May 1, 2005

Outlaw Audio 7100 & Alesis DEQ830

I purchased a couple of new components for my home theater setup. The Outlaw Audio 7100 is a seven-channel 100W power amplifier. The Alesis DEQ830 is an eight-channel 30-band digital graphic equalizer with constant 1/3 octave Q. Now my Yamaha RX-V1400 is connected to the DEQ830, which in turn is connected to the 7100. I also removed the tweeter meshes from my Monitor Audio S8s and SLCR, as suggested by some people.

Since the Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer is an auto-calibrating equalizer with 1/3 octave Q, running the YPAO equalization several times allowed me to transfer the adjustments from the RX-V1400 to the DEQ830. Thus giving me what is equivalent to a 30-band YPAO. By the end, YPAO was only listing one or two adjustments per channel, and for some channels, absolutely no adjustments.

The end result is a much nicer frequency response, although the warmth I was hearing from the speakers doesn't seem to be there anymore. YPAO also decided that it was okay to lower the subwoofer crossover from 100Hz to the THX standard 80Hz. Playing through some audio CDs and my reference Moulin Rouge, vocal separation and clarity was very much improved. The bass response was more apparent. I was able to hear a lot more of what was previously inaudible or muffled. Ambient noises and minor sound effects was clearer.

I haven't actually measured the resulting frequency response though, so it is quite possible that the new plot is actually not great in some places. But overall I'm pleased with the result and I have some faith in the YPAO system for picking up what it can.

Unfortunately, I am hearing some noise from both the 7100 and even more from the DEQ830. Turning off the DEQ830 lowers the noise floor. Placing the DEQ830 on the same circuit as the RX-V1400 and 7100 actually produces a loud hum. So it is on a separate circuit right now. I will probably have to purchase a power conditioner to reduce the noise.

Posted by josuah at May 1, 2005 11:04 PM UTC+00:00

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