New SPL Meter - Digital

Sansui

After reading the manual and looking at the Avia DVD I have a question (probably more later). According to the Radio Shack's meter manual I'm supposed to point the meter at the speaker I want to take a reading of. According to the Avia DVD I'm supposed to aim the meter towards the ceiling to take my readings. Which is right/better or does it matter?

For setting the level of my speaker approximately the same (within a db according to what I've read or saw), all I need to read is the digital output of the meter (using "C" weighting and "Slow") once the "dial level" is correct, right?

cfrizz

The way I did it was I mounted the meter on a tripod stationed at ear level at where I would be sitting & one by one played the different channels & adjusted accordingly

schwarcw

Sansui's question is a good one. Should it be calibrated by pointing the mic at each speaker or to-wards the ceiling? Like Cathy says, have the meter in your seating position at ear level. If you point the meter at each speaker from that position, you will calibrate your speakers to provide a consistent volume level to-wards your ear, in your sitting position.

I can also see some logic to calibrating your system with the mic on your SPL meter pointed up-wards. After all, your ears will not be pointed at all of the HT speakers. So, which is best???

For **** and giggles, why not try it both ways. Mark down the channel level settings for each calibration method. Listen to them both ways see which one you like. You can also average them and set your channel levels. It will come down to a matter of personal taste.

I've calibrated my HT according to AVIA and others. But I actually preferred my calibration using my ears because I didn't like too much sound from the rear. I liked just a touch, not an equal dB amount as compared to the front. I also turned down the center level. Too much center sound seemed unbalanced and unnatural. Just my
$0.02 on personal taste.

Sansui

cfrizz wrote:

The way I did it was I mounted the meter on a tripod stationed at ear level at where I would be sitting & one by one played the different channels & adjusted accordingly

That's what I did. I'll know later if it sounds better.

Sansui

schwarcw wrote:

For **** and giggles, why not try it both ways. Mark down the channel level settings for each calibration method. Listen to them both ways see which one you like. You can also average them and set your channel levels. It will come down to a matter of personal taste.

At work using a computer and two speakers it didn't seem to matter but those speakers are about a foot below the ceiling. Maybe that's why there wasn't any change when I pointed the meter at each one of them.

I used the ceiling method. Seeing as how the rabbit ears has nothing special tonight. I'll find out if it sounds better shortly. As I suspected my LR speaker was lower than the others (4db).

I've calibrated my HT according to AVIA and others. But I actually preferred my calibration using my ears because I didn't like too much sound from the rear. I liked just a touch, not an equal dB amount as compared to the front. I also turned down the center level. Too much center sound seemed unbalanced and unnatural. Just my $0.02 on personal taste.

I used AVIA also. The problem was that when I went into speaker calibration on my Onkyo amp it puts out it's own pink noise which was 5 db louder than the AVIA puts out. I didn't touch the main volume knob once it was set for the readings.

For the AVIA tones I went back to normal amp operation and read the meter, bounced back into calibration mode to add db's to the LR speaker, and so on until it was set. The readings (75 = AVIA, 80 = Onkyo) were the same regardless for each "set" until it came to listening to the sub and center speaker at the same time. The AVIA gave me a -4 db reading (71). The only way I could figure out how to adjust the sub up was with it's volume knob. Evidently I can't do it through my amp.

Humanoid

cfrizz wrote:

The way I did it was I mounted the meter on a tripod stationed at ear level at where I would be sitting & one by one played the different channels & adjusted accordingly

I did basically the same. Sat in the best seat centered with the TV and adjusted each speaker accordingly.