# Help with Onkyo 876 Audessey MultiEq XT and Quad L-ites 5.1



## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Hello, just joined today, so hello everyone!

I'm in need of help with my system and find i get puzzling results from Audessy Multieq XT on my Onkyo 876 and Quad L-ites 5.1 speaker package.

Specs for the speakers are...

Sat Speakers
30-120w
6 Ohm
sens 86db
freq response 70hz-24khz
crossover 2.2khz
freq Fb 70hz

Center Speaker
30-150w
6 Ohm
sens 87db
freq response 80hz-24khz
crossover 2.5khz
freq Fb 75hz

Powered Sub
300w
line in sensitivity 250mw - 100w
freq range 25hz-95hz
Low pass filter 35-85 in 10hz increments
input impediance 10k

I have the sub "low-pass filter" disabled and audessey auto setup comes up with the following...

Distances are correct.

Speaker Config
===========
Front (sats) - Full Band
Center - 100Hz
Surround (sats) - 80hz(THX)
LPF of LFE 80Hz(THX)
DoubleBass - ON

Equaliser settings
=============
Dynamic EQ selected (should this not be set to MultEQ XT)?

THX Audio setup
============
THX Sub - NO
Loudness Plus - ON
BGC - Greyed out
Preserve THX settings - Greyed out

Please can someone make sense of all this and tell me if these are correct or what should i change them to?

Thank you in advance!


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Hello and welcome aboard the Shack!

Lets back up a bit here, when your running Audessy are you placing the mic on a tripod pointing up at ear level on the seat that you sit on? how many positions do you read?


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Hi there,

Yes i have the mic on a tripod at ear height and take 6 measurements (watched a video some time ago, on using a tripod with Audessey and the 6 seating positions as follows...

positions

4-5-6
3-1-2

1 being the center seating position
4,5 and 6 being just in front of the seating area

Thanks.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Audessy is usually fairly good at getting things close, I would be curious if you were to re run the setup with only doing the front row twice so 2 x in each seat? its possible that your rear seating is too close to the back wall?


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Yes my seating it right up to the back wall as no room to move it forward and setup as follows...


-----DISPLAY TV-----
---L------C------R---
--SUB



---RL--SOFA--RR---
-----Rear wall--------


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Ok, whats probably happening is that Audessy is "hearing" the bass thats reflected off the rear wall. I would ignore the rear seating for the tests and just do the front row twice and see what you get for results.


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## JBrax (Oct 13, 2011)

What about background noise? When I ran Audyssey I went so far as to start flipping breakers so that no appliances were running to reduce background noise. You should also not be in the room while it's running its setup.


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Ok, i'll have to re-run the setup but will be tomorrow and i presume you mean to run twice at the 4-5-6 area?, my current 3-1-2 area measurements were about 60mm from the rear wall.

JBrax
I made sure of no background noise and do stand outside the living room when tests are being taken, thanks!


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yes, i would do it in the 456 area as the rear wall being right behind is giving you poor readings.


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Thank you, i'll report back tomorrow morning with the results.

Just thinking about the other settings like loudness plus etc... do these get set automatically by audessy? and audessy being set to Dynamic EQ and not MultEQ XT is this because i have 5.1 speakers and not 7.1?

Thanks.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

during Audessy it does not look at those settings and has no barring on the readings. Were those set by yourself or a previous owner at some point before you ran Audessy?


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

I did a factory reset before running audessy, just in case and didn't touch those settings.

What should i set them to?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

DoubleBass should be off for your speakers as your mains do not handel full range and Dynamic EQ can be on as its just a new form of "loudness" control like in the old stereos.
MultEQ XT and dynamic EQ are totally different things. MultEQ XT is the version of Audessy your receiver has. You will see the Audessy logo lit up in the display if it is on.


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Changed them, will be back tomorrow with the new results.

Thanks again tonyvdb.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

No problem, hope this helps.


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

Ok after reading up more on Audessey setup, i did find i was too close to the rear wall, so i moved the MLP forward so i was at the recommended 2 ft away!

Now i get better results as follows...

*Speaker config*
Front (sats) 70Hz
Center 100Hz
Rear (Sats) 80Hz(THX)
LPF 120Hz

So do i lower the rear sats to 70Hz or raise the front sats to match the 80Hz(THX) or leave it as it is?

