3/6/2018 Yamaha RX-V2400 YPAO Automatic EQ | Audioholics

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Yamaha RX-V2400 YPAO Automatic EQ

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By Gene DellaSala (/author/Gene) — December 07, 2006
Another bene t would be increased dynamic capabilities of the small speakers by bandwidth limiting them
to produce intended frequency range and lower driver excursions and stresses responsible for increasing
non-linear distortions. Since the RX-V2400 only identi ed my back channels as small (which have very limited
bass extension via their acoustic suspended 4" drivers), it set the crossover to 100Hz. This setting was too
high for my particular set-up. I manually recon gured the crossover setting to 60Hz which was optimal for
proper bass integration of my speaker con guration in my listening room.

YPAO (Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer)

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the RX-V2400 is its inclusion of Yamaha's YPAO parametric active
room correction equalizer. Unlike many of the rst generation receivers implementing room correction, the
Yamaha YPAO system is comprised of a ten band (seven user) parametric equalizer (not graphical) which
adjusts level, frequency, and Q factor. Graphical equalizers adjust only amplitude response at xed
frequency bands, thus are not an e ective tool for room correction at all in my opinion. Yamaha does o er a
graphical equalizer as a programmable user option for every channel for additional ne tuning of your
systems response in case you wish to forgo the YPAO system. When I selected the "Equalizing" portion of the
"Auto Set-Up" feature of the receivers YPAO feature, it allowed for several equalizing options:

Front - Applies equalization to all channels, except the mains, to attempt to achieve closest tonal
response to the main channels.
Flat - Applies equalization to all channels to attempt to achieve at response.
Low - Applies equalization to all channels with emphasis on low frequencies.
Mid - Applies equalization to all channels with emphasis on mid frequencies.
High - Applies equalization to all channels with emphasis on high frequencies.

I initially engaged the YPAO with the "Flat" setting to equalize all of the speakers in my set-up.

It was interesting to see how the YPAO altered the frequency response of even the similar speakers in my
set-up, making one realize just how much of a profound impact the room acoustics have on a speakers sonic
signature. It almost makes you wonder if using identical speakers for all channels for alleged perfect timber
matching is really as critical as acclaimed giving how the room acoustics drastically a ects speaker
performance rendering identical speakers positioned at di erent locations to not sound so identical.

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YPAO Speci cs:

Q Factor: 05 to 10.1
Gain: -20 to +6dB (0.5dB steps)
Frequency: 63Hz to 16kHz (1/3 octave)

Note: The RX-V2400's YPAO does not operate on the subwoofer channel, nor does it function below 63 Hz.
This was a bit disappointing (but understandable) since active room correction is mostly needed in the low
frequencies where simple room treatments (carpets, bookcases, furniture, acoustic paneling) have little to
no e ect.

Note: About the YPAO Yamaha Room Correction System

The YPAO system uses pink noise sweeps to map the response of the room at the listening position for each
speaker. Pink noise delivers constant power per octave and the YPAO attempts to equalize the magnitude
response accordingly. However, in attempting to achieve a "Flat" frequency response, this can have
deleterious a ects on impulse response and also reduce dynamic headroom in the ampli er if certain
frequencies are boosted as opposed to being attenuated. If for example, the YPAO equalizes a +6dB gain
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centered around 3kHz, then the ampli er would be tasked to produce up to four times the power for that
frequency band, thus reducing headroom and potentially causing compression, and/or distortion.
Additionally, if the YPAO system attempts to compensate for a speaker de ciency by creating a boost
because of improper crossover design and/or some other speaker anomaly or strange impedance
characteristic, when coupled to an ampli er this can actually create a dangerous e ect as it can potentially
drive some ampli ers into oscillation when boosting under these circumstances. However, if the speaker is
at in performance and the ampli er is not taxed at the frequencies being boosted, then the this scenario is
unlikely to occur, with the only possible penalty of compensating for the direct sound of the speakers as
opposed to resolving a de ciency in ambient or re ected energy in the room. Ideally, these mid and high
frequency issues should be dealt with at the source, namely the room (assuming the speaker and ampli ers
are designed right).

If you consider the basic relationship of sound and propagation through air given the following formula:

lambda = v / f

(where v = velocity (speed of sound =1140 ft/s STP and f = frequency (Hz) ) then we see the wavelength of
sound for 63Hz = 18 ft and for 16kHz = .86 inches!

Thus altering high frequency room response will a ect only a very small listening area above a couple of
hundred Hertz. High frequency harmonics are generally close together, if not overlapping, and their
corresponding intensities are far less than the fundamental, making them more dependent on listening
position. Another issue to consider with high frequency room correction is that the measuring microphone
cannot accurately measure direct to re ected sound. The goal of room correction is to correct for room
anomalies, not the loudspeakers (assuming the loudspeakers are of sound design). Altering the frequency
response of the loudspeakers in this fashion changes the direct sound to compensate for a de ciency in the
ambient or re ected sound eld caused by the room. This may in fact alter the direct to re ected sound at
the listening position further deteriorating imaging of the loudspeaker and corrupting the critical rst arrival
of sound. Ideally active room correction would best be applied at frequencies below 200Hz where sound is
more di cult for the listener to localize. Utilizing a more precise parametric equalizer may be applied to
analyze room modes to construct notch lters to reduce the excessive room decay times (RT60- # of
milliseconds it takes for a sound to decay by 60dB).

Alternatively, a point to consider is that some room correction systems actually do address speaker non-
linearities as well as room interaction a ects. The problem is that most systems are not able to distinguish
between the non-linearities of the speaker versus the non-linearities induced by the room. In some cases in
may not really matter. For instance, in the bass frequencies smoothing out the response may involve
changing phase and gain at certain frequencies. As long as the correction is made for the listening position
we probably don't care how much of the problem is speaker or room related. For that matter, I can
understand why the Yamaha YPAO system does not attempt correction at very low frequencies. It would take
much more reserve power than the receiver is capable of delivering. In this respect limiting the correction to
a moderately low frequency is understandable and in fact quite necessary. Of course that doesn't change the
fact that we would all like compensation down to the very lowest frequencies. Practically speaking Yamaha
could NOT put a correction lter on the LFE output because the power necessary for correction would way
overtax most subwoofers (ampli er and driver excursion). It may however behoove Yamaha to introduce
their own active servo subwoofer integrating low frequency room correction with a system much like many
of Velodyne's latest product o erings. A system that initially measures near eld power response of the
speaker as well as impulse response and then takes into consideration a measurement which shows room
decay time would probably make for an even more accurate correction system. Now if only a manufacturer
would build such a system a ordably!

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