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Mini home theather- need help

post #1 of 9
3/3/09 at 2:44am
Thread Starter 
Hi am new here...recently i bought a new 5.1 dvd sets (pioneer htz270)

I wonder volume level what is the appropriate for each channel.

I have a small living hall and usually i need to increase the central speaker to +7 / 8 inorder to hear clear conversation in a movie.

For Front and surround i put it at +6 ...is this appropriate?

or should i goes back to 0 n leave it natural.

Hope some expert can help

thanks
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post #2 of 9
3/3/09 at 6:14am

Re: Mini home theather- need help

The goal is to have all speakers at the same volume (roughly 75 Db). You can achieve this by using an SPL meter (Radio Shack) and either the internal test tones or a DVD like Avia or Digital Video Essentials. The numbers (0, +6, etc) don't really mean anything without some reference (SPL meter).

Another reason for poor center performance is location. If the center is not angled properly, it will not sound right. The center should be pointing directly at the listeners. It should not be in a cabinet or placed to low.

Here is a good reference for calibrating your speakers.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/457783-post4.html
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post #3 of 9
3/3/09 at 6:20am

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Most systems have a dynamic range compression option, you could use that if you want to turn it up loud enough to hear the dialogue clearly, but don't want the floor to shake during action/explosion sequences.
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post #4 of 9
3/3/09 at 6:25am

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Unless your room is an acoustically perfect cube, odds are each speaker is going to have to be indvidually adjusted to get optimum sound at the prime listening position. That's just the nature of audio. Since your system does not come with a microphone or any automatic equalization system, your best bet will be to buy or rent a system calibration disc like Digital Video Essentials or Avia II Guide to Home Theater and a cheap analog Sound Pressure Level (SPL) meter and use the test tones to set the level for each speaker. (Chances are that even after setting all the speakers "to spec", you'll have to turn your center channel speaker up a little bit to prevent the dialogue from being drowned out by music and effects, but you should get all the speakers dialed in by a meter before making final tweaks like that one.)

Regards,

Joe
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post #5 of 9
3/3/09 at 11:11am

Re: Mini home theather- need help

If you increase your fronts and surrounds to +6, and then bump the center to +8, you are, in effect, increasing the volume control on all the speakers by +6.

What you really want is to get each channel as close to 0 as possible, and then use the volume control to set overall level.

In your example, it would be much better to run the fronts and surrounds at 0, and bump the center to +2.
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post #6 of 9
3/3/09 at 9:52pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Quote:
Originally Posted by chuckg
If you increase your fronts and surrounds to +6, and then bump the center to +8, you are, in effect, increasing the volume control on all the speakers by +6.

What you really want is to get each channel as close to 0 as possible, and then use the volume control to set overall level.

In your example, it would be much better to run the fronts and surrounds at 0, and bump the center to +2.


thanks to all above expert..now i know there is a disc to calibrate the volume for each level
i have the same opinion that we should adjust to close to 0 ...maybe +2 to each channel and +4 to centre
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post #7 of 9
3/4/09 at 6:51am

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Quote:
Originally Posted by bean
thanks to all above expert..now i know there is a disc to calibrate the volume for each level
i have the same opinion that we should adjust to close to 0 ...maybe +2 to each channel and +4 to centre

Again, the purpose of these adjustments is to make each speaker play at the same loudness. Without measurements, it is not possible to recommend anything. Best you can do without an SPL meter is try to set them by ear (not very accurate).
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post #8 of 9
3/8/09 at 12:41pm

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Quote:
The goal is to have all speakers at the same volume (roughly 75 Db).

In theory, true, and that's certainly where one should start when doing the initial setup with an SPL or other calibration device. However, in my experience most systems set with all speakers at exactly the same volume when heard from the sweet spot end up with the center-channel speaker being overwhelmed by the others on some films and in some scenes and the dialogue being totally lost. This tends to be an even bigger problem for guests sitting in places that are not the accoustical swee spot.

So unless you have a great system in a great room and watch all your films in splendid isolation (from your chair that is half throne, half command chair from Star Trek), odds are you will want to goose the center channel a bit so that everybody can hear the dialogue. I haven't worked on a single real-world setup, including the three I've had in one house and two condos, where this compromise was not necessary.

Regards,

Joe
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post #9 of 9
3/8/09 at 1:39pm

Re: Mini home theather- need help

Quote:
However, in my experience most systems set with all speakers at exactly the same volume when heard from the sweet spot end up with the center-channel speaker being overwhelmed by the others on some films and in some scenes and the dialogue being totally lost.
I agree that for most of us, compromises have to be made. When I calibrate my two setups I always wind up changing the center level to personal taste. I find the subwoofer volume also needs a little tweaking but I have rather unusual sub placements. Also, since I don't hear as well out of my right ear I find increasing the front right channel a bit is needed. So, even though an SPL meter is a required tool and does provide a useful baseline there are times when further adjustments are needed.
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