Show us your gear!

[mandrix]

So far, I’ve only used the system to watch the AbuDabi Formula 1 race off my DVR. I haven’t set up diddy yet, still dealing with wiring and all the spousal duty projects (in spite of her despair over the theater being a work space at the moment). Sound was not impressive, but again, zero setup, just passsing signals.

The room has four seats, with the MLP in the left front, so I do move the mic around when I’m running the calibration. Back right is way too close to the back right speaker, but back left sounds pretty good in 5.1 - in fact that’s where I sit when I’m listening to surround sound alone. The front seats have high backs - something I hadn’t considered when I bought them 15 years ago.

Probably you already know how you're going to go about it, but I guess normally the speaker delays are captured from wherever you pick the MLP to be, which to me should be the center of the listening area. Then subsequent mic placement can be as broad or tight as you think it should be at different elevations.
I confess I don't know much about Audyssey and their recommendations. But at some point down the line I'd highly recommend getting a minidsp UMIK-1 mic, they have a good rep and come with calibration file.
Usually around the $100 price range.
But I know for now you just want to dial in what you have as time permits.

 

[barfle]

Probably you already know how you're going to go about it, but I guess normally the speaker delays are captured from wherever you pick the MLP to be, which to me should be the center of the listening area. Then subsequent mic placement can be as broad or tight as you think it should be at different elevations.
I confess I don't know much about Audyssey and their recommendations. But at some point down the line I'd highly recommend getting a minidsp UMIK-1 mic, they have a good rep and come with calibration file.
Usually around the $100 price range.
But I know for now you just want to dial in what you have as time permits.

Usually the first thing I do is follow the directions. Then, I’m likely to fiddle with stuff as I grow dissatisfied.

 

[mandrix]

Yesterday I made adjustments to speaker locations/heights for my base speakers. Which means today, everything willing, when my wife goes to town to pick up the grocery order, I'm going to have to do a new 9 point calibration. I've worked with Dirac Live enough to get through it usually without hassles if there is no background noise interfering. (someone at the neighbors is running a trackhoe right now!)
Though my sub's volume pot gets flaky sometmes....of course it will pick the time I'm doing calibrations usually.
Dirac has a sort of learning curve, like a lot of things, but I know it fairly well now.

 

[ar surround]

when my wife goes to town to pick up the grocery order, I'm going to have to do a new 9 point calibration.

if there is no background noise interfering. (someone at the neighbors is running a trackhoe right now!)

Some things are universal: Wife needs to be out of the house. Dog needs to be locked up so it won't start barking at squirrels and other random noises. Construction equipment, etc. Amazing it ever gets done at all.

 

[mandrix]

Some things are universal: Wife needs to be out of the house. Dog needs to be locked up so it won't start barking at squirrels and other random noises. Construction equipment, etc. Amazing it ever gets done at all.

Brother, ain't that the truth.

 

[mandrix]

well anyway I just finished the calibrations before the trackhoe moved up close to my property line.
Should be good unless/until I start moving stuff around in the room.

 

[weekendtoy]

...I have a couple of camera tripods that the mic fits on...

A good tripod is essential to achieve the most accurate measurement data.

 

[mandrix]

I use a cheapo camera tripod for my calibration mic. But one of those boom mic stands would be super handy as well.

 

[mandrix]

I know this is deviating from the subject at hand, but wanted to add something about calibration techniques.
Note my experience is with Dirac Live...I use the pc app to run the software and a UMIK-1 mic....I have almost zero knowledge about other calibration methods these days.

I sit in one place when I listen to music, in a chair, not on a couch, and I'm the only one in the room so I use generally a "9 point" calibration in what Dirac calls a "tightly focused" listening area.
This is with the mic placed in 9 different positions, both at ear level, higher and lower.
The problem, if you can call it one, is you don't want to do all the mic placements too close to the MLP, even for a single sitting position.
My total spread is about a two meter radius around the MLP. Mic placements all clustered very close to the MLP makes for a somewhat "dry" sound, IMO.

Of course to encompass a larger listening audience, say multiple seats or couches, one would want to expand the area of measurements and choose even more mic placements if the software used allows.

Moving the base 5 speakers off the walls a ways (where possible) can sometimes have a marked result on the outcome. Sub placement can make a big difference as well.
Never place rear ported speakers right up against a wall.

Just FWIW.

 

[barfle]

So this is the sort of Bullsnot I've been running into trying to put a new Atmos pre-pro into my system. The old unit was a Marantz 7701, the new one is a Marantz 7706. They are the same size, although of course the new unit has more connectors on the back.

