Got SPL Meter - Where can I find AVIA for a decent price? (1 Viewer)

[Martin Fontaine]

I just bought the digital SPL Meter at Radio Scrap yesterday. I took some readings using the internal test tones and everything seems fine (I didn't even have to change anything in what I had already set, except the master volume, every thing was 75dB) Then I tried the THX test tones on the TPM DVD and they were way off. So now, I'll need AVIA to have a proper reading. Also my TV has way too much overscan so AVIA will be handy for other stuff too...

So is there any place I can get this disk in Montreal? Or order it over the net? FOR A DECENT PRICE?

 

[Clayton_M]

www.lasersedge.com had a few dollars off.

 

[Bob Sheen]

Salut Martin,

You can ge the Sound & Vision Home Theatre Tune-up disc at Future Shop for $29.95. That's what i have and i've had great results with it.

Bob

 

[Martin Fontaine]

You can ge the Sound & Vision Home Theatre Tune-up disc at Future Shop for $29.95. That's what i have and i've had great results with it.

Are you talking about Future Shop Online or at a B&M?

 

[Chris Hiter]

The sound and vision is absolutely wonderful. Everything you could ever want. I got mine for less than $20 at Amazon. I just checked and it is $15.99 right now. I really think it stacks up against the other ones IMHO

 

[Bob Sheen]

Futureshop B&M - i've seen it often in the stores in Ottawa. I bought mine at Amazon for $15.99 US plus shipping because i didn't think that it was available here. It came to about $25.00 US dollars plus the currency exchange. So total around $40.00 Canadian.

Then i saw it a Futureshop for $29.95 CDN.

Ask at your local Futureshop. If they don't carry it in Montreal...let me know and i'll see if i can help you get one from here.

Bob

BTW Chris is right.

The sound and vision is absolutely wonderful. Everything you could ever want. I got mine for less than $20 at Amazon. I just checked and it is $15.99 right now. I really think it stacks up against the other ones IMHO

Everthing was off when i did mine. Colours, brightnesss, black level and the sound level on every speaker. My TV looks totally different now.

And IMHO unless you have ears like a dog, you'll be amazed at how your system sounds after setting it up with a sound level meter. I bought mine at Radio Shack on Saturday. Set my speaker sound level up on Sunday morning and stayed in my HT room the rest of the day just watching movies and appreciating my systems new calibration. My centre channel was way too high and was drowning out the subtle nuances coming form the other speakers. I was now hearing sounds that i had never heard before.

Good luck with yours, Bob

 

[Martin Fontaine]

And IMHO unless you have ears like a dog, you'll be amazed at how your system sounds after setting it up with a sound level meter. I bought mine at Radio Shack on Saturday. Set my speaker sound level up on Sunday morning and stayed in my HT room the rest of the day just watching movies and appreciating my systems new calibration. My centre channel was way too high and was drowning out the subtle nuances coming form the other speakers. I was now hearing sounds that i had never heard before.

I just did that, and everything was off before. I still put the center at 78dB thinking that making it the recommended 75 would be way too low but I think I'll recalibrate maybe wednesday to make it the same. This is a misconception I had for a long time, that having a center channel higher than the rest just makes the dialog easier to understand and means you'll annoy the neighbors less but I think it has very little to do. When I got my Paradigm Speakers, I lowered my center and rears because they were too high and I couldn't hear the fronts anymore but now I know that I need to lower the center even more.

The thing that I wanted to do with AVIA was to set my overscan correctly and I didn't find anything on that disk... Oh well, at least I got everything else done...

 

[Yee-Ming]

I just got the Avia for C$65 from totalactionuniverse.com. a bit pricey, I know.

I haven't had time to run it properly yet (received it yesterday), but when having a quick look, while the introductions were fine, the "commentary", or should I say voice-over, when they demonstrated the test-patterns seemed to fluctuate in volume. in particular, when I watched/listened to the explanation as to how to use the test pattern to set "picture" (aka contrast), the speaker's voice faded out at times.

anyone else have the same problem? I don't think there's anything wrong with my system (miserable HTiB though it may be, it's playing DVDs just fine right now and right after the Avia I had a quick spin of Diana Krall's concert with no problems in volume) so it must be the disc?

 

[Aaron Cooke]

Just as an idea, since it's probably not something you'll use often...my local library carries the Video Essentials calibration disc...not sure if they have Avia or not. You might want to check and see if your library carries it. You could always check it out again if you need it again.

Also, because i was messing around with calibration the other day, I believe on the TPM THX optimization mode there is a note in small print about those test tones not being designed for speaker level calibration. That could be why they were so off. But i would still reccomend using one of the calibration discs rather than just internal tones, because that way you are calibrating the whole path, from DVD to speakers rather than just from your receiver to your speakers.

Hope this helped some.

Aaron

 

[David_Rivshin]

I got my copy of Avia from www.alldirect.com for US$34 + shipping. Unfortunately they don't offer international shipping, not even to Canada by the looks of it, so it won't help you out much, Martin :frowning: I just wanted to mention it incase other readers of this thread are here in the states. Their website isn't the most user friendly in the world and they don't have have all the new releases, but their prices are excellent, and shipping charges are very reasonable. I recently ordered from them and the experience was pleasant, about the norm for most Internet stores.
-- Dave

 

[Martin Fontaine]

I got everything correct, put the center at the same level as everything else... Just watched TPM tonight!