setting reference with Avia VS receiver tones (1 Viewer)

[Doug_H]

I have a friend who insists on setting his levels with the built in tones from his Denon 2800. Trying to watch a movie at his house will cause your ears to bleed and your teeth to fall out.
I loaned him a SPL meter but he refuses to use the Avia disc to set the levels. I have mine set at 75db from Avia while his is 75db without. His is much much louder. Mine is plenty loud and even uncomfortable for my girlfriend. His literally makes your ears hurt.
The problem is I don't know why it is better to use Avia or even if it is. Please give me some direction.
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The Mischievous Rogue Strikes Again! The Humble Hanson Theater

 

[Brett G]

The advantage to using AVIA over your receiver is that it takes your entire system into consideration. When you watch a movie, there are three main pieces to the puzzle: DVD player/Receiver/Speakers. If you use the test tones from your receiver, you are leaving out one of the pieces of this puzzle. Using AVIA more accurately represents how you watch movies, consequently it will allow you to more accurately calibrate your levels.
-Brett
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My DVD's

 

[Sean Laughter]

I thought you were suppoed to calibrate Avia at 85dB, or do I have Avia and VE mixed up?

 

[Bill Kane]

AVIA will deliver the standard reference peaks at 85dB (with a built-in 20dB reduction, while VE has a 30dB spread) but the AVIA on-disc recommendation is to calibrate at 75dB "since 85dB may be too loud for home listeners."
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[Vin]

You're right Sean, with Avia you should be calibrating to 85dB. This might explain why Doug's friend's system sounds louder to him, i.e., Doug, when you're listening at what you think is reference level you're actually 10dB below reference.
Take a look at Vince Maskeeper's excellent explanation on calibration here .
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[Doug_H]

Thanks, that clears it up...
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The Mischievous Rogue Strikes Again! The Humble Hanson Theater

 

[scott_tinari]

I just like to put my 2 cents into the subject. I just came back from a major hometheater conference in Atlanta. I asked is it better to use internal test tones or a setup disk like Avia or VE. The answer I got was its up to the person, he recommended to use the internal test tones, he said the internal test tones are better. This is coming from an experienced guy in hometheater. He said it was up to the person though. You also dont have to have your reference at 75 db ethier. Be comfortable with your own db.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

I've heard it both ways. In fact, I got into a major discussion with Vince Maskeeper a while back over this. He was stressing the importance of using a disc like Avia or Video Essentials while I played the devil's advocate and argued that you should use the test tones in your receiver.
After getting into the argument, I actually tried calibrating my system to all three sources (receiver's internal tones, Avia, and VE) and found that you're more likely to end up with more accurate and consistent settings between discs if you use a calibration DVD.
The person who recommended that I use the internal tones in my receiver in the first place said that he did this to balance out the various components in his system. He argued that when he calibrated his system according to a calibration DVD, he knew that it resulted in the best sound for his DVD player, but what about the other components of his system? Was this setting the right one for his turntable? How about his laserdisc player? He argued that using the internal tones allowed you to "average out" everything in the system, thus reaching the best sound overall.
I tried it both ways, and I have decided that since I only have one component in my system (my DVD player), I should use Avia.
Hope that helps!
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-J.Fo
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