Audyssey or manual setup?

iostream · 7 Jul 2016 at 12:33

Hi folks,

Well I've decided to try and dip my toes into the world of audio a little further, as I know very little.

Someone is selling a Denon AVR-1911 AV receiver locally for £100, and I'm tempted. If I pick it up I'll then start the search for some reasonably decent 5.1 speakers (this is all for my living room).

However the seller has said he doesn't have the setup mic that came with the receiver. From my searching online it seems I can use a digital sound level meter to setup my speakers manually, although not sure I want to do this.

Searching for "denon audyssey" on the old auction site gets me a setup mic for £14. It's either that or I spent the same amount on the sound level meter for a manual setup.

Thoughts? Anyone used the Audyssey feature?

Appreciate your time.

Cheers!

iostream · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:07

theone8181 said:
Audyssey is brilliant, not sure you would be able to replicate it very well with a sound meter as im not sure you can adjust as many frequencies manually. On a side note beware that not all the mikes are interchangeable across the denon range. My current amp uses a completely different model number of mike to my old 1610. Also how does somebody lose the setup mike?

Ah, hadn't considered that the microphones would change from model to model. Hmm. May give this particular receiver a miss then - and yes, no idea how they lost it!

iostream · 7 Jul 2016 at 13:08

Mr_Sukebe said:
I've heard mixed reports of all systems out there. Clearly they work brilliantly for some rooms, less so in others.
Can you get a mic that can be used with both the amp and say REW running on a laptop? That would give you the option of measuring your room and then comparing the output both with and without the automated room correction.

Yeah it seems to be a bit of a love/hate thing from what I can gather online. Haven't heard of REW, shall check it out - thanks!

iostream · 25 Jul 2016 at 15:29

Thanks for all the advice guys. Been a chaotic couple weeks, haven't had time to look at anything. Alas the receiver has been sold, the hunt continues. Will make sure the next one has the setup mic though, sounds like it does a good job overall, plus a couple tweaks to taste.

Curlyriff - I'm at the sucking eggs level

Will have a poke around on AVForums as well. Just realised they have a for sale section too