i've asked this question a few times and have searched the web. yet i'm still not convinced. most ppl who have been happy with these setups are usually at beginner level.

so this link is for anyone who wants to post some reviews on different types of autoeq functions (home audio included) by industry or reputable professionals. Just to get an idea of how good these thnigs really are

A review into the pioneer one would be great as thats the H/U i got.

Home audio autoeq's tend to be terrible

car autoeq's/time alignment tend to be a good base point, better than nothing, but still not as good as human tuned

Bose run a simliar system on their home lifestyle system and it's not too bad, all it does it measure the response time on souns bouncing back to it and attempt to time align the speakers. Alpine's time alignment system is great (I used to run a CDA-7998R with 6ch time alignment) and makes a huge difference to the sound if you know what your listening for. You will always win if you do it manually as something can only sound as good as it does to you. A pro can make it sound technically better, but you may not prefer the sound yourself.
Personally I haven't used the pioneer one, but based on my experience with the Bose stuff, it's not the be all and end all, but it does sound better than not doing it at all.
If you want to go the whole hog, get a HU with time alignment and put and EQ over your outputs, but that's a lot of cash..............

thanks guys. i'm kinda looking for offical reviews, u know stuff u find in mags. Not saying u guys dunno wat ur talknig bout. I jsut want information, not so much opinion based if u get wat i mean.

Has anyone compared an autoEq to an RTA?

nothing on rta vs autoeq reviews?

I am a bit unsure that you will find that kind of review - I mean to do it would require a formal judging format which is not only recognised, but is repeated just for the sake of seeing if 'twigging' made the system better or worse.

I am pretty sure that with the Pioneer units you can't effectively use the TA and the EQ without having already used the Auto EQ/TA. It does give you a very good starting point - however as has been noted above the best results come from then using an RTA to adjust those things only the most seasoned ear can hear.

As you have a very good head unit you shouldn't need to go down the line that Mjollinor was talking about (strapping an EQ on after the HU in order to give you that edge).

So in summary - while I apologise that this isn't a formalised review, I think that it will depend on how seriously you are into your SQ. Judging by your gear list I would imagine that you are fairly 'into' the scene and as such would benefit most from having the car RTA'd. That said - even once you have it set up for competition (flat on the RTA) then you will still need to use your other EQ setting (the 960MP has two programmable) for your 'normal' listening.

~Steve

The DEQ2496 gets soem good write ups on it's auto eq ability.