New system - a few questions

Dr. Spec

Originally posted by hank1105
Doc,

All speakers calibrated as stated at 85 db and set to SMALL. Now I am impressed. I am also running the sub a little hot at around 88 db.

In the Matrix, the bullet scene was awesome, with the 7.1 setup (I know it is decoding at 5.1) sounded unreal, bullets coming all over the place.

In Star Wars II during the Jedi fight, the sabers were awesome sounding.

With this said, I am very happy person. My wife was complaining that the bathroom picture was vibrating on the wall. The bathroom is about 13 feet away, hehe.

Thanks again for everyone's help in this matter.

Hank

Good job, Hank. Glad you are digging it. Just remember what Master Volume setting gets you to 85 dB on Avia, and that is your Reference Level setting for DVD playback.

Again, you will mostly find 10 clicks under RL to be comfortable. But it will vary greatly on the disc. SW-PM for example is mastered on the mellow side and I can play that at RL and it's not too loud. But SW-AOTC is mastered very hot and 12 clicks under RL is about right for that disc. Go figure.

And remember Avia always runs a bit mellow on the sub calibration because it is a true DD disc, so feel free to wick it up a bit (89-90) if it feels a little weak. Sub calibration is subjective; I run mine about 4 dB hot for movies.

Doc

J9_ls1

hmm, I will have to research some more

danger boy

I use a Discwasher set up disc.. is offers dolby pro logic, DD and DTS for setting up your audio.. the DTS does have to be adjusted higher than the DD usually.

it also has a laser lens cleaner.. which is good to use on you DVD player

Seaward

I finally calibrated my system

Hopefully I read this thread correctly and and also calibrated correctly, this is what I did :

Using the AVIA DVD

played the test tone for front left main speaker and turned up the main volume until the SPL read 85 dB. I did not move the main volume again. My receiver is a yamaha 5560 and at 85 dB the main volume read -10 dB (the scale is desending from -100 to 0, 0 being the loudest). At -10 dB the test sounds were VERY loud anyway, after that I adjusted the volumes of each surround speaker and subs to all read 85 dB without adjusting the main volume. I notice that people are saying that they watch movies at about 10 20 clicks about RL after calibration their system. The main volume that I am watching movies at now is -42dB on my receiver which I find loud. So then according to how many "clicks" above RL you listin to movies at, would mine be 32 "clicks" if -10dB on my receiver gives me 85 dB on a SPL.

I guess my question is , has my system been calibrated correctly?


I hope I didn't confuse anyonewith my rambling on..


Thanks,

Seaward

Tour2ma

If I read you correctly I think you're OK. One thing that does stand out is that in many AVR's/ Pre-Pro's "0" is not the maximum gain for the volume. Can be +10 or +20 even. So not surprisingly your listening volume is a larger negative than others you've read here.

One thing to remember as well is that while you are calibrating each channel to 85 dB at your position, you're doing them one at a time.

Fire all up at that level and the spl would be 100 dB for 5.1 ch or 106 dB for 7.1 ch... Yup, kinda loud....

EDIT: BTW here's a great old thread on AVIA cal by Doc Spec..
http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=93102#post93102

Explains ref level. Does say master volume set to 00, but I think it's for an avr that goes into the plus side.

silverghost

Originally posted by Dr. Spec
Set all your speaker levels to 0 in your receiver. Start the left main channel Avia test tone and increase the Master Volume until it reads exactly 85 dB on the SPL meter. Don't touch the Master Volume again.

Play the Avia test tones for the other 4 surround speakers at the same Master Volume setting and adjust the receiver speaker level settings up or down to get exactly 85 dB for each speaker.

For the subwoofer, keep the Master Volume the same, set the sub channel level to -5 in the receiver, play the Avia sub test tone for the left main or right main, and adjust the PB1 plate amp volume until the SPL meter reads just under 90 dB (maybe 88-89 dB).

Doc, I'm confused again. You said to set speaker levels to 0 and use the master volume to achieve 85db. I thought some of your other posts mentioned setting master volume to "0" (the maximum on my Yamaha receiver's scale of -99 to 0), then adjusting individual speaker volume controls to achieve 85db. In my contorted mind, that is consistent with the settings you quoted for your own system in your next post to this thread - master volume 00, L Main +2, etc. However, is master volume 00 the maximum on your Denon receiver?

Also, I'm not clear on the reason for the -5 receiver setting for the sub. On my receiver, the sub's range is -20 to 0. Is -5 the correct starting point for my sub?

Here are the available speaker ranges for my Yamaha:
L Main -20 to 0
Center -10 to +10
R Main -20 to 0
R Surr -10 to +10
L Surr -10 to +10
Sub -20 to 0
LFE -20 to 0

If I am to begin calibrating with master volume at "0" (maximum), then achieving 85db on the L Main will require a L Main speaker level setting of maybe -8 (on a scale of -20 to 0).

Am I making this calibration process overly complicated?

EDIT
Never mind, I think I figgered it out. I decided to start by setting L Main to 0 (max) in the receiver. To me, that makes sense if the objective is to find Ref Level master volume setting (85db). I found that to be -13 on my scale of -99 to 0. Then I just balanced the other speakers' output using the speaker level adjustments. Here's what I ended up with:

L Main 0 (max)
Center -2
R Main -1
R Rear +1
L Rear +1
Sub -5, with its amp volume control at 10:00

Sounds great!