First post, questions

Hi all you audiophiles and sound connoisseurs! This is my first post and i'm looking for answers.

I have my setup listed. My problem is that when i use my MACC auto calibration on my reciever, my speakers sound very dull in the midbass/midrange and very bright in the high-end. I've got some nice gear (for my age and income, anyway) so i think it should sound a little better than it does. Phase seems to be alright, and i JUST downloaded the EQ Wizard and i'm going to see if i can get a plot up at some point soon. (if i can figure out how to use it) Are there any immediate pointers i could try to get speakers up to par while i'm figuring this eq wizard out?

ps. I know placement is key, and room has a deep impact (no pun intended) on the sound blah blah. I am no noob as far as home theater goes. I used to work as an installer for Tweeter for three years before I went back to school to persue more glamorous and high paying roles in society.

[thxgoon]

Hey Andy, welcome to the Shack! Ilikesound too

It's my personal experience, and I know others will differ, that auto calibration systems often brighten things up beyond what may be desired. Best advice is to decide what sounds best for you and just go with it. You can try putting the mic at different angles relative to the speakers while you run the set up. This will tweek the response curve of the final settings and while it may not be 'correct' you may like the sound better.

If you can get REW up and running, try taking a reading with MCACC on as well as off so you can see just what exactly it is doing. Also, double check to make sure that it has set your speaker size and crossovers to something you think is resonable for your system.

very interesting... I wish to keep the overall levels balanced, but i do want to mess with the mid frequencies a bit. can i do this using the built in spl meter inside REW to reference the level changes? i'm scared that i'll throw it off, and i know that if I boost something in one speaker say the left, 4db, then i boost it in the right 4db i'll have this huge anomaly to deal with. ack, i just need to stop being such a compulsive tweaker!! My girlfriend is getting mad at me lately.
Though, tweaking is a response to imperfectness and the desire to better one's gear. So i'll keep on keepin' on.

[eugovector]

Start by doing it the old fashion way, get a sound level meter and tape measure, and set things manually. Then try the autocal, if you don't like the results.

[DougMac]

Welcome Andy!

Before you rely on REW and an SPL meter to make full range measurements, you might want to check the REW forum. They seem to think that the RS SPL meter is not sufficiently accurate to be used to do full range calibration. They recommend a calibration mic and mixer.

Doug

[thxgoon]

The RS meter should be accurate enough in the critical range from crossover up to 5khz or so. This would account for the majority of the frequencies that would make a difference in sq. Calibrated mic would always be better of course, but for this purpose the RS meter will be fine.

It's unfortunate. All the rat shacks in my area JUST shipped all the spl meters out to the warehouse. I can't find one anywhere! which sucks, because i need one two weeks ago for various things. Also, i'm not sure im using rew correctly. i keep getting the same graph even when i tweak things. is there something i'm missing? thanks for the replies, guys!