Well, it works for me! And - guess what - it turns out reasonable EQ presets, which genuinely sound better in my car. With a second set of ears listening, there was general agreement it makes the sound system sound much better. Worth persisting with, I'd say!

Here's the story:

- downloaded the Auto EQ test audio files to a new playlist, and made sure they were ordered by using ALT-drag to set them sequentially in correct playback order
- synched
- went to the car and plugged in the mic, making sure it clicked home properly against the face of the socket on the harness (IMPORTANT!)
- positioned the mic next to my head over my shoulder
- turned on the ignition, turned off the ventilation and other noisy bits
- plugged in Erik the Empeg and waited to boot
- went into HiJack, turned off Bass and Treble adjust
- turned off Auto Level Adjust
- dropped out of HiJack
- using the rotary, turned off beeps, cross fade, loudness, and centred the fader and balance
- in the main menu, chose Playback and turned off Repeat, Shuffle, etc.
- went to the playlist with the auto EQ test files and selected them for play with the arrow (Play All) then hit pause.
- went to the equaliser
- selected an unused equaliser preset (#16 in my case)
- selected locks to be independent
- selected channels to be 2 (Stereo) (IMPORTANT!)
- set the volume to -30 dB
- held our breaths, and....
- selected Auto EQ and away we went!!!! (Rumble Rumble Whirr Whirr Wheee Wheee Hisss Hisss)

It turned out (first try) a pretty boomy result (mic between the seats in the air at head height), then a much improved version (different preset, mic on driver's headrest). We then re-positioned it on the passenger's headrest (different preset again) and it went crazy - clicks, pops, howls, screams, all sorts of rubbish - but all on right channel. Left channel worked OK.

Tried it again, on the driver's side, and experimented with the volume a bit, and finally got a run of several similar settings that all improved the sound.

Observations:

- You need to set the volume at a reasonable level, no more than -15 dB. We tried 25 - 20 and got good results, but 15 seems to be the max before it flips it's gourd and starts playing "Apocalypse Now" soundtrack effects Any lower than about 35 didn't work (no adjustments made). As a general rule, the small VU meter in the top left is your friend - it tells the truth about what the unit can "hear". If the gain is too high, it goes bezerk - beware of this.

- You need to select the playlist with the test tracks in, or you get silence

- The tracks have to be ordered in emplode by sequence using ALT drag or there will be serious confusion

- I doubt that many of the microphone connectors on the sleds have ever been used. Mine seemed to prevent a clean entry of the mic plug: it finally clicked home after a hefty shove and the face of the plug finally butted up against the socket face. If the mic isn't connected, the empeg ain't listening - check the VU meter again to see if there is sound coming in.

- DON'T be tempted to choose the Microphone as an input Source from the main menu - it hangs up the player and looses any EQ settings you might have!

- it seems sensitive to mic positioning, but it IS sensitive and produces good results with a little experimentation. Positioning the mic near fabric seems to damp it's response and make it more stable.

- exit menus cleanly after you have done this and shut down the player properly or you will lose your shiney new EQ settings!

Have fun. I hope this little checklist helps you get it to work. If you have any questions, post here and I'll try it out on my own player and see if I can give you answers. I know Andy Marriot has had problems getting it to work, and if I read his story right, it sounds like he has got the gain high and maybe the mic positioned wrongly. Good luck!

PS. One thing I noticed is that it does tend to make rather alarming clicks and pops as it changes between left and right tests, and between tracks. Don't be too alarmed - it seems to work anyway. Andy, if you are getting clicks and silence for a few seconds in between, you might actually have the gain so low that the empeg can't hear itself. Check your volume level again anyway.

Thanks for such an in depth investigation of this Rob. When I get round to replacing the blown drivers in my car I might give this another go.

I'll second the "Thank You" for the in-depth on the Auto-EQ. You should write the final "How To" on it.

Granted, I might find it more interesting if the Alpha that has Auto-EQ was available to those of us who, be it for commitment or financial reasons, couldn't go to Amersfoort.

But hey, life goes on.

Turn off the Left/Right time alignment too.

Thank you for posting this!

I suspect that the clicks and pops may be due to the player not being muted when EQ changes are made.

Quote:
The equalizer gain must be changed in steps of maximum 1dB to prevent switching noise. If the change is equalizer shape is big, an additional audio muting is preferred to prevent clicking noise.

