# Audyssey and the House Curve



## Rudy81 (Aug 5, 2009)

I obviously have too much time on my hands since I have been wondering about the House curve and an Audyssey implementation.

I use Audyssey in my Integra DHC 9.9 and it does a nice job of flattening the response in my room. However, the results seem a little thin in the bass area and that got me to looking into human hearing. Based on the human hearing response curve, it makes sense that if we make a FR totally flat, we will perceive less SPL in bass and some other frequency ranges. 

I am currently using a DCX2496 to actively cross and EQ my mains. My thoughts on human hearing led me to read the house curve article and I started messing around with the Behringer DCX and found that boosting the bass makes the sound more pleasant and seem more balanced.

My question for you guys is this. Am I on the right track? Does Audyssey compensate for the human hearing curve in any way? Does it make sense to setup the DCX parametric EQ to compensate for the human hearing curve?

I looked around for a topic addressing this particular issue with Audyssey, but no luck.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Hey Rudy,

As far as I know, Audyssey does no house curve compensation. If your DCX is set up to equalize the subs as well as the mains, then you can use it to dial in a house curve. 

I assume by “human hearing curve” you mean something like the Fletcher-Munson curve? A house curve is compensation for the size of a room. The human hearing curves are related to the ear’s sensitivity at different _volume levels._ The only relation that has to a house curve (if anything) is that you should determine the slope you need at your normal listening volume.

Regards,
Wayne


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## laser188139 (Sep 19, 2009)

Hi Rudy,

Audyssey Dynamic EQ is supposed to address the same perceptual issues in a dynamic fashion as a house curve addresses in a static fashion. So if you calibrate flat with DynEQ off, then turn it on, it is intended to give you the same perceptual levels, at below reference volume, as you would hear in a theater at reference volume. 

Obviously you can adjust that with a house curve. And it is certainly possible that the retail Audyssey microphone is not as accurate as an individually calibrated ECM8000 or similar mic. I can't remember if you went the route of Audyssey Pro, which I thought came with a more accurate mic than the standard Audyssey mic. 

Cheers,
Bill


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## Rudy81 (Aug 5, 2009)

Yes, I was thinking of the Fletcher-Munson curves. I was not interested so much in the change of the curves as volume is changed, but say the static curve at 80 phons or something which will approximate Audyssey's Reference volume level. 

No, I do not have the Pro Audyssey Kit. Rather expensive when I have so much other audio gear to get. 

My question came up since I have been using the Audyssey for a few years now and invariably found that the calibrations generally reduce my bass a little too much.

I do have Dynamic EQ, but it just does not seem to work as well as the 'theory' would indicate.

I was curious as to what Audyssey is really doing vis a vis human hearing, and the effect of my messing around with he DCX to change what Audyssey has done without changing the rest of the speakers. That seems to be a great advantage of using an active speaker.


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