Midrange horn beaming.

[billfitzmaurice]

Recording and live sound engineers have been using manually adjusted 31 band EQs since the 1980s and haven't had trouble getting good results. With auto EQ software it's child's play. It takes longer to set up the mic than it does for the system to set the EQ.

[fpitas]

What Bill said. It took me a while to get good at EQ, but it's worth it. Yes, if you do it badly it will sound bad. I like horns, so I took the effort to get good at it.

[Stash]

I'm assuming the auto eq software referred to by Bill is much more sophisticated/accurate than the auto calibration which is included with Yamaha receivers?

My receiver supposedly includes parametric eq in auto calibrate mode. But, it never sounds right to me. Although I have not tried it yet, since I built my Mach Ones. I typically use the auto calibrate to set distance and levels. Then I disregard the auto-set eq, re-adjusting it by ear, and re-adjusting levels of the rear surround speakers, as they always seem to be set a bit too low. The resulting sound via the auto calibration always seems to be more mid-bass heavy, sacrificing lowest octave tones. Mids and highs never sound right to me either. I've been disappointed with the auto cal. I had envisioned the parametric equalizer squeezing out the deepest bass and fine tuning the treble.

With so many AV set-ups like mine, (TV optical line-out to receiver input), I'm surprised there are no digital eq components to connect between the TV and receiver. I imagine a digital 31 band/ch eq would not be that expensive (no pots, just a few buttons and a screen).

[fpitas]

Sorry, I know next to nothing about AVRs or Auto EQ.

[Stash]

AEIOU makes a good point. And it reinforces my opinion of the auto-calibration on many surround receivers. Maybe high end studio equip with auto eq and room analyzers work well. But at substantial cost. However, when the average Joe buys a receiver for a few hundred dollars, the included calibration programming and limited eq, mic set-up, etc, is meant more for the uneducated ear. Not for the critical listener.

Manual 31 band/ch graphic eqs are much more affordable. One can be purchased for $100-$200. But the problem there is how to loop the eq into a modern surround receiver.