I already showed the new Emotiva BasX 6 channel amp, and it's actually smaller than my old Akai 2-channel amp. So I decided I'd give my new turntable a bit more room. The turntable is on the top shelf, and the amp is on the bottom. So rip it all out.

You can see a few of the cable management devices I built for the sliding shelves. They are basically two fairly long sticks with a hinged piece in between, and a way to attach the ends to the sliding shelf and the wall of the cabinet. The cables are zip tied to sticky squares that I've also screwed into the wood. They make it a lot easier to pull a shelf out if I need to get to the back of a piece of gear, but they also mean there's more threading of cables.

Note the outlet strip close to the top. Not also that I'm adding a bunch of modules to deal with record playing: a NAD PP2i preamp, a dbx decoder, an Esoteric Sound surface noise reduction unit, a Surround Master V3, a Marantz CD-400B CD-4 decoder, and a Zektor switch. Four of those are powered by wall-warts, which take up about 1½ times the space of a regular plug, which pretty much means double. So I tossed that strip and ordered this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C38SR1W1?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Pretty cool. Wall warts fit in every outlet. Except that the strip doesn't fit in the spot it belongs. So I had to modify it a bit. Fortunately, I have the torx drivers to disassemble the unit. I removed the switch and sawed off that end of the top of the strip. The bottom has a ground stud, so I had to saw off the same amount from the opposite end of the bottom, then put it all back together.

So now it looks like this:

It's coming together, but this evening I was going to watch a movie from my mountain, and it turns out the HDMI cable to my TV refuses to pass signal. Amazon has one coming, but not until Monday.

Criminy.

 

[mandrix]

So this is the sort of Bullsnot I've been running into trying to put a new Atmos pre-pro into my system. The old unit was a Marantz 7701, the new one is a Marantz 7706. They are the same size, although of course the new unit has more connectors on the back.

I already showed the new Emotiva BasX 6 channel amp, and it's actually smaller than my old Akai 2-channel amp. So I decided I'd give my new turntable a bit more room. The turntable is on the top shelf, and the amp is on the bottom. So rip it all out.

View attachment 112060

You can see a few of the cable management devices I built for the sliding shelves. They are basically two fairly long sticks with a hinged piece in between, and a way to attach the ends to the sliding shelf and the wall of the cabinet. The cables are zip tied to sticky squares that I've also screwed into the wood. They make it a lot easier to pull a shelf out if I need to get to the back of a piece of gear, but they also mean there's more threading of cables.

Note the outlet strip close to the top. Not also that I'm adding a bunch of modules to deal with record playing: a NAD PP2i preamp, a dbx decoder, an Esoteric Sound surface noise reduction unit, a Surround Master V3, a Marantz CD-400B CD-4 decoder, and a Zektor switch. Four of those are powered by wall-warts, which take up about 1½ times the space of a regular plug, which pretty much means double. So I tossed that strip and ordered this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C38SR1W1?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Pretty cool. Wall warts fit in every outlet. Except that the strip doesn't fit in the spot it belongs. So I had to modify it a bit. Fortunately, I have the torx drivers to disassemble the unit. I removed the switch and sawed off that end of the top of the strip. The bottom has a ground stud, so I had to saw off the same amount from the opposite end of the bottom, then put it all back together.

So now it looks like this:
View attachment 112061

It's coming together, but this evening I was going to watch a movie from my mountain, and it turns out the HDMI cable to my TV refuses to pass signal. Amazon has one coming, but not until Monday.

Criminy.

Man I hate wall warts. The router has one and the OIT has one, so they are both on different UPS's.
I have an old oak dining table my AVR & Reciever/other stuff sit on. It has two UPS underneath. What with 4 disc spinners, 2 pc's, router, speakers, printer, whatever I spent half a day yesterday rerouting wires. It's still a mess under there but a little less so.. My wife justs shakes her head. lol.
I did get some wiring channel between the disc spinner shelf and the AVR recently though to hide all those cables.

Tying to see where I can jam in another tv. It's a 4K from years ago but sitting around doing nothing so I want to use it for my monitor if I can figure this out.
Move some disc spinners off the shelf? IDK. What a mess.

Oh yeah the pc's/AVR are all tied together with an HDMI switch, then there's the KVR switch, both on my desk with my monitor. Jeez Louise. Temporarily moved the printer.
This tv is a heavy 4K one from years ago, but it's sitting around doing nothing so I want to use in the audio room. My 4K monitor has not been cooperating well lately.