Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Surround setup

I am getting ready to move into a new house. I have a 5.1 setup using M60, and I have a 350 on layaway (August delivery, and will soon be getting the QS-8 and a new VP150.
In the past I have adjusted the sound manually and it sounds OK. I was wondering if there was a CD you can get that will help you balance your system? So if I was just checking my rears it would just send music or sound to them. If I wanted to adjust the fronts it would do the same. Center, sub.
My guess is nothing is perfect but it may get me in the ballpark and I can fine tune from there.
Am I over complicating this?

What receiver do you have? Most 5.1 or 7.1 receivers have test tones (pink noise) that enable you to balance the volume (calibrate) your speakers using an SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meter such as the one from Radio Shack.

There are discs, like DVE (Digital Video Essentials) and AVIA Guide to Home Theater that provide similar tones, and do a whole lot more for you as well.

AN INTRODUCTION TO TEST & CALIBRATION DVDS aka "Why the hell do I need one of these things?" (To learn about DVE and AVIA, scroll down far enough to read "THE DIFFERENT DISCS AND THEIR ATTRIBUTES")

Essential Accessories: The Radio Shack Sound Pressure Level Meter

A Quick Overview of Home Theater Calibration

Calibrating Your Home Theater System

How To Set Up a Subwoofer (or Subwoofers) for Home Theater

Subwoofer Setup Guide by Bossobass

Common Subwoofer Set-Up Errors by Edward J M

Try the Avia DVD or the Sound & Vision DVD. Check around for pricing. If you want a CD that tests surround, I don't know of any, but maybe someone else does.

As Jack mentioned, most new AVR's have test tones which you can use to get the pink noise the same for all speakers. You can do it by ear, or get a SPL meter from Radio Shack. Also, most AVR's have a built in Setup calibration and include a microphone. With this you can get very good results on delay(distance), speaker level dB's, and check for room adjustments. This combined with an spl meter is really all you need in my opinion. The DVD's are nice and also help with video calibration, however, the only one that is the most recent, DVE, is hard for some people to navigate through.

For the money, I would strongly suggest the Radio Shack meter. It ought to be standard equipment in every HT!!!

Gat to agree with the Rat here!

Yeah, they are relatively cheap and then there is "no" guessing as to what your sound level REALLY are.

Would the Video Essentials or AVIA DVD give me the SAME results, instead of using the Harman Kardon AVR65's built-in pink noise?
What I'm confused about is if I use a dvd's test-tone...each device that I have is different in volume output...like from my digital cable, my Xbox, Gamecube..etc...will any of the sound quality be drastically lowered now, since I used a DVD To calibrate the speakers, and not my receiver's built-in test tones?

The results from the disc should be roughly the same as the pink noise tones from your receiver. When you use these tones, whether from a disc or the receiver, all you are doing is ensuring that the volume from each speaker is the same at your seat (better known as "the sweet spot"). This is the spot where you should set the SPL meter when calibrating.

Then, regardless of the source you are using (DVD player, cable box, Xbox, Gamecube), your system is properly balanced (calibrated). If you're watching a movie, and a sound from the left front speaker is louder than anything coming from another speaker, that is exactly the way it's supposed to be. It's what the man who mixed the soundtrack intended. All calibration does is ensure you hear the surround sound track the way it was intended to be heard.

However, once calibrated, you are free to bump or reduce a speaker's volume to suit your tastes. I suspect most of us alter the center channel and subwoofer to give us what we want to hear. I know I set my sub volume (with the setting in the receiver) a little louder for movies than I do with music.

Thank You Ajax!