Cheating with microphone calibration

[unclejed613]

AVR-591 is the very low end of Denon's product line (there was a -391, but it had some serious firmware problems, and was discontinued early). the DSP magic probably more than makes up for the limited selection of input options (such as not being able to reassign some of the digi inputs).

[CabinetMakerRyan]

Indeed the 591 is a cheap product. There is much better stuff out there. I have been quite impressed with more expensive offerings that feature this calibration. Still, the 591 sounds great, the biggest problem it has is that there are no multi-channel inputs and the cooling solution is inadequate. That's why I use a cooling fan on mine. It just sits on top with silicone feet and blows upward. The 591 does have 2 rca outputs to support 7.1 but there is no amplification for them so they work like the sub output. All 8 channels are calibrated though. For $200 on ebay that's an amazing value.

[mt490]

Originally Posted by Wavebourn

Yes, Audissey does great job even with bad speakers, but if to remove all possible mechanical ringings before it does much better job.

Indeed, ideally the DSP can generate what speaker designers like Linkwitz have been doing manually for the past 30 years or so - and get fairly close by brute force and computerised decision making.

I think you'll find that you won't be able to get away without a crossover system for individual speaker units though, because with those types of speakers the dispersion will inevitably be fairly bad where the drivers overlap, and AVR calibration cannot compensate well for the issues that occur in 3D. I'm sure with almost anything you'll be able to get fairly ample results at a single location by slumping in your seat with the microphone on your head during calibration, but I don't see a conventional multi-way (of dissimilar drivers) being aptly compensated by the calibration alone.

[CabinetMakerRyan]

I have had great sucess calibrating systems with 3 way speakers. It is especially usefull when the speaker placement is horrible. The audyssey system measures 6 positions and comes up with a compromise.

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by CabinetMakerRyan

I have had great sucess calibrating systems with 3 way speakers. It is especially usefull when the speaker placement is horrible. The audyssey system measures 6 positions and comes up with a compromise.

I believe it is not a compromise, it is rather careful discovery of real frequency response that dos not depend on microphone placement. When you move microphone and observe results on spectrum analyzer you can see that some bumps and dips depend on microphone placement, some don't. Which don't have to be equalized. It would be a big mistake to equalize those which existence depends on microphone placement.

Also, it aligns speakers by phase. It is good that such smart systems can be used when reproducing recorded sounds because latency does not matter, and video signal in cinema theater can be delayed as well to match sounds. But unfortunately for sound reinforcement systems such latency is not acceptable.

[CabinetMakerRyan]

This guy knows his stuff!

[unclejed613]

if you want the RCA outs for all of the channels, i think you need to get a Denon 4-digit model, like the 3311, but even if you go with the "low end" of the 4-digit models (like the 1311) it will still be expensive (even though the 1311 is made at the same factory that makes the 3-digit models) the other option would be to make a "breakout" cable adapter that connects to the ribbon cable between the preamp and power amp. you would need a 10-pin cable with a socket on one end, the connector for the amp board on the other end, and cables going to an RCA jack block from in between. that way, if you want to sell the receiver in it's original configuration, you can remove the breakout cable and plug the preamp directly back into the power amp.

[Wavebourn]

Actually, I bought 591 with an intention to throw out power amps and use tube outputs instead, but found that output amps of this thingy sound surprisingly well. I did not open it still even to see what is inside, and use it as is almost a year. Sometimes I have to switch it off and on when start NetFlix movie because somehow it screws up audio decoder, so it needs to be hard resetted. Also, it would be nice to have D/A video converters inside, because I would love to continue using my good old Sony VPL-PX30 projector with modern video signal sources.

[CabinetMakerRyan]

Let's not forget that these types of new recievers accept hdmi audio for the new super high resolution audio. I can't tell a big difference between this and DTS but it's a nice feature. Higher resolution sound a little more analog to me.