YPAO Firsttimer here... questions...

[Worf101]

Hey Kex and any and all YPAO users. As you may have read in my last thread I set up my first system with a Yammie receiver with YPAO. The manual was clear and the on screen menu was fine. Test's ran perfectly and it was a pretty impressive sight let me tell you. BUT, when we played a DVD we found we weren't getting any sound from the center channel and no LFE feed to the sub. Finally I went into the menu and manually added both the sub and center channel. What did I do wrong? Also if I run YPAO again will it void these settings and cause those speakers to dissappear again?

Thanks in advance

Da Worfster

[Woochifer]

My understanding is that the first receivers with the YPAO calibration need a very quiet room to function properly. Things like ventilation ducts, street noises, or just people moving around while the tests are in progress, can create erroneous readings. A couple of the reviews I've read suggest repeating the calibration tests to get it closer to what you need, and then do any necessary manual overrides. Supposedly, Yamaha did improve the YPAO with the RX-V1500/2500. The tests are supposed to be faster and not as error prone as before.

[JSE]

I had no problems like that on my RX-V1400 but I have read about some weird quirks kindof like the ones you mentioned. My YPAO did a good job but I still made a few minor adjustments. I turned my sub level up a bit from what it reccomended. I have two tower mains with built in subs so this may have fooled it a bit. Seems a bit odd that it would cut out your center channel and LFE. Easy fix though I guess. I might try it again just to see if it would correct these errors. If it turns them back off, you know how to adjust.

JSE

[kexodusc]

Hmm, this is odd, Worfster...
My 1400 doesn't have much problem with external noise affecting the readings provided there's only "background noise" around 65 dB level or lower. In fact, it's far more accurate than myself, a test disc, and my Radio Shack SPL, meter. I measure with a $500 Galaxy Audio SPL meter one of my ex-band mates swiped from his studio for me...it's a lot more accurate than the RS meter, and the receiver is just about bang on...+/- 0.5 dB usually. The trick is to line up the tripod or whatever is holding the microphone in the right spot. I usually place a towel or something underneath the mic to "insulate" any reflected sound, since a hard surface is probably adding a bit of coloration.

The one issue I do get though, depending on speaker placement and toe in, is that my speakers will sometimes be set as "large" and sometimes "small"...I go in and manually "shrink" 'em down to small. YPAO sets bass out to "both" which I also switch to sub, and the xo at 80 Hz, which I drop to the 60 Hz. These are more preference based than flaws in the unit I think.
If I had one complaint, it'd be that it reads my subwoofer (about 10 feet away) as being 18 feet away, and sets the volume as absolutely low as is possible, and sometimes reads an error like "LFE volume too high, please reduce and run again", but in fact instead of being a -10 dB cut, it's more like a -2 dB cut.
I assume room gain or a node or something at the microphone's position is messing that up. As for the difference, could be the phase settings I have? don't know...sounds good, I'm happy, but I'd love a lesson in determining proper phase settings for a subwoofer and mains.

If there's no center channel, try it again, maybe plug a main speaker in there, check for errors, etc, make sure the speakers were in fact plugged in and working...It should register if there's a phase problem, so I doubt that's it. If you run YPAO again, and don't run "reload" or "last", (just "auto") it'll be fine, and start from scratch again. I'm wondering if you maybe triggered a reload of a previous setting or something...

I hope all goes well, report back and let us know...good luck, Sarge.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I think that the new auto setup found in some receivers is a pretty handy tool for most folks, however based on what I have read here, and on other sites, this technology is not perfected just yet, and I defintely would not part with my RTA or my SPL meter for it.
For those that find setting up a receiver a tedious task, this is a VERY valuable function.