SAA7705H DSP User Manual, Section 9.1.6.4, Pg104.

WHAT MICROPHONE DID YOU USE?!!?!?!?!

Is there a v2 that has the AutoEQ added to it? was that the 2.01 I saw something about? cant remember. If it does I would really like to try this out.

No. It is only in v3a8.

That sux. I wonder, if you installed the v3a8 ran autoeq, could you take down the results and then load v2 and set the eq to that and it be the same? either way this is very interesting. I like the stability of v2 but am very tempted to persue trying v3.

Yeah, but don't forget - this is my empeg listening to itself through my speakers and amp combination in my car. If I give you the preset it generated, and you entered it onto your empeg (with different car, speakers and amp) then it just isn't going to produce meaningful results.

You could install V3a8, run AEQ, and then go back to V2 while retaining your new EQ setting

Have I missed this on the thread? When did this happen?

Tony, if I were to do the AutoEQ on a test player, could I transfer one file via FTP that would copy the EQ settings? I'm thinking of using my old player for EQ duty for my car and for a few of my friends. It would be nice to do a quick FTP transfer rather than writing the settings on paper.

Am I being daft here and completely missing the point? The presets produced by AEQ are unique to your car and audio setup and no-one else's, so what's the point? I think I must have lost the plot here somewhere.

Yeah that is exactly what i ment.

The thought is to use a spare empeg with v3a8 loaded on it, preform the autoEQ and write the settings down. Then the empeg that is normally used in that same car would be adjusted to match those settings. This is handy if you do not want to worry about running alpha code while driving. Basically, you are finding the autoEQ tuning for that car, and then copying them to the empeg that will run in that environment.

I think what he is refering to is setting up one empeg as an autoeq box, take it to cars run it and then once it has the settings take it in the house and transfer the eq settings file over to another empeg so the owner of that empeg doesnt have to install the v3. I could be wrong but thats what it sounded to me.

I would take "my" empeg and insert it into "their" car's sled and run the AutoEQ. Then I would copy those settings to "their" empeg. Rinse and repeat on next car.

We are either too chickenshit or don't have enough RAM to run alpha w. such a large database. The other empeg users in my family and my friends have never done any of their own software updates - I've done all their upgrades for them. This would just be easier.

ps - This censoring is hard core! It cuts everything before the offending word!

I just have no luck adjusting the EQ by hand, even I know the wanted values. The UI is so damned confusing to me! (my fault)

Rob, thanks for posting that info! That's just the verification I needed to trust that I'm getting accurate results and not making it sound worse.

Quote:
if you installed the v3a8 ran autoeq, could you take down the results and then load v2 and set the eq to that and it be the same?

That's exactaly what I plan to do. Install V3a8 on my spare, run AutoEQ, then copy the settings down and input them by hand into my main player.

And to second Tony's question, what mic did you use? And is it available in the US (since Farnell doesn't seem to ship to the US)? And does it require assembly (because I have no soldering iron)?

And lastly, I *really* wonder if AutoEQ could be used at home to configure the home setup!! Ooh, I can't wait to try. Just ... need ... the mic!

yea im very interested in what mic to use that i can get in the states also.

I didn't realise that this issue with getting the mic would be such a big deal. What sort of interest would there be if I could buy and make up a mic assembly with cable and plug? It would be entirely dependent on interest and you'd proably have to pay either by bank transfer or paypal. No idea what it would cost, but it would be materials and postage.

I know a number of us would be interested... Having the alpha (or a beta) with this feature more accessable to the userbase would help.

I'd certainly be interested in a prebuilt one (of course dependent on price). I can't see them being that expensive though.

Let's hope Maplin don't pull a fast one and drop the item. It's happened before, very annoying.

I think the assembled mic + cable + plug + postage could sell for EU15 or so, all inclusive -- a great convenience (and a standard mic) for all of us, and the price might just recover all of your costs (barely).

Do others agree?

(I already have one)

So which is the standard mic? Mark are you using the Maplin QY62S microphone or an "equivalent"?

According to this post, that's what was used for development.

I have one of the Malpin mics here, which any one is welcome to borrow when in the country -- we can trade it back and forth by padded post envelopes. But if you're not in Canada, then nogo -- our customs folks will intercept it and start charging ridiculous fees.

Cheers

I'd need 3-5 mics, for my car, plus a couple friends. I'd rather get the empeg approved mic, this way we wouldn't need to do any config for the exact mic.