Hey guy,

Tried searching to no avail.

When you when through the Auto EQ of your vehicle with the microphone, what microphone did you use?

You can purchase the mic on Amazon for $22 - http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-CD-MC20-Auto-EQ-Microphone-Receivers/dp/B0038PIGDW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1459821696&sr=8-2&keywords=pioneer+mic

I purchased one and use it to tune my Jeep system each time when I take the hard top off and on.  I wouldnt say that its as good as tuning with proper white/pink/brown noise and sound measurement hardware, but it works well to balance your amp/drivers setup.

Cheers.

I know where to get the mic, my question is has anyone used a mic different to what's listed, say from a Home AV switcher, and have it worked?

Should do it.

I used a elektret-microphone capsule, with a simple 3,7V phantom-power from a LI-Ion batttery, a resistor and a capacitor and it worked.

Frequency Response (Pink Noise) after Auto-EQ, measured with the same capsule:

But, the auto-EQ produced a lot of background noise (approx 5db) beginning at 10kHz on my unit, so i switched it off and use the custom-EQ only.

This is "silence", yellow with auto-EQ off and green with auto-EQ on:

I know where to get the mic, my question is has anyone used a mic different to what's listed, say from a Home AV switcher, and have it worked?

People have gotten other mics to work. There may a be a calibration issue with a different mic however.

I used the mic that came with my Sony home theater amp, didnt work well for me, sounded awful

I used the mic that came with my Denon HT receiver, it is the same mic for car audio Audyssey too, so I use it for this NEX 4100 and works just fine.

I used the mic from my 8+ yr. old Pioneer vsx-1018ah-k home theater receiver.  I wouldn't say it sounds awful but it seems to emphasize the high freq.'s and reduce the bass/ subwoofer more than it would seem it should.  This mic is identical in appearance to the one suggested for the avic 8100.  Can anyone confirm that it isn't?  I'm wondering if its worth it to purchase the CD-MC20 mic.

I haven't even setup AutoEQ on my 8000NEX.  I've had autoEQ on previous receivers and I always experienced the same spectral shift you mention, not necessarily an emphasis on hi freq's, but definitely weak midbass and sub freq's.  Always used the mic that came with the units.  Of course now they're getting too cheap to even furnish the mic with the unit.

The thing about using such a feedback system is, in order to achieve a flat EQ the mic either has to be super flat, or the electronics have to compensate for the mic's freq response.  Either way, if you use a mic that is not matched to the unit per Pioneer, you will be EQ'ing your unit to the relative difference between their mic and yours.  For example, if yours has a weaker bass response than Pioneer's, the system will think it has to emphasize the bass.

After my previous post I followed advice from a related thread.  I reduced the subwoofer gain on my amp (Alpine pdr-v75) to about 1/3 of max.  Then I increased it to roughly 2/3 or less after running auto eq.  The results vary depending on the source/music.  Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Voodoo Chile"  sounded awesome even on Pandora while driving.  Some other music not so great.  I guess I now need to get a remote subwoofer vol. control knob for my amp.  My 10 yr. old Kenwood Excelon single din deck had SW level built in.   So, if I understand correctly;  The "Flat" setting becomes the "Auto Eq" default setting?  And I can "tweak" the frequency levels  from there?

After my previous post I followed advice from a related thread.  I reduced the subwoofer gain on my amp (Alpine pdr-v75) to about 1/3 of max.  Then I increased it to roughly 2/3 or less after running auto eq.  The results vary depending on the source/music.  Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Voodoo Chile"  sounded awesome even on Pandora while driving.  Some other music not so great.  I guess I now need to get a remote subwoofer vol. control knob for my amp.  My 10 yr. old Kenwood Excelon single din deck had SW level built in.   So, if I understand correctly;  The "Flat" setting becomes the "Auto Eq" default setting?  And I can "tweak" the frequency levels  from there?

You can adjust the SW level in settings, but IMO it's too deep in the menu system for on the fly adjustment.

When AutoEQ is applied, "Flat" is the result of the measurement process.  It's like having two EQ's hooked up in series with one having a no-tamper panel and only a single hole for operating the on/off button.

Thanks jhren, for your insight.  I may go ahead and try the CD-MC20 mic to see if there's any difference in the auto eq. results and report back.