Audyssey Enables Filter Smoothing in MultEQ-X

One of Audyssey’s major shortcomings has always been an overcorrection of high frequencies. High-frequency correction is absolutely needed for timbre-matching speakers – as discovered by THX, Yamaha, Audyssey, Dirac and many others through their research.

However, the ideal algorithm does this by progressively doing broader and broader corrections, the higher the frequency goes. The reason is simple: as the frequency increases, individual modes no longer dominate, in fact they vary widely. It is the relative energy of the different frequency bands that starts dominating. So while it’s important to correct the tonal shifts caused by the energy differences, doing detailed corrections is generally picked up by the ear as sounding unnatural.

After Simple Home Cinema requested this in 2023, Audyssey has finally added smoothing to its Filter Design stage. While this is not yet the progressive smoothing we requested, this is a step in the right direction.

To access the smoothing algorithm, you will need to go into the Filter Design Screen. Over each speaker, you will see a Limit All drop down box and 20,000Hz filled into the box. Instead of the Limit All option, you will need to select Limit Smoothed. You can then configure the transition frequency and the strength of the smoothing.

Additionally, you have a Filter Smoothing Type under Setting that can be configured as follows:

Fractional Octave Smoothing is what REW does and is a constant smoothing method per octave of frequencies / relative to the centre frequency. This results in less smoothing than Spline Smoothing at the same strength.

Spline Smoothing results in a smooth and continuous filter curve without sharp transitions. The strength is higher at the same smoothing strength than Fractional Octave Smoothing. This setting might keep the character of your speakers more, but at the expense of accuracy.

Secrets of Audyssey has been updated with a full 22-page MultEQ-X Guide and 4 pages have been dedicated to Filter Smoothing alone, so if you’d like to know more, please download the latest guide. Apple Books customers should receive the updated guide as well within the next week.