Audyssey sound calibration for Dolby Atmos with S8 / BL14

I have the following setup:

Denon x4500h

Fronts: BL4000’s connected to pre-outs

Center, rear surround, surround, height front and height back: S8 satellites connected to S8 subwoofers. The subwoofers are feed from the amplified section of the receiver.

When I do the Audyssey calibration, I notice that the subwoofer element is moving while the satelittes are being tested.

Does this mess up the calibration?

Would it be better to connect the satelittes directly to the receiver?

Hey Leo, My BL14 is connected to a Marantz NR1710, so the Audessey calibration is quite familiar.

From my understanding, some of the full-range signal is diverted to the subwoofer. This is why the BL14/S8 documents recommend setting the satellites to "Large". Basically, the subwoofer not only acts as the unit to produce the LFE signals, but also takes care of the lower end frequencies of each channel.

On a "normal" sub-sat system (with passive small satellites), you would assign those channels as "Small", in which case, the amp/receiver will divert lower frequencies to the Sub. However, with the BL14/S8, this is all done internally, which again, is why you are supposed to set each channel as "Large". 

At the end of the day, what you're experiencing is normal and expected. Additionally, you can tell this is correct, because once calibration is complete, Audessey would have determined that each channel was "Large". 

The only issue I've had is Audessey not getting distance and volume correct, so I do those manually. TBH, I only use Audessey calibration for frequency compensation. 

I'd be interested to see what the rest of your settings look like!

*By the way, does this mean you were able to create a D-Sub cable?

 

Cheers.

I actually got two original d-sub cables.

After doing the Audyssey calibration, all the satellites show as small.

One important thing to mention is that I don’t have curtains, so there is a lot of reverb in the room.

So proper calibration can’t take place before I have got the curtains. (Also installing new windows).

Hi Leo,

did you try to do a manual calibration?

I would not trust Audyssey with this kind of speakers combination....those values look rather odd!

MM

Yes, they are horrible. There are a couple of potential reasons. I will write a bit longer tomorrow.

Totally agree with MM.... the auto-calibration settings are a bit wonky.

I will say that my Audessey also set everything to -12.0dB. Not to mention that the distances were pretty off - hence why I override them with my manual readings.

It's also curious that Audessey determined all but two channels as Small. I'm sure you're aware of all the necessary checks with phase and messing around with the subwoofer placement knob.

Looking forward to more details.

Regarding phase; I do get phase errors while running the setup, even if all cables are wired correctly. I read that it is common in larger rooms with reverb. I guess that curtains would fix that?

By the way - a good example of why B&O did not go for things like Audyssey in their products.

Even their own previous possibility of using a connected microphone for an automatic calibration of the BV’s/SoundCenter’s is no longer being used.

IMO what is needed is to measure the distances and to use a Sound Meter (can be an app) and do the calibration manually.

You’ll need a bit of experience - and probably a lot of trial and error - to get it right....if you want something that fits your room and your likings - especially with a setup with that many speakers.

MM

Dirac works perfect, many company's are using it.