Why does Audessey 2eq hate me?

[viivo]

I am slowly putting together a budget home theater. Right now I have an Onkyo rc-260 and two Bic dv62si. I've run (correctly) Audessey a couple times and afterward the speakers sound muffled. All settings are for 2.0. Is it pointless to worry about it now with only two speakers?

Also, what would you suggest as my next addition, a center or sub? Like I said, this is a slow build.

Finally, here is a huge noob question. The bics appear to be hitting full excursion at fairly low volumes. Is this safe and normal? There's no discernable distortion, but I'm curious because I never saw these things move like this with my old receiver.

 

[Tiamat]

Is the bass a lot louder in other parts of the room? It is possible that they are out of phase at the listening position. Play with the phase setting to see if the loudness changes. If you are the only viewer siting dead center, you may be able to live without the center channel speaker for a while. In my case, I have upgraded my subwoofer several times in the last 8 years, but still do not have a center speaker!

Subwoofer placement is very important in the room, many typical easy locations in the room may be inappropriate for good bass reproduction. Some of the trial and error can be reduced by placing the subwoofers on the listening position, crawl on the floor to find a spot the bass sounds most uniform, and then place the subwoofers in that spot. This works best in standard enclosed rectangular rooms.

No comment on the eq. Getting the speakers, subs, and listening position within the room in a most acoustically favorable set up is the first priority, then use the eq as fine tune. The eq won't be able to trendy huge issues which likely exist.