YPAQ Question

[bubslewis]

For those of you special forum members that have experience with Yamaha A/V receivers:

When using the YPAQ room equalization with the microphone, can you set (and save) speaker equalization setups for individual formats (such as cd, Prologic II, enhanced surround, phono, etc)?

Or is the YPAQ setup generic to all formats? When I run a YPAQ it always tells me what format I'm in at the top of the tv screen, but does that have any meaning?

[likeitloud]

The settings you end up with are the baseline, most auto set-up mikes need tweaking
manually, go to speaker set-up manual, set your levels, and save them in custom.
The setting you choose, is locked, no matter the format. The format itself, will change
the sound. My pioneer has 4 custom settings, I use in different formats. Some formats
DTS/Prologic/Neo, you can't adjust, it is what it is. Also get a SPL meter and check
your speaker balance, It will be off, just using your ears. Good Luck

[kexodusc]

YPAO sets the speakers for all formats.
It's not a bad idea to double check the settings for distance and spl it rrives at, but truth be told, the included mics in most receivers with auto setup are better and more accurate than the $0.30 mics you'd find in your basic Radio Shack SPL meter. My RS meter usually agrees with it, but if there's a discrepancy, I haul out the Galaxy Audio meter, far more accurate, and results are always within 1 dB.

Sometimes these things have a bad habbit of setting small speakers to large a room mode gets excited. The subwoofer can also be problematic, making an spl meter essential.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

YPAO sets the speakers for all formats.
It's not a bad idea to double check the settings for distance and spl it rrives at, but truth be told, the included mics in most receivers with auto setup are better and more accurate than the $0.30 mics you'd find in your basic Radio Shack SPL meter. My RS meter usually agrees with it, but if there's a discrepancy, I haul out the Galaxy Audio meter, far more accurate, and results are always within 1 dB.

Sometimes these things have a bad habbit of setting small speakers to large a room mode gets excited. The subwoofer can also be problematic, making an spl meter essential.

I must admit I absolutely do not trust Yamaha's YPAO system. There were several inaccurate consistancies that occurred when I tried to use it to setup a friends system. It kept making his small speakers large inspite of the fact they were NOT in a mode. The correct distance of the subwoofer was never reached, and its equalization left alot to be desired when checked with a SA with greater than 1/3 octave resolution.

This system may be great for the average joe, but for those of use that like to attain the maximum performance from our system, its just plain inadequate. I personally like the system in the Denon much better. Its much more sophisticated, accurate and flexible than the Yamaha's.

[kexodusc]

I must admit I absolutely do not trust Yamaha's YPAO system. There were several inaccurate consistancies that occurred when I tried to use it to setup a friends system. It kept making his small speakers large inspite of the fact they were NOT in a mode. The correct distance of the subwoofer was never reached, and its equalization left alot to be desired when checked with a SA with greater than 1/3 octave resolution.

This system may be great for the average joe, but for those of use that like to attain the maximum performance from our system, its just plain inadequate. I personally like the system in the Denon much better. Its much more sophisticated, accurate and flexible than the Yamaha's.

No arguments here - the eq-ing below 100 Hz is useless, same with Pioneer's and HK's. Same with sub distance - well it was on my RX-V1400. I think my new unit is good for another 20 Hz or so. The 1400 read my sub consistently at 19 ft distance instead of 9.5 ft.
My 5890 is bang on for the distance though. I think Yamaha just had more bugs from pushing it out to the market first.

I have no real way to measure the EQ effectiveness in the upper octaves - to be honest, I've never heard any setup/eq feature sound better if all the speakers were matched, maybe if I brought in unmatched speakers that would matter. I still think for all but the average Joe, those auto-setup things are overrated big time.

One thing though, I know at the lower price points, $900 and below, the flexibility features are pretty much the same across the brands, what specifically did you like in which Denon model over what Yammie???....mom and dad are ready to spring for a new unit to replace their Onkyo, and certainly WILL benefit from auto-setup....(does Onkyo have auto seup yet?)

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

No arguments here - the eq-ing below 100 Hz is useless, same with Pioneer's and HK's. Same with sub distance - well it was on my RX-V1400. I think my new unit is good for another 20 Hz or so. The 1400 read my sub consistently at 19 ft distance instead of 9.5 ft.
My 5890 is bang on for the distance though. I think Yamaha just had more bugs from pushing it out to the market first.

I have no real way to measure the EQ effectiveness in the upper octaves - to be honest, I've never heard any setup/eq feature sound better if all the speakers were matched, maybe if I brought in unmatched speakers that would matter. I still think for all but the average Joe, those auto-setup things are overrated big time.

One thing though, I know at the lower price points, $900 and below, the flexibility features are pretty much the same across the brands, what specifically did you like in which Denon model over what Yammie???....mom and dad are ready to spring for a new unit to replace their Onkyo, and certainly WILL benefit from auto-setup....(does Onkyo have auto seup yet?)

Kex,
A couple of things I like with the Denon system. Its EQ has much more resolution at lower frequencies(1/10) and 1/3 for frequencies above 80hz. Also it can equalize more seats for a flat frequency response as it averages its measurements between several seating area's. It is a much better engineered system, and much more accurate as well.

[kexodusc]

Kex,
A couple of things I like with the Denon system. Its EQ has much more resolution at lower frequencies(1/10) and 1/3 for frequencies above 80hz. Also it can equalize more seats for a flat frequency response as it averages its measurements between several seating area's. It is a much better engineered system, and much more accurate as well.

That's very cool...measurements from 6 seating areas certainly would be a much better approach...I don't use the EQ, and usually advise against them to people with these features unless there's mismatched speakers and things sound bad, and even then I find manual adjustments to be better. But it seems Denon is taking a more useful approach to this. Good for them...my new Yammie got the accuracy down pat, but the EQ'ing is still suspect, no improvement there other than accurately reading my speakers as Small. Denon obviously thought to improve things significantly, even the Denon 2805 unit i played witha year ago wasn't nearly that sophisticated, and had the ol' stick the mic in 1 spot process.


Competition is good. 2 years ago that level of sophistication only came with flagship receivers at the $3 K point or more.

[bubslewis]

I must admit I absolutely do not trust Yamaha's YPAO system. There were several inaccurate consistancies that occurred when I tried to use it to setup a friends system. It kept making his small speakers large inspite of the fact they were NOT in a mode. The correct distance of the subwoofer was never reached, and its equalization left alot to be desired when checked with a SA with greater than 1/3 octave resolution.

This system may be great for the average joe, but for those of use that like to attain the maximum performance from our system, its just plain inadequate. I personally like the system in the Denon much better. Its much more sophisticated, accurate and flexible than the Yamaha's.

I have to agree with you about trusting the YPAO. Every once in a while when I do a setup, it gives me a "subwoofer out of phase" message. There's a 180 degree phase switch on the sub, so I switch it and rerun the YPAO and it says everything is OK. Trouble is I have a hard time telling by ear if the sub is in phase or not.