I find Audyssey very worthwhile. Bear in mind it is ONLY ONLY ONLY intended for movie soundtracks. NOT music in general, NOT TV audio, etc. If you like it with other things besides soundtracks, that's your business, but don't judge it outside of its intended and designed context. It is calibrating your room and system to a known set of "standards" that are mostly followed for movie sound these days. Like an ISF cal for a display, it may take some time to get used to it.
As 57 says, the version of Audyssey you have makes a large difference. You want to take the most measurements your Audyssey version allows. The XT versions have much better subwoofer integration. The Pro version is the best.
Bottom line, for movies a good version of Audyssey is definitely something worth paying extra for. But you have to use it and set it up properly. Otherwise skip it if you aren't going to make the effort. Sad thing is, the crappier and more poorly set up your system is, the greater the benefit Audyssey will have, but those are the people who won't use it...
Edit: oh yeah, I am using a Denon 3808 as a pre-pro. It has Audyssey MultiEQ XT and DynamicEQ and Dynamic Volume. DynamicEQ is good for some things, took me a while to get used to it as it boosts the lower frequencies more than I'd prefer. I tend to listen loud, but even then at not so much less than Audyssey "reference" levels I can hear it working just a bit. Dynamic Volume I am against in principle, as I am against all forms of compression
, but I have to admit it has its place. Geez the volume of TV commercials can be awfully boosted, and DynVol in its most active mode kills that for sure. What I really like it for is old TV and movie DVDs, where the sound levels go all over the place. I especially notice it with music in such video, where the music seems to be hugely boosted above the dialog levels and I'm continually punching on the remote. DynVol fixes that and makes watching much more relaxing and enjoyable for me.
In this implementation, there are several different Audyssey target curves/methods to choose from. For instance, one to use if the movie sound was mastered to the THX standard (which is not "normal"), etc. You can also save/reload a setup, but you can only have one Audyssey measurement set active at a time. You can change some things, like individual speaker-to-subwoofer XOs, without affecting the Audyssey curve, though it will change the LF sound. When you enable Audyssey, then you have the option of also enabling DynamicEQ if desired. Once you enable DynamicEQ, then you have the option of enabling Dynamic Volume. IOW you don't have to use them all, but there is a hierarchy.