DA4ES/Paradigm Calibration Problem (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Hopkins]

I just got my DA4ES back to school and hooker up to my Paradigm 3SE MK3 (predecessor to the current Monitor 3s) mains/center, Titan surrounds, and Shiva EBS sub. I have the crossover for the 3SEs set to 60hz. When calibrating the sub using my SPL meter and the S&V calibration disc, the test tone was audible in my sub AND in my mains.

I have all of my speakers set to small and the crossover for my mains at 60hz... the only thing I can think of is that the S&V test tone is exactly 60hz and because of the crossover curve, i get sound from both the sub and mains.

How can I properly calibrate my system while keeping my 60hz crossover for my mains?

Thanks

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

anybody?

 

[NickSP]

Stephen, it is very interesting. The sound comes from the mains and the subs while calibrating? I will try out with my VE disc tonight and set the crossovers to match yours and see what I find. In the meantime keep patience my friend. The 4ES gurus (Aaron, Alex, etc.) will get to it. Just keep on bumping the post.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

That's what i was hoping for. I may try changing the crossover to 80hz or 100hz and recalibrating the sub... the sub level shouldn't change when i set the crossover back to 60hz, just the frequency range being sent to the sub...

If that's not a rock solid fix, it'll atleast give me something to do until i get a definitive answer

Thanks

 

[Alex Dydula]

Hello!

I have a Da4ES also but never have noticed this anomoly.

I have a set of Dahlquist QX10's, for my fronts and have them set to large. My sub is a matching dahlquist 10" powered.

I use the LFE from the receiver to send the .1 to the mains and the sub. Switch on sub set to OFF or LFE mode.

I have the crossover set to 80HZ for the sub. All other speakers are set to STND or 120Hz.

System is calibrated using the receiver test tone and Radio Shack SPL to 75bd and the sub is at 78db or so.

I have never looked at the SPL meter while switching the crossover for the sub .1 channel?? But I will try this tonight.

I have tried setting my mains to small to send this .1 stuff to my sub, but my mains are so good on the low end it actually sound better to my ear when watching a movie with them set to large...when going to small on the fronts, its sounds somewhat lacking to me in the overall impact....maybe if I got a larger sub this might change but for now the fronts are set to large.

Two things I will try, are
1. Check the spl level with the RadioShack meter for any level change to the sub when changing the fronts from large to small.
2. See if changing the crossover freq on the sub channel changes the level of the sub or .1 output.

Stay Tuned
Alex

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I've tried a few different things... I've tried calibrating w/ the crossover for the mains set at every different increment all the way up to 200hz and there is still some noise from the LFE in the main speaker used for calibration. When i tried the 4ES internal test tone, the test tone played only in the speaker indicated, so i did my calibration based on that. This leads me to believe i need to try another calibration disc. I may give the Ultimate DVD Silver from PE a try since i'm about to make an order and it's only $7.

Any other opinions, ideas, or experience would still be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[NickSP]

Stephen, I was not able to do the tests but will do it tomorrow morning. You say that when you play the calibration disc, you always get a tone from the LFE/sub channel, right? I will see if I can duplicate that but one more thing I'd like to mention is I have a VE disc and the calibration from the disc is absolutely identical to the 4ES' internal test-tones. I'll post here tomorrow.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I am gettin tone from the sub, but some remains in the main when it switches to the sub. I'm beginning to think it's a combination of a couple of problems w/ the encoding of the S&V disc. It appears that the sub level test is not encoded to the .1 LFE channel, but to the same channel as the front left (which is the speaker it uses to calbrate against) and it's depending on the receiver's crossovers to send the info to the sub. I also think the test tone spans a much larger frequency range than it should, starting at around 50hz and going near or above 200hz. I did notice as I raised the crossover frequency on the receiver that less of the tone was left in the front left speaker, but I could never get it to go away completely.

 

[NickSP]

Hi Stephen, I tried a couple of things while calibrating and here are the results. I could not duplicate your problem when I had the receiver in "Auto Format mode" and with the EQ set to "off". No sound came from the mains or any other speakers when the tone from my VE calibration disc was coming from the sub. i.e. no spills into any channels.
However, with the EQ on and the Cinema mode set to Cinema-B, I did get some spill from the sub to my mains. When I set the receiver back to EQ off and AFD on, I got no spills. Hope this information might be of some use to you.