Hi all,

Got my 990 all hooked up and I love it.
However, nagging me is the fact I couldn't get auto-calibration to work. I did all of the channels manually (ergonomically an improvement over my Rotel) because the 990 consistently told me that I had "small" main speakers and "large" surrounds. The 990 tells me to turn off the power and put the large speakers in front, and won't save any settings.(Yes, I did hear the test tone out of the appropriate speaker when the auto-calibration was running) This is simply absurd since I am running Floorstanding B&W P-6s as mains and Little Boston Accoustics Micro C-90s as surrounds. I confirmed that all speakers were operating as expected using the AVIA bass tone sweep. The p-6s have Bass down to 40 Hz (with a dropout around 60 Hz) The Boston Acoustics drop out after 100 Hz.

There appears to be some interaction with my subwoofer (A Sunfire MKII). If took the Sub out of the config, auto-cal worked fine. Put it back in and my "surrounds" became large and my mains became small. I listened to the sweeps at the same location I used the Mike, so I don't think this is a standing wave issue.

Anybody have any clues? Since no one else is complaining, there is probably something unique to my setup that is causing the auto-setup to go off the rails, but I am out of guesses.

Its not critical that I fix this, and I am definitely keeping the unit regardless, but I am a little worried that there is something I need to fix in my setup that I am not aware of.

Any ideas?

Complete Set up is:
B&W P-6 (LF, RF)
B&W HTM (center)
Boston Acoustic Micro C90 (lS, RS)
No Rear Surrounds (5.1 system)
Carver 5-Channel Amp
Outlaw 990

Thanks!

I mentioned this in the "today is the day" thread.
http://ubb.outlawaudio.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=34;t=000068;p=2#000064
I just chalked mine up to user error, even though I have no issues with my pioneer's auto setup. I did not have a problem with large or small setting, but my problem was I ran Auto EQ 4 times and got wildly different results. For instance one time it set my sub at -11 and the next time it set it at +10. It would also jump 6 or 7 feet differences between speakers. Like one time my left front was 12 ft away but another time it was 18 feet away? Curious.

Maybe try restting the unit to see if that helps. I've run the auto setup routine a couple of times. Every time I've run it it hits my sub with double the tones of the other channels but shorter bursts. Not sure if that's normal either. Seems to work OK though.

I set my system up manually the first time (both speaker size/crossovers and channel trim), then ran the auto-setup, and the 990 made no changes to my size or crossover settings (I don't know if it even does select crossover points). It also seemed to yield very similar results both times I ran it, and those results were pretty close to what I had come up with on my own. Was there anything weird in between the surrounds and the mic that might have messed things up?

Gonk, that's what I am figuring, that is was a user error. I guess time will tell, but either way, I set it up manually and to me it wasn't really an issue. I will play around with it again tonight and see if I can duplicate my initial results. The only thing I can think of is that I had the 990's box still in the middle of the room, but I figured that couldn't have caused that wild of fluctuation. I also have 4 windows in my room if that would make any type of weird feedback or something. I am more than willing to troubleshoot this if it is a problem, but more likely it was a user or room problem.

Cerebus,

I had the exact same experience with the auto-calibration the day I received the unit. It consistantly said the mains were small and the surrounds were large... I tried again the next day (moved the mic about 6 inches or so) and it consistantly said the sub was not connected. I'm guessing standing waves in the room may be confusing things. I setup manually using the RS meter and everything sounds great so I'm not too worried.

I ran Auto setup and it set the speakers correctly. I then did a manual setup and the setup was dead on. One thing I noticed is that the manual doesn't reference speaker calibration to 0db volume. My gripe with Auto Setup is that it does not check for correct wiring(Phase) of the speakers. My $400 Yamaha receiver has this feature and can be a help with 7 speaker wired.

My problem only happened after I tried to do it again, which was immediately afterwards. The first time it set it correctly. I mentioned that in my original post but don't think I did in this thread.

Only Air. I did try doing a system reset, but the problem is consistent. Its no biggie, since I just grabbed by trusty radio shack meter and did it by hand. I just wondered if anyone knew what the 990 was looking for that might cause it to make this determination - especially since the subwoofer seems to be the determining factor. Does the 990 somehow check speaker size using the SUB? I would have thought it would have been determined just the test signals on each speaker..

Can't explain that one... Sorry...