What recievers give you full controll for a Manual EQ?

[admin_exported]

I've been looking to buy a new AV receiver with a budget of up to 2k.

I'm a digital cinema engineer by profession and I'm used to doing my own EQ in an auditorium using my Dolby sound analyser for reference. In a cinema auditorium the EQ of the room is done to the X curve which is a standard curve they came up with in the 70's for doing an EQ in a large auditorium.

From many years of experience I've found that even the best “auto EQ systems” can't beat doing it manually with an analyser for reference and simply using your ears! In huge auditoriums like the Odeon or the Empire Leicester Square we roll off the HF even steaper and in smaller cinema screen you can make it flatter.

For a domestic EQ in a small living room a completely flat response is desirable and I'd like to be able to achieve this by doing it myself as I imagine different manufactures have different tastes and you end up with very different results!

To my amazement, when I went into a branch of a very reputable and popular high end AV shop asking which amps gave me control over the EQ I was told non of the manufactures let you do that with domestic kit!

After doing a bit of digging I've since found that you do have good control over the Yamaha amps IF you can find the “receiver manager” software (which isn't readily available on their website, and was very difficult to find). They have 7 band parametric per channel which is fantastic news but you can't select the exact frequency you want which is a real shame. Still, it's the closest thing I've found so far and now the top of the range V3067 can be found for under 1k it's coming in way under budget (big thumbs up).

My question is, does anyone know if other manufactures give you this amount of control and what's it like compared to the Yamaha? Any links would be appreciated.

Russ

 

[Boca]

I'm not sure about the implimentaion but the Sony 5600ES allows 32 Band EQ it might only work with the PC based software that comes with it so check it out first as it doesnt mention it in the Manual unless i missed it.

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hcs-home-cinema-receiver/str-da5600es/tab/manualpopup?section=ODW+SS+en_GB+Support+New&externalUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fpdf.crse.com%2Fmanuals%2F4184690121.pdf

you can set different prefrences for the speakers eg. the speakers can be set to small with a cross-over of 80 hz and then in another setup you can set the speakers to large fronts small center and crossed over at 60 hz. You can then swap back and forth. I almost forgot you can put in different speaker distances aswell for each.

Pioneer receivers are out as they will not let you EQ the channels while you listen at the same time (The work around is you use a laptop into the receiver and eq it through the 9 band eq on the laptop and then copy the settings to the Pioneer )yes this sucks.

The Yamaha might be the best solution. but i haven't used one in a long time so i cant comment on it. I want to but it doesn't help you right now. Musicraft and FrankHarveyHIFI are very knowledgeable they may chime in later.

Boca

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.

Talking of the cross over, the Yamaha software shows 9 cross over point available from 40Hz to 200Hz. Like in the Sony you mentioned, these are all low frequency and used for if you have "small" speakers to limit the bass going into them.

I wanted to bi-amp the fronts without having to rely on the passive cross over built into the speakers but I can't find a cross over setting for when you have "large" fronts being bi-amped? Is this something Yamaha have overlooked or do all domestic AV recievers miss this out?

 

[ric71]

Rusty-bin,

Have a look at Anthem receivers(MRX 500 or 700).They have a very powerful eq that can only be set via computer. I don't know how flexible it will allow you to be but it is probably the best eq out there.

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting, I've not seem these before. The MRX 700 is at the top of my price limit but seems to be lacking in HDMI outputs, I was after 2 outputs so I can run my video games and movies on the projector and use the TV for normal use.

 

[Sliced Bread]

Some of the Onkyo's have 7 band eq on all channels, except the sub, which has a 5 band eq (the later of wgicg, I've found extremely usefu for getting a close to flat bass response).
[Sorry, duplicate]

 

[Sliced Bread]

Some of the Onkyo's have 7 band eq on all channels, except the sub, which has a 5 band eq (the later of which I've found extremely usefu for getting a close to flat bass response).

 

[michael hoy]

Pioneer receivers are out as they will not let you EQ the channels while you listen at the same time (The work around is you use a laptop into the receiver and eq it through the 9 band eq on the laptop and then copy the settings to the Pioneer )yes this sucks.

Boca

Boca,

What is the software called for the Pioneer?

 

[Stuartc2uk]

Hi

You may find this intersting given your background

http://www.audyssey.com/installers/installerprogram.html#IP_FAQ

Stuart

 

[Boca]

Sorry for not responding sooner , you basically use the 9/10 band eq in the windows media player

so what you do is play music with the flat eq on the pioneer AVR, then you play music out from your PC Laptop eg a music cd

then adjust the Eq through windows Media player on the fly... then copy the numbers to the pioneer.

This is a tedious way and requires Patience.... Make sure you write down the numbers. on paper as if you loose the settings you can quickly get them back.

I want to add this would have been a lot easier if Pioneer allowed you to hear the music/audio when you were in the EQ settings.

for those whom don't care the MCACC auto Calibration is pretty good as well but to some tweekers like rusty-bin they will want to play with this. as it pertains to his original post.