lesmor:
Yes Tom you are correct I have purchased a Yamaha Z11 and did a calibration using their proprietary YPAQ
It was obvious that something was wrong when checking with a SP Meter .
On the left speaker on one setting there was no High frequencies and on the other no Low frequencies, this took a lot of investigation to find out the cause as I initally blamed my speakers and then the amp as I had it bi-wired.
But the cause was the Auto EQ, the speaker levels were not balanced and Speaker distances completely wrong, even said my centre was wired wrong which it wasn't.
Did a complete system reset and manually set the SPL with my meter, but I would still like to learn about EQ hence this post.
Hi Lesmor,
Now that you mention it, I remember you posting your strange results from YPAO in a previous thread. It's a very odd one and seems as though something's not performing correctly in the YPAO software. Are you able to check for any firmware updates on your receiver? Also have you re-run the YPAO repeatedly and consistently received the same results? I don't have a Yamaha receiver, mine's a Denon using Audyssey MultEQ XT so it's a little different but same concept. I imagine in the Yamaha, like the Denon, you have the facility to do a manual EQ curve. The bummer in the Denon is that you can only utilise the Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume processing (which function nicely) on one of the two Audyssey automated curves.
If you want to set up a manual EQ curve to compensate for your room (You probably won't be able to adjust any kind of Phase information) you'll need a few things, a calibration mic, a Real Time Analiser, and tones. You'll also need some time as this can be a long-winded process. Tones you already have, well at least pink noise but this will do the trick. Depending on how you want to do it you could probably use the calibration mic that came with your receiver. The RTA is where it gets a bit tricky, there are free RTA softwares out there and quite expensive ones too. Essentially you run the tones and take measurements of your frequency response curves from the RTA and then adjust the EQ in the channel on the receiver to compensate from deviations off of a centre line.
A professional calibrator has bit deeper access to most receivers. On Denons and other receivers that use Audyssey MultEQ XT, a calibrator can become certified by Audyssey to perform advanced calibrations using a special software on a laptop connected to your receiver via serial or USB and a more advanced calibration MIC. This allows the engineer to access the full gamut of the Audyssey software and measurements and also to take measurements from more listening positions than the Autosetup can. It also allows the engineer to manually adjust parameters before creating your custom Room EQ curve. This is specific to Audyssey, but I have got to imagine installers must have a similar facility with Yamaha's YPAO and Pioneer's MCACC.