Hello friends!
I've been calibrating my system in the last few days and the readings I've been getting have been somewhat......... disappointing... well, more than disappointing, they made me start to wonder if I have faulty material I was not aware of...

List of equipment:
Anthem MRX 720;
GE Triton Three's at the front;
GE SuperCenter XXL;
GE SuperSat 3's as Surround Speakers;
GE SuperSub XXL.


These are my sub's readings, in 4 different positions (the ones I am able to set it up)

As you see, VERY FAR from the 10hz-250hz we find in the spec sheet.

It's set like this:



Here you see Front Right and Front Left

Crossover was set to 150hz!!!
I'm certain they can play WAY lower! Looked into my old notes when I had a Marantz SR7009 and Audyssey consistently set the crossover to 60hz.


SuperSat 3 Right Surround Speaker (similar reading to the Left Surround)

Crossover set to 200hz (VERY FAR from the suggested 120Hz for home cinema use)


Center Speaker (which I think is the only one that's OK)

Crossover was set to 80Hz... which seems right.... but howcome it's set to 80hz and the fronts are not?!


What could be causing this?!
The room? Positioning? Faulty equipment?

Thanks for any input you can give me!

Hi EdiMC. Welcome to the GE forum.

I'm only a two channel stereo/mono setup, but a phriend nevertheless

I honestly do not have a good answer for you. However, because you ask "What could be causing this?!" and are requesting *any* input, one thought comes to my mind. Specifically, it is conceivable your measurements are flawed in some way. GE products are measured by GE and usually independent reviewers such as, but not limited to, Stereophile Magazine.

And sure, it is also conceivable the equipment is defective. Probably not the case though.

Irrespective of measurements, how does it sound (to you)? I ask because I have a Schiit Yggdrasil-OG DAC. Notorious for measuring bad, but to some the holy grail of sound reproduction (at its price point and a bit beyond).

I'm sure others, including the Moderator, who are more knowledgeable in your specific equipment and multichannel will chime in.

Again, welcome. I do hope everything - including measurements - works out for you.

Best.

Hello and thank you GDHAL!

I've been around for a while but haven't participated yet

Well, to be honest, my main concern is more about what the measurements suggest rather than about the measurements theirselves (maybe the thread title should've been different eheh).

I see where you come from with your reference to your DAC.
The system sounds good to me, can't say that it doesn't. And I know that's the most important thing!
But I always like to be sure that things are working as expected/close to what's announced. That's my starting point.
And then go tweak things around to try to squeeze the most out of them (to the best of my ability). Sometimes I crash and fall... but it's all about the journey right?

But in this case, the completely "off" readings had me thinking...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I don't know...

I find it weird that the ARC algorithm sets a crossover of 80hz for the center speaker and then sets a crossover of 150hz to a pair of speakers that are more capable of reproducing lower frequencies than that center speaker...
Or that a sub that is supposed to play from 20hz (realistically) to 250hz starts to roll off at 120/150hz...

Changing the sub's position only (slightly) affected the lower end... the top end stayed basically the same...

Could it be the mic?
I have a UMIK-1 and REW but, to be honest, haven't had the time to learn the software...

Thanks!

You're welcome, EdiMC

FWIW, I performed a cursory Internet search regarding the REW software. While the accuracy (or lack thereof) of that software is eluded to, there is nothing definitive I can find in that regard. So, it would appear as though the software itself is or can be accurate. However, it does appear (face value) that *proper usage* of that software can be difficult in terms of setup (in terms of proper configuration) and/or interpretation of the results.

For your reference:

www.hometheatershack.com/threads/accurac...e-measurements.2481/

www.avnirvana.com/threads/rew-impedance-...ement-accuracy.3642/

www.andyc.diy-audio-engineering.org/mso/...anual/measuring.html

www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/298735-re...and-fix-help/page/2/

Regarding your microphone, that too can be called into question only in-so-far as I note (Internet search) there are microphones used for measurements costing 10 times that of the UMIK-1. For instance, an Earthworks M50 50kHz Omnidirectional Measurement Microphone, or NTI M2211 Measurement Microphone for XL2 Analyzer - Class 1. I would suspect with a price differential as much as 10X, there should be, albeit not necessarily, increased accuracy with the higher costing product.

Best.

Hi guys!
So, after going through settings and more settings trying to understand what the heck was going on, it came to me: "let me see the graphs of the first calibration, when everything was sounding good, and compare them to the actual measurements!".

Well.......... the difference was obvious (regarding the mains)!


Long story short - requested replacement parts from GE and everything is now sorted!



The "Before" plots show the bass response with the knob gain set to min, med and max position.
The "After" measurements only show the bass response with the gain knob set to min and med position...
Given the GIGANTIC difference, don't think it's necessary to measure it all the way up...


GE customer support was nothing but FABULOUS! I even got a "surprise"

Hi EdiMC.

That's terrific! Glad to read you got it sorted out. And, apparently your measurement graphs do provide you with an accurate data point.

And I wholeheartedly agree, GoldenEar support is fabulous.

Best.

Hal