Do you use Audyssey (or equivalent) features on your amp

[rubberduck]

Interested to hear people's views on this... I tend to turn them all on. While I wouldn't say I have a hearing problem I struggle to discriminate speech when there is a lot of background noise such as in a busy pub/club... Likewise, with home cinema I often have the problem of explosions being obnoxiously loud while whispered dialogue with an actor doing an accent can be difficult to pick out... And I find nothing more frustrating than not being able to understand speech in a film. On the flip side I believe too much audio processing may make things worse so with all the Audyssey settings, dynamic range compression, cinema equilibration etc. how do you decide what will give you the best results?

 

[rubberduck]

Centre speaker is above projector screen angled down.

 

[rubberduck]

Surely it's whatever sounds best to you?

Getting hung up on "reference" sound if you aren't listening at reference levels, in an optimally shaped room is a pointless exercise.

I use the Audyssey room correction on my Denon, as I don't have an optimal shaped room. Pretty sure I also have some form of Dynamic Volume turned on, as well as boosting the centre channel slightly, and a reference level offset.

Is it the best possible sound quality? Unlikely
Is it the best possible experience for my room/viewing habits? I like to think so

I just don't see how you can listen to a scene, change some settings on your amp, rewatch the same scene and then make a decision on the differences in audio quality between the 2 listenings.... How do you remember exactly what the first listening sounded like to compare to the second? Its not like doing a side by side visual comparison where detecting subtle differences between two screens is straightforward.