Question about speaker calibration when you have multiple listening positions.

[Matt_Smi]

Ok here is the deal I plan on calibrating my setup soon, but I have a concern as I have two listening positions in my room. Look at the link below to see a room diagram to know what I am talking about, I also linked to a few outdated pictures of my room so you can see what its like. I (or my friends) listen to movies on either the papason chair or the couch. You need to calibrate your system from your listening position, so which one should I calibrate from? I would say that most of the time when watching a movie alone it sit mainly in the chair as it is closer to my TV. I usually also pull the papason chair out from the wall a bit so it is centered between the speakers better. If I calibrate from the chair will things sound off from the couch? I doubt it and I bet it will sound better than it does now regardless, but still. Another thing I was thinking of was calibrating at the midpoint between the chair and couch, but I don’t know if this would work well, as it would be right near the sub (which is right behind the papason chair). Anyway what would you recommend doing?


Room Diagram
http://images.cardomain.com/member_i.../439698_16.jpg

Front of Room
http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...98_19_full.jpg

Back of Room
http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...98_18_full.jpg

 

[Lee Carbray]

Well which ever spot you dicide to use as a calibration point is going to compromise the others. If you calibrate for you chair then for the people sitting on the couch in the back of the room the surrounds are going to be much louder. And vise versa if you do it the other way. The other thing you can do is calibrate so no spot is perfect but both spots are ok. You just have to decide how much you like your friends. I would treat the level mathching and the sub calibration differently. Maybe try an move the sub back a bit so it is even btw the couch and chair. You may be able to get and even level from both seating positions. Then match it to what ever compromise you have made for the rest of the speakers. Once you find a good balance between the fronts and the rears you should be fine.

BTW nice posters.

Oh and in my setup I calibrate for my spot only and don't worry about my wife and friends.

 

[ScottCHI]

well, you could run a separate calibration for each spot. then average all the results to get a "compromise calibration".

 

[GregBe]

I think it depends on the other people that are going to be watching with you. Odds are most people don't obsess about these things as much as we do, and won't even notice a difference. If your anything like me, you won't be able to enjoy a movie, knowing you spent all this time and money on your home theater when nobody else seemed to care, and are sitting in a compromised calibrated seat.

While I am explaining how selfish I am, this is what I did. My receiver allows me to set different levels for each input (HK DPR1001). I had several extra inputs, so I calibrated the DVD input for the main seat. I then calibrated the two other seats and put them on two other inputs. Since I am running the video directly to the tv, the only thing I needed to worry about was the audio. On my receiver I can pick any digital audio signal to go with any input, so I set each one to coaxial 1 which is where the dvd sound goes to. I then set up and labeled each input as "seat2" and "seat3", and put them on my universal remote in the dvd section. Now when I am sitting in any seat, I just push one button and I am perfectly calibrated for that seat.
I know, pretty selfish, but its my system, and nobody enjoys it as much as I do. If I am feeling particularly generous to a guest or my wife, I will push the input for their seat, but most of the time its me, me, me

Greg

 

[ScottCHI]

sweet

 

[GregBe]

What is really funny is the other night my wife asked me what the "seat2" and "seat3" buttons do (DOH! :b ) I simply said, "Oh nothing important, I just use those buttons when I am calibrating using those annoying tones you love so much :wink: "

Greg

 

[Matt_Smi]

Good points mentioned here, Greg I think that’s great how you have the option to do that with your receiver, hopefully my new one will be able to do that (Plan on getting a Yamaha, Onkyo or Denon) because that would be the ideal way of doing it, then I could use “seat 1” when on the chair, and “seat 2” when sitting on the couch. Also the idea of getting an average or "compromise calibration" is not a bad idea either. I will probably just calibrate from the papason chair, as that’s where I sit for most movies and when playing video games, I use the couch mostly for watching TV. My friends could not give a damn how loud the surrounds are and all that, they are just happy there is surround sound!

 

[ScottCHI]

the problem with the "compromise calibration", though, is that, then, NONE of your seats ends up optimized, and your sweet spot ends up who knows where, actually.

screw the other people.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Yes this is why I need to just pick one seat, but if I want to use the couch rather than the chair I will end up screwing myself. I hope that my receiver can do something similar to Gregs, that would solve the issue completly.

EDIT: O BTW about the posters, they have been replaced now with "Better" ones

, Hopefully I will be able to get some updated pictures by the end of the summer, when I will have all my new gear.

 

[Mike SJ]

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