Need help analyzing

[Ccumato]

I setup REW and mini dsp mic. I did some measuring but I’m not sure how to read the data. I’m watching all the videos but I’m trying to figure out why my speakers sound terrible. Can we see that on REW?

 

[DanDan]

Yes we can. REW is like, well is, an Acoustic Laboratory. If you can post your REW file .mdat we can help display it's messages for you.
However, the ear and brain and language are pretty good too. Some details of your room, photos, diagrams would be useful. And our speakers?
Jumping the gun perhaps, but in my experience the single biggest and most frequent issues in treated rooms are are lack of bass, and unusually clear treble.
We often listen mid height and mid width, in two nulls. Speakers are often a few feet from the Front Wall, causing a further LF null.
Absorption will probably dull the HF of the room, but the removal of HF cancelling Early Reflections causes extreme clarity in the path from tweeter to ear.
Although contra popular opinion and practice, placing the speakers close to, almost touching, the wall, is a really cheap solution!
Similarly, if you have biamp speakers, turning down the HF, or inserting a simple resistor, can help.
DRC such as Dirac enables one to create a pleasing listening curve. Research shows this to be quite radically tilted by about 6dB from HF down to LF.

 

[Ccumato]

Do I need to test the left Separately, then write separately, then center.

running 3.1

 

[John Mulcahy]

Yes, measure speakers separately.

 

[Ccumato]

Yes, measure speakers separately.

ok I’ll google how to do that.On my window it just had right and left.

 

[Ccumato]

Here is the files. If I did something wrong please let me know. I moved the Left channel speaker wires to each speaker. Left then Center and then Right. I labeled them LCR. went from 20hz to 22,000 hz.

Running 3.1 system with pc2000 sub - No Audyssey No Eq 120hz cross over.

Thank you in advance

 

[Ccumato]

bump

 

[John Mulcahy]

Pretty loud measurements, I'd measure about 15 dB quieter personally. Could also start the measurements at a lower frequency.
There are some pretty sharp peaks at the low end, could EQ them down if you have an EQ capability in the system, and/or see if they are better at other positions if you have some flexibility in placing the listening position or speakers.

 

[Ccumato]

Pretty loud measurements, I'd measure about 15 dB quieter personally. Could also start the measurements at a lower frequency.
There are some pretty sharp peaks at the low end, could EQ them down if you have an EQ capability in the system, and/or see if they are better at other positions if you have some flexibility in placing the listening position or speakers.

Thank you John.

I cannot really move the soundbar, but i did move the subwoofer to the left side of the stand. That is more center of the room than in the corner. Also I did apply Audyssey. But what is weird if I limit audyssey to 500hz and below it lowers my signal from 500hz to 20,000hz by 3db at least. When I apply audyssey to the entire signal it keeps it the same.

This file is Subwoofer on the left side, with Audyssey correction.

What should my next step be

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'd be tempted to bump your sub's gain up about 3 or 4dB... use the 150Hz crossover setting... go in the Audyssey app... expand correction up to 800Hz... reload the correction file into your AVR... take a new REW measurement.

 

[Ccumato]

I had it running full range Audyssey. but lowered it to 800hz. Reloaded the file and cross over at 150hz and moved the svs sub from -10 to -7 on the SVS App. Personally that sounds terrible but I am now gonna upload the measurement.

Red is 200hz crossover 400hz Audyssey and below -10db Sub
Blue is 200hz crossover Full Audyssey and below -10db Sub
Green is 150hz crossover 800hz Audyssey and below -7db Sub

 

[Todd Anderson]

Minus the dip between 165 and 205, it looks pretty good to me. But, your ears are infinitely more important than the graph.

What doesn't sound right?

 

[Ccumato]

With Audyssey at 400-800hz and below it actually lowers all the frequency above 800hz so its 2-3db less

If I do fully Audyssey it keeps it at the same level as no Audyssey at all.

so partial Audyssey affects the highs loudness. Same peaks and dips but at lower volume for some reason. I would of thought it wouldn’t of touched the higher frequency’s but it does.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Audyssey typically likes to tame subwoofer volume output... I always manually tweak it to my liking post calibration. You can do the same, just go into your AVR settings and bump up the sub gain.

As for that null at 165-205... that might be best corrected by speaker/sub placement. You definitely have a challenging space.

I'd be tempted to pull all of the gear out into the middle of your room and move things around, etc, until you are satisfied that you're getting the best output possible. Then see if you like the speaker or not. It could be that your ear and the speaker aren't meant to be.... I'd be surprised because I think that soundbar is particularly adept at playback. But, it just might not be the right one for you.

 

[DanDan]

What John said...... 10Hz. I would omit Audyssey until you have found an optimum Sub location. Keep an open mind, half way up a wall could place it usefully in a modal null. Or half length or width. Even under a couch or table should be on the cards.