Thinking about Audyssey -- experiences?

[Anthony]

As some of you may know, I have a side business as an installer. Mostly just speaker placement, hanging plasmas, custom cables, that sort of thing.

I was thinking about getting "certified" as an Audyssey installer. Basically, that's just getting the install kit and software and learning how to run and tweak the results. But I also want to know if there would even be a market for this.

FYI, this would be for tweaking the Audyssey standalone unit or receivers with the MultiEQ XT option.

So, have any of you had this setup done professionally?
If so, did you like the results?
Anyone have the standalone unit and care to comment on it?



In doing my research (because that's a lot of coin to drop, considering I would want one at home to experiment and train on), I came across an article that mentions Behringer or other units that would be a lot cheaper than the Audyssey, especially since I already have a good mic, preamp, stand, computer, etc.

Which Behringer units are recommended and are they for full range EQ, or just bass (I already have an FBD on my sub).

Thanks for sharing. For more info, Audioholics did a decent writeup on the unit:
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/a...ound-equalizer

[Sonnie]

I would recommend using the FBQ2496 and DSP1124P Behringer units only for sub duties. The DEQ2496 and DCX2496 units might be more suited for full range.

As you already know from your research… Audyssey is designed to equalize several channels and several locations if desired. If you plan to equalize a 5.1 channel system with Behringer units, you will have to buy 3 of the DEQ's… or whatever you plan to use. Then I can only imagine it being a super duper challenge to figure out which speakers to make the adjustments to after you measure the response. Audyssey is able to supposedly do this for you. How Audyssey does it is what I question… despite the fact that the guys who developed it are a WHOLE lot smarter than me.

Audyssey measures only one speaker at a time and has to adjust that speaker individually and absent of the interactions of the other speakers. The response of a single speaker in a multiple speaker system at my listening position will be different than its response when you have 4 other speakers in the same frequency range playing at the same time because of the interactions of the other speakers. I do not know for sure because I have not studied it, but maybe after Audyssey measures all the speakers it can predict what the interactions will be and makes the adjustments accordingly. I do not believe you nor can I do that with REW or any other available measurement tools that I know of… it would definitely take number crunching way beyond my abilities.

Granted there have been some occasions where it appears Audyssey has made a positive improvement, including a couple of instances of my own... but there are also numerous instances where it has not worked, including another few examples of my own.