Balance Settings

rasputini

Hello All,

First off, I love the responses I get on this forum. You've all been super helpful in giving input on creating my first home theatre/music set up. So I'm here with another question. Is it better to set balance a 0 and go down in decibels but up in volume to get ideal results or go lower volumes at higher decibel settings? For example: I have a Pioneer VSX-520 reciever, Tsi500 fronts, CS10 center, Tsi100 rears, no sub yet. Originally I had the db setting at +6 front, +12 center and +14 rear. Generally I didn't turn my volume past 25. I've also tried going like -5 front, +2 center and +2 rear but raised the volume to 30ish. Is one better for the speakers/sound quality? Seating is only about 6' from the fronts/center and about 9' from the rears in case anyone is wondering (it's not a huge living room).

The reason I ask is that I find my center tends to be on the quiet side. I've been trying to fiddle with settings to get a good balance since I got the speakers but it seems like everything I watch, play, or listen to comes out sounding different.

Anyway, input on the matter or advise on settings is appreciated.

F1nut

What did the calibration program set the levels at?

notified

I'm no expert and my system didn't come with a calibration mike,but from reading the manual I assume the idea is to ideally have all the speakers set at the same 0db vol level.However due to speaker placement issues and seating positions this cannot always be achieved.To correct this they add a test tone program of white noise that allows the user to adjust the vol of the speakers individually to try to get uniformity from the seating position.Turning the amp vol up to a normal listing level and Starting from the 0db level in the program use the tone test to adjust the rear speakers vol [+/-] levels to sound equal to the fronts from the seating position.The fronts don't normally require adjustment unless your seated far off center [you may prefer the center
chn to be slightly louder than the others for better clarity]The manual will also include a basic formula for setting the surround timing based on speaker distance so that proper snd transitioning from front to back is performed

tonyb

That's way too hot on those settings for that receiver. Your making it work harder....and it's not all that powerful to begin with. How big is your room ?

Sitting in your listening position, adjust the levels so everything sounds equally balanced. I don't think going above or below +/- 5 db's would be necessary. Sometimes it's just the way a movie was recorded that gets you lower center channel sounds or bad surround sounds. You can always adjust those levels on the fly. Some material is simply recorded better than others.....and that's the reason you hear differences in your sound.

rasputini

I appreciate all the in put. I've dropped the fronts to a -2, center at 0 and rears +2. I've also been playing with the speaker distance. I find my rears are very hard to hear and the adjustments in distance seeming to help. But maybe it's a placebo effect.

In terms of the room size... It's about 8' from the rears to the listening position and about 6' for the fronts and center. It's a small apartment living room with carpeted floors and a decent amount of stuff in it given its size.