Are these speaker settings right? (1 Viewer)

[chris bruce]

I have a n Onkyo 805 and ran Audessy for speaker setup. I finally dialed the sub in to my liking but for my other 5 speakers I didn't touch, as of yet. This is what the audessy set my speakers at. I checked them with my sound meter to get the db. LF-74, C-73, RF-73, RR-72, LR-70. I believe they should all be around 75. AM I correct in thinking that. Should I manually increase the settings on the speakers so they all read 75db? Or not touch them? Thanks

 

[gene c]

I would reset everything to 75 with the meter and see if it's an improvement. If not, you can put things back the way they were.

 

[David Willow]

Where was the first measurement done? Was it centered in your seating area? Also make sure you do all 8 measurements starting with the first one in your primary seat and then go around that.

Also, how did you measure? Only use the pink noise generated by the receiver.

 

[chris bruce]

Yes, I placed the mic in my primary seating position. I used all 8 placements of the mic in different seating positions. And I guess I used the pink noise. The receiver automatically sends out noises from the speakers to the mic. It's really not a pink noise though. Sort of low level blasts.

 

[chris bruce]

Sorry, I re read your question again. I know what you mean now. Yes I used the receivers pink noise to measure the db's of the speakers.

 

[David Willow]

Not really sure what is happening then. On my 705, all the speakers registered 71 to 72 db. Audessy has been consistent each time I ran it.

EDIT: Just had a thought.... Did you have the mic on a tripod and was it above the back of your chair's back? Walls also influence the results - keep the mic a few feet from the walls.

 

[chris bruce]

Yea, I had it on a tripod. I think I am going to set all speakers to 75db.

 

[Brent_S]

Was the SPL meter's mic in the same spot and orientation as the Onkyo's measurement mic? The Onkyo mic, especially on a tripod, should be oriented straight up. On the other hand, the SPL meter on a tripod was likely faced forward to some degree. Your measurements suggest such a forward bias. The LF to C/RF difference could be a difference of 0.2dB if you're using a digital SPL...the difference between rounding up/down or a slightly closer placement to that side when the SPL meter was used.

According to one of the Audyssey principals, the Onkyo mics are pretty accurate at setting relative levels....speaker to speaker SPL. Their target is to adjust the trims to get 75dB from all speakers, but there is some variability in the mics' absolute sensivity. So, you could easily end up with 71dB, 74dB, or even 77dB at 0dB MV after calibration. I was fortunate that my measurement mic seemed to be dead on compared to my old analog SPL meter.

And finally, there's nothing wrong with adjusting the channel levels to taste. It doesn't effect the Audyssey room eq. I bumped both my sub and surround channels a dB or two.

-Brent