Harman/Kardon EasyEQ

[Lowell_M]

I just ran the EasySet (or whatever it is called) on my AVR-635. It set the crossover on my RTI70's at 40hz and set the sub channel at -8. (the test tone that went through the sub just about knocked the house of its foundation, by the way) I had the sub gain at about 45%.

Now, as a result, and maybe I just have ears not used to quality sound, music sounds very...uh... bright. So, I manually crossed everything over at 80hz and set the sub to 0 in the setup. This helped, but it still seems like there is a lot of trebble. Are my ears just untrained? I may just listed for a while and see how I like some different music. Clapton actually sounds pretty sweet. Nickelback.....sounds a little thin and trebble heavy. Am I just too used to a boomy, underpowered stereo?

[adam2434]

Does the HK apply an EQ in addition to setting the levels and delays? Many auto set-ups do. You may want to disable the EQ and give a listen. You will still have the level and delay calibration, just no EQ.

I definately did not like the EQ settings that my receiver applied, so I disabled them.

This is not related to the EQ, but you may want to try a manual calibration with a SPL meter to set levels. I found the auto set-up to be way different than a manual level calibration. Don't know how the HK compares to Pioneer in auto set-up accuracy though.

[Lowell_M]

I'll dig around for the EQ setting.

WHy would the auto-calibration cross the towers over at 40hz? And why would it set the sub to -8db?

By the way, now that I have changed the crossover and turned the sub back up...home theater rocks! Used the lobby and helicopter seen in Matrix to check it out....wow!

[adam2434]

It probably set the 40 Hz crossover point based on the bass response/capabilities it was "hearing" from those speakers.

It set the sub to -8 because sub level calibration is interactive with your sub's volume knob. If your sub's volume knob were lower, the receiver would set the sub level higher. If working properly, the auto set-up will calibrate all channels to the same reference SPL. If you turn the sub level up, you're moving away from calibrated levels, but that's a matter of personal taste (I run my sub about 3 dB hot for movies).

Also, I suggest playing with crossover settings and speaker size settings. For example, try all speakers set to small with a 80 Hz crossover for 5.1 material. For 2 ch music, try 60 Hz.

[Willow]

Question for you, is the treble on the front turned up at all. Mine was, it was a display model which had been touched.

[Lowell_M]

Willow - Is there a manual EQ setting somewhere? All I have found in my short time of tinkering is the "Audio" setup on the OSD where you can change just the overall level of the bass or treble.

I haven't had a chance to get back into the settings yet. I was running around the house getting ready for travel yesterday and just played a bunch of different music. So far, after my initial re-adjustments I really like what I hear. Actually, I am hearing quite a few things that I didn't realize were there in some of my favorite songs. Much better dynamics.

Another thing that I tried when adjusting the crossovers was shutting off the sub and listening to the RTi's on their own. I never liked them on there own with my JVC, but they sounded really good top to bottom.

[MattN03]

I wasn't really happy with the sound of my 635 after using EasyEQ either. I set it up by ear for the time being, and plan to have a friend set everything once I purchase a CSi5 and rears.

[kingsqueak]

When my fronts were mismatched the EZSet EQ made things sound better/smoother.

Now that I have matched fronts, I only run the EZSet EQ settings for older movies. It makes the overall EQ sound a bit I guess 'dark'. Seems to cut quite a lot out around 500/630/800 Hz, like a big fat dip centered on 630. This crisps up dialogue quite a bit but it makes music sound thin.

Once I matched up the fronts with RTi/CSi series, I generally leave the EQ disabled entirely.

[jeffwalter]

What was your fix to this issue. I find that easy set many times has issues on my system. I have had to run several passes to come up with an acceptable level.

[Lowell_M]

I played around the the bass, treble and sub levels a little bit..still wasn't happy so I re-ran easyset and listened for a few days. Then I set the sub 4db hotter than Easyset and listened some more...music and HT. After all of the playing I stopped with the last setup mentioned and am VERY happy with the sound. I think that I was just too used to the muddled sound I was getting from my old receiver (JVC).....Oh, I forgot...I also manually set the RTI70's to small. Easyset set them to large. Crossover is at 80hz also on all speakers. Easyset put the center crossover at 120hz, but dialog had too much bass so I set it back to 80 hz. Seems great now.

I absolutely love the sound of my setup now. The only semi-near term upgrade I could forsee would be a source upgrade (JVC DVD player currently) and then maybe an SVS sub, but really I'm pretty happy with the Velo.