Surround Speaker Levels (1 Viewer)

[Spottedfeather]

I'm sure that you'll just say it's down to personal preference, but at what level should the back channels be when compared to the front channels ? I'm pretty happy with my center and left and right channels, but have the back channels set WAY softer than the front. Should the back channels be just as loud, slightly softer, or slightly louder than the front channels ? In video games, a character will be behind me and I can barely hear them. If I turn towards them, they sound just fine. My center channel is +10, the left and right are about +6 or +7 (I'm not near my setup at the moment)

If those are my fronts, what should I set the surrounds at ?

 

[Mark-P]

What level are they set at now? I'm wondering why you have the fronts cranked up to +6? You should use the test tone generator to set each channel so that they all sound identical in volume. Set everything to 0, and if any of the channels sound lower (using the test tone generator) then raise the level on those channels only. It makes no sense to have all the channels raised (or lowered).

 

[Spottedfeather]

back left, I think, is at -5 and back right is, I think, is set at 0. I have weird hearing. I hear a lot more out of my right side than my left. On my laptop, the left channel is set at 100 and right channel is set at 44. As I said, in my surround sound setup, the front channels and center channel all sound balanced. But when I'm playing a game, a character behind me will be barely audible. But if I turn towards them, I can hear them just fine.

I did what you said. I balanced the front channels, but the center speaker was way too soft and I couldn't hear the voices. So, I bumped it up some. I'm just having trouble with the rear channels.

 

[David Willow]

The 'correct' way to set up all speakers (not the sub) is to have the test tone measure 70db on a sound pressure meter. All should be equally loud at your main listening position.

The 'more correct' way is to adjust them based on your preference. If you have trouble hearing in one ear then adjust the speakers accordingly. It is after all your system.

 

[Race Bannon]

The 'correct' way to set up all speakers (not the sub) is to have the test tone measure 70db on a sound pressure meter. All should be equally loud at your main listening position.

The 'more correct' way is to adjust them based on your preference. If you have trouble hearing in one ear then adjust the speakers accordingly. It is after all your system.

That's with a constant test signal. But the program often has the surrounds much softer during action where there is not a strong left or right bias in the story on the screen. So the OP may be perturbing over a feature that's intended -- softer sound effects, music, etc. coming out of the surrounds because it's programmed that way in the source movie.

 

[David Willow]

True, but if the system is not setup properly first then you have no idea what the director/sound folks intended.

 

[Spottedfeather]

What level are they set at now? I'm wondering why you have the fronts cranked up to +6? You should use the test tone generator to set each channel so that they all sound identical in volume. Set everything to 0, and if any of the channels sound lower (using the test tone generator) then raise the level on those channels only. It makes no sense to have all the channels raised (or lowered).

My center channel is +10. Left channel is +6. Right channel is +6. Back left is +3. Back right is -2. At the moment, everything sounds balanced....though I'm sure I'll be futzing with it for the rest of my life.

I think my main problem was that I had the back channels set way too low.