Dynamic Range Control and Speaker measuring help! (1 Viewer)

[MiguelP]

I've been a audiophiler for about 2 years now and I still lack some A/V knowledge.

Right now I'm in a desperate need of a new subwoofer and alot of people are telling me to get SVS subs,but I'll leave this topic in my other thread in the Speaker & Subwoofer section.

Ok anyways, about DRC (Dynamic Range Control) I have this option on my Samsung and Pioneer dvd players. I seriouslly forgot what this thing does for a movie. I also know the DRC is only good for Dolby Digital Soundtracks and not for DTS.

I know in some dvd players u can change the DRC into low,med or high,but both my dvd players u can only turn it on or off.

Would it be better if its turn off or turn on?

I just bought a new house so I'm really on a budget for my a/v stuff and I will still need to find out the measurements of my family room.

For years now I still need don't get on how to use the sound delay options on my reciever. Most recievers use MS,but mines use meters or feet.

This is my current setup

Front R- 8 Feet

Front L- 8 Feet

Center- 6 Feet

Surround R- 1 feet

Surround L- 1 feet

Surround back left and right- 2 feet.

Most of the surround speakers are near my couch I cant put them further at the side or back because the limited space of my living room,but tell me this. Am I doing this right? Lol!

 

[Jeff Gatie]

DRC compresses the dynamic range of a soundtrack so there is not as much of a difference in volume between the quiet and the loud parts. It is sometimes known as "night mode" because it can be used to quiet the louder parts of the soundtrack and yet still be able to hear the softer sounds. If you want to hear the true dynamics of the soundtrack, you should disable this feature.

The delay is simply to adjust the output so the sound from each individual speaker reaches your ear when it should. Just get a tape measure and measure the distance from the speaker to the sweet spot (the position on the main seating area, directly in front of the screen) and set the speaker to that distance. Note that calibrating the volume of the speakers is a much more important calibration than delay, so make sure you do that also.

 

[MiguelP]

So your saying I should jsut turn off my drc to off then? Correct?

In some HT manuals they said to delay the center speaker to about 2 feet lesser than the front left n right speakers. So for example

FRONT L/R- 12 Feet

CENTER- 10 feet

So I should just measure the distance from where my listening position?

Speaker volumes as in calibrating the the -10 to +10?

I usually have them set to

Front L/R- +8

Center- +7

Surround L/R- +2

Surround Back L/R- +3

Subwoofer- +6

Or they they all have to be the same volume level?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Read the Primer in the Basics section, it will describe how to calibrate your system so all speakers have the same volume at the listening position. You can't do it by guess or by ear. They don't have to be at the same level, but they do have to be calibrated so they have the same loudness at the listening position. This can only be done by calibrating with an SPL meter.