone has used this feature, and what the results were, if they were happy with it etc...

is it worth spending the time to do?

[Curt Palme]

My vote is a big YES! use it.

I set up a Denon, a $350ish unit about a year ago, and sneered at the $1.00 plastic mic and 30' cord.

'Surely, a pro like myself could do a better setup'...

So I did, and then the customer insisted that I use the calibration mic. Sure enough, the thing ended up sounding way better than what I did. Better imaging, blah blah.

[Curt Palme]

My vote is a big YES! use it.

I set up a Denon, a $350ish unit about a year ago, and sneered at the $1.00 plastic mic and 30' cord.

'Surely, a pro like myself could do a better setup'...

So I did, and then the customer insisted that I use the calibration mic. Sure enough, the thing ended up sounding way better than what I did. Better imaging, blah blah.

[HogPilot]

I know that most auto EQ solutions - notably Audyssey and I'm pretty sure MCACC - actually have some sort of correction tables built-in for the mic that is shipped with the unit. If you use a different mic - even if it is a "higher quality" one than the stock one - you could easily get worse results because the correction tables for the original mic are still applied to the measurements.

I'm not smart on all the magic that these systems can work, but they can do some pretty amazing stuff that would probably outstrip most manual audio calibrations, except those performed by pros with much more powerful (and expensive) processors/equipment.

[ecrabb]

Hog's right... The mic that ships with gear is a dedicated setup mic, and even though it may not be a great mic in typical terms, it is calibrated in software to give an accurate representation of the sound in the room to the software.

Here's the deal... For anybody but the most dedicated folks with software, hardware, and time to burn, MCACC, Audyssey, and the like are typically going to be far better than nothing. However, it's important to not only follow the directions exactly, but also experiment a little with mic placement, number of locations, etc. and see how it sounds. It's also worth noting that if there are acoustic problems in your room, the EQ could make adjustments that would yield undesirable results.

For instance, let's say you have a bad node in your back row. The analysis would see the response hump there, and dial in some EQ cut to compensate - probably in a trade-off with the front row or other locations. Well, that might not sound good in the front row, and you might not want to make that trade-off. So, that's why I say to experiment with the mic placement and do listening tests. Use material - preferably well-recorderd multi-channel music that you're very familiar with so you can hear changes.

I used me pre pro's built-in Audyssey EQ for over a year, then after I built my subs, went manual with REW software, a RadioShack mic (with calibration file), the built-in manual EQ in the prepro for mains and surrounds, and a Behringer EQ for the subs. I rushed it for a meet and need to re-do it, but it sounds significantly better overall than the Audyssey setup did. But, then the Audyssey setup sounded significantly better than nothing.

SC

[Jeremy112]

Well I guess the vote is yes! I didn't know what anyone would think, I, as curt thought, that the mic was a cheapo thing, but I guess it does make sense.

I will dig it out of the closet and tinker with that, hope its a big difference for the better:thumbsup:

I remember when I first bought this reciever, I must have had all the speakers placed just right and the settings on the reciever just right, the sound from one of the movies I watched made it sound identical to what a true theater sounded like, that was cool

[WanMan]

I would think this is easy enough to test, regarding the mic differences. BTW, I have both the Denon and Pioneer Elite versions in the household, and running them natively (with their intended microphones) is a lot better than not running a calibration at all.

Unless you are some sort of audiophile, then these integrated solutions are pretty good at their job.

[Jeremy112]