I have a question about AVIA and other calibration disc, and how to get a room curve? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Guidry]

Ok I just got my SVS hooked up last night and they are awesome, but now I want to make sure it is all calibrated right. I don't have AVIA or VE but I do have the Ultimate Platinum DVD that has some of the calibration stuff on it. My question is this...I have read about how you need to kick up AVIA to 85 dB's as apposed to 75 from VE to get the right "reference" levels...right...well does anyone know is the UP DVD like this too?? I have all the speakers set to 75 and the subs to 85 and it just doesn't seem that loud...I usually listen to it louder than what I have set as my ref volume.

Also how do you get a "room curve" for the subs. As far as I can tell I need a test CD that will play the different levels for the subs...should this be done at "reference" volume? I use my RS spl meter and record the different readings for the different levels and then I use the correction values to get a room response graph...is this right? What test CD do I need and can I down load one from the net somewhere?? Does AVIA or VE have these test tones also...could I kill two birds with one stone and get the AVIA disc?

Thanks

Mark

 

[Ned]

Well, you should just spring for Avia. Your sub shouldn't be 10db above your mains though. 3-5db is generally enough.

Avia doesn't have specific test tones from 10-100hz but you can make your own with various tools (spectraplus, nchtonegen, etc). Do NOT play these tones at high levels. Your corrected volume level should only be around 80db when doing this sort of "room curve" plotting. Start at 30 or 40hz and work up and down from there.

 

[Mark Guidry]

Yeah I know they should be only 3-4 db's hot but I just got then and I like to hear them
Yeah I will be springing for AVIA soon I am just trying to see what all I need...now "spectraplus, nchtonegen" is that on the AVIA disc...I dont know what these things are? This will be the first time I trie to do something like this so I nned help. So if I start with say 40 Hz on the teat tone CD...I just turn the volum up on the reciever till it reaches 80 Db's and then I go up and down from there????
Thanks

 

[Ned]

http://www.nch.com.au/action/tnsetup.exe
It's a simple tone generator program that you can use to create .wav files for burning to a CD.
80db should be fine as a baseline as long as there isn't any nearby noise in the house. I say start at 30 or 40 because the RS meter is way off at the 20hz end so you could unwittingly start much too high. 30/40hz should be below the first room modes also so less chance of a big peak or dip to mess up the settings. This assumes a small to medium size room, a larger room can have much lower room modes.

 

[Mark Guidry]

Hey man thanks a bunch for that program...that is sweet!!!! So what wave form...the sighn wave? So I should be able to do a save as and then just burn it to a disc...man thats great!!!!

 

[Ned]

Yep, sign wave.

 

[Mark Guidry]

great thanks...i will do that today after work and then I will have some fun

 

[Doug Drake]

Mark - You can also buy the test cd from Stryke (www.stryke.com), which has both sine and warble tones from 10hz on up, to test your sub. It's $10.
After you get your speakers calibrated to the same level (75 or 85db, it doesn't matter), just set it where you like to listen to it. Relatively, all the speakers are still balanced. You may want to note, though, where the reference level is on your volume knob so that you can put it there again if you ever want to show off to your friends ("this is what reference volume sounds like...").
Doug

 

[Jimmy P]

I have Ultimate DVD Platinum and Avia,the main channel calibrated levels (mains,center,surrounds)are within a dB of one another with either disc,but there is a big difference in sub levels,ive heard that the DVD Platinum sub levels for the (Dolby Digital 5.1) calibration portion of the disc were incorrectly recorded,and compared with Avia the sub level calibration (DVD Platinum)is very hot,the sub calibration level in the (Dolby Surround Pro-Logic)is inline with Avia's sub levels.I think somewhere in the paper work UDP says to calibrate in the 75/80dB range since that is the volume most people listen at.

 

[Harry Lincoln]

I have the Ultimate DVD Platinum and I have also been wondering if that sub level is correct. It sounded about 6db hot on my system.

Harry.

 

[JohnMM]

Ned - thanks for that link. That is a really useful little utility.