Regarding Post: How loud is HT really suppose to sound (1 Viewer)

[Kirk Mango]

I did some testing with my system today and my dB meter to see what my peaks where as well as what my normal dialog dB level was. In movies like Titan A&E I found that my normal listening levels where Dialog: 58dB - 64dB and Peaks: 94db - 97dB (like at the begining explosion sequence was). Gladiator and X-men had dialog around 58dB - 68dB. Does anyone know what the dB ranges would be on these DVD's if I wanted to watch movies at Reference Levels. Also, I have never really had any trouble with dialog during movies like many in the original post I referred to have had. What is different? Is it normal to have trouble picking out dialog on a HT?

My preamp is set at -15dB to get the above spl readings on the DVD's I mentioned.

Kirk

 

[Kirk Mango]

anyone out there have an answer???

Kirk

 

[ling_w]

?.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Reference level is defined as 75db normal, with peaks at 105 for the main channels, and 85db normal with 115db peaks for the sub.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

I should add that many HT can't produce reference levels cleanly. Your levels are technically below reference, but that is fairly average. Don't be too worried about reference level. Use it for calibration and for a reference , but you don't have to listen that loud all the time.

 

[Christian Dolan]

Kirk,
Check out this link from www.surroundpro.com:
http://www.surroundpro.com/2002/apri..._5point1.shtml
Tom Holman writes about how surround sound playback doesn't really "scale" itself to the home environment at reference levels.
-Christian

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Very nice article.

 

[Roger Kint]

Yes, very informative article. So am I correct in inferrring that the article blames the indisceribiity of center channels on home rooms that have too much reverb and thus are too live? And this would infer that a completely dead room would solve this problem?

 

[BrianWoerndle]

^^ Pretty much. Blow out a couple walls and line all the walls with thick drapes and you will have it.

 

[Greg_R]

If you look at properly designed acoustic spaces for HT, there are a lot of sound dampening and diffusing materials.

 

[Kirk Mango]

I guess my question was worded incorrectly. Basically I wanted to know why I do not have problems hearing dialog out of my center speaker when I am running my system below referrence levels.

Kirk

 

[Drew Eckhardt]

Properly mastered Dolby Digital played at reference level will yield dialog at 74dB SPL (not 75, which comes from what you get with the -30dB full-scale calibration tones used by most home equipment).

There's a 5 bit parameter in the bit stream which indicates in dB how far below full-scale digital the dialog was recorded. At the maximum, this is 31.

Dialog normalization is 31 - this parameter. On playback, the gain is adjusted down for whatever dialnorm is. With the maximum dynamic range, dialnorm is 0, peaks are at 105/115dB for main/LFE, and dialog is 105-31 = 74dB.

Using the default encoder settings, dialog is encoded at -27dBFS so dialnorm is 4dB. Knock the peaks down by 4dB to 101/111, and dialog is at 101-27 = 74dB SPL.

All bets are off as to whether the DVDs in question were "properly mastered"

Assuming your system is calibrated, at reference level those DVDs would play back 15dB louder.