Thanks.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Personally I would run all your speakers at 80Hz Its good to keep them all the same.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

tonyvdb said:


> Personally I would run all your speakers at 80Hz Its good to keep them all the same.


Is it bad lowering crossover from what Audyssey set?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

No not really, If the speaker can reproduce down to 80Hz then it should be set the same as all the rest.


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## -Hitman- (Dec 31, 2012)

I did read in the Audessey setup guide that it is recommended NOT to lower crossovers but it is ok to increase them.

After watching a film i have found it to be too bassy/loud when there is action, explosions etc...so may have to lower the bass level.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

-Hitman- said:


> I did read in the Audessey setup guide that it is recommended NOT to lower crossovers but it is ok to increase them.
> 
> After watching a film i have found it to be too bassy/loud when there is action, explosions etc...so may have to lower the bass level.


Lower the reference offset level from 0 reference to 5,10,15.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

-Hitman- said:


> I did read in the Audessey setup guide that it is recommended NOT to lower crossovers but it is ok to increase them.


Yes but they are referring to the frequency of the crossover.



> After watching a film i have found it to be too bassy/loud when there is action, explosions etc...so may have to lower the bass level.


It is OK to change the level, up or down, if you think necessary. Also, if you are using DEQ, you can change the offset.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

Kal Rubinson said:


> Yes but they are referring to the frequency of the crossover.
> 
> It is OK to change the level, up or down, if you think necessary. Also, if you are using DEQ, you can change the offset.


Is the frequency of the crossover not the same thing as speaker crossover?


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

asere said:


> Is the frequency of the crossover not the same thing as speaker crossover?


There are many parameters to a crossover and frequency is just one of them. Had -Hitman- said crossover point or frequency, I would not have tried to be so explicit.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Kal Rubinson said:


> There are many parameters to a crossover and frequency is just one of them. Had -Hitman- said crossover point or frequency, I would not have tried to be so explicit.


Indeed. Personally, I would use an 80hz XO for all channels and make sure to change the LPF of LFE from 80hz to 120hz.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

Jungle Jack said:


> Indeed. Personally, I would use an 80hz XO for all channels and make sure to change the LPF of LFE from 80hz to 120hz.


So in my case changing the 120 left, right main from 120 to 80 is better?


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

asere said:


> So in my case changing the 120 left, right main from 120 to 80 is better?


I am sorry as I must have not made it clear. The LPF of LFE is separate from the speaker crossover settings.
You will see it under Speaker Configuration. I would use 80hz as the crossover for all channels.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

Jungle Jack said:


> I am sorry as I must have not made it clear. The LPF of LFE is separate from the speaker crossover settings.
> You will see it under Speaker Configuration. I would use 80hz as the crossover for all channels.


What about the Audyssey filters? Lowering the speaker crossovers the filters will have a gap.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

asere said:


> What about the Audyssey filters? Lowering the speaker crossovers the filters will have a gap.


Provided all of your speakers are specced correctly, there will not be any gap. The LPF of LFE is a filter that is applied to the content of the separate LFE track found in 5.1 content. That content is authored up to 120 Hz and so the only correct setting is 120 Hz. For some reason, most Onkyo's default is 80hz.


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## asere (Dec 7, 2011)

Jungle Jack said:


> Provided all of your speakers are specced correctly, there will not be any gap. The LPF of LFE is a filter that is applied to the content of the separate LFE track found in 5.1 content. That content is authored up to 120 Hz and so the only correct setting is 120 Hz. For some reason, most Onkyo's default is 80hz.


I understand about the lfe 5.1 but I'm referring to the speaker crossover. Say Audyssey set the mains at 100 can I bring them down to 80?


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

asere said:


> I understand about the lfe 5.1 but I'm referring to the speaker crossover. Say Audyssey set the mains at 100 can I bring them down to 80?


That all goes back to whether or not your speakers are accurately specified down to 70hz for the Mains and I believe 80hz for the Center Channel. If you could tell us what speakers are being used, it would help to establish this.

The point of using an 80hz XO is for the subwoofer to be omnidirectional. That is that the bass is not easily localized. Above 80hz, it gets much easier to pinpoint exactly where the subwoofer is. In addition, subwoofers tend to do better when not handling frequencies higher than 80hz.


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