CD/DVD's to aid HT audio set up? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Carlo]

There are DVD's out there to aid in tweaking of projection TV's. Is there anything similar to aid with the placement of speakers, cross-over settings and the like? Most importantly are they worth it and where from?
Thanks

 

[Lee Carbray]

There are a number of disks out there. The ones used mostly around here are AVIA, Video Essentials and the Sound and Vision one(I can't remember the exact name). To get the most out of them you will also need a Radio Shack SPL meter. The discs vary in price from $20 to $40 or so and I think you can get a meter for around $30.

For a RPTV you may also want to look into having it calibrated by an ISF technician. There are a number of people around here that swear by it.

 

[Aristides]

The discs that Lee mentioned are designed for both Video and audio, therefore there are plenty of chapters on each of the prviously mentioned discs for setting up and calibrating sound.

Pick up the Sound Level Meter at the Shack too. They have an analog as well as a digital meter ranging in price from $30-40.

You might also check out Sterophile Magazine's website as they have quite a few reference "test" discs.

I'm patiently waiting for the new and improved Digital Video Essentials DVD which is slated for a mid-July release.

Peace,
Aristides

 

[Bob McElfresh]

These test-disks dont aid with speaker placement or crossover. They DO have a phase-test which simply tells you if you have some speaker wires flipped.

You just need to follow good speaker placement rules (check out the Primer/FAQ from the basics page).

In general, you usually let the receiver handle the crossover duties as it must deal with BASS MANAGEMENT for all your speakers anyway.

Using the test-tones to level-adjust the outputs is usually the LAST thing you do.

If you search the Speakers fourm for "House Curve", you will find lots of people that use a SPL meter to plot the room-response for their sub. This involves taking SPL measurements at ... 16, 24, 32, 40 ... 120 hz and noting where the peaks are. Then they play with sub positions to smooth things out, or even buy a BFD (Behring Feedback Destroyer) to fix things. There is a "Stryker BASS test CD" you can get, or if you have a CD burner in your computer, you can download the NCH Test Tone Generator and burn your own test-tracks.