Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Separates and a sub

I was tweaking on the levels once with a cd playing, pushed the wrong button and accidently kicked the processor out of calibration mode into cd mode with the vol at 0. I will never do that again. As rosane rosanadana used to say- "I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE" I read a warning about that in the manual later. Thank god no one else was home.

David,

Wait a minute. Am I missing something here? Before calibrating my system with the test tones, should I be setting my main volume to 0dB??? I didn't think the main volume control was in the circuit during calibration.

BTW, I normally listen to music with the volume set to -25dB and movies -20dB.

If you want to be a purist to Dolby standard you would set the volume to 0 then calibrate at 85db not 75db. Most people calibrate at 75db to preserve their hearing.

I think the volume db settings on receivers are just arbitrary numbers that don't really mean much. These numbers vary between brands. Much better off using an SPL meter to calibrate. I think we've had some threads on this in the past. The volume numbers don't really indicate reference levels.

I don't think it is even possible on some receivers. My Onkyo cannot be calibrated in this way, at least not that I am aware of. I just put the main volume up till I reached 75db and level matched all speakers using the receivers test tones and spl meter.

Its not possible on many receivers. Once upon a time when this spec was developed, the thought was for manufactureres to adhere to a "standard" calibration reference ie. 0 and 85db... which evolved into 0 and 75 db... which has become every manufacturer for himself.

As long as the speakers are level matched and you have room on the receiver volume its all good.

Hey I just noticed I turned from a "local" into a "devotee"...I prefer "local".

I think I agree with you there. If I set my volume to 0dB and then try to calibrate my speakers to 75dB, I'll run out of attenuation on my channel levels.

My Denon Auto Channel setup calibrates everything to 80dB, when I verify after using my SPL meter. However, I usually do it manually using 75dB. The problem with 80dB is that it then has my speakers set so high that I run out of volume.

And what do you set your main volume control to before you calibrate?

This depends on the receiver/processor. Most of them that I have seen don't require you to adjust the volume before calibration. On mine, upon entering the reciever internal test tones the volume is internally auto set to 0 dB. I can manually turn the knob down while the tones are playing to verify this. And as I said before, many offset the level by 10 dB so that you can use a 75dB tone to calibrate to, that is translated to an 85dB level when in use.

Bottom line on calibrating is to go off of your receiver manual as to how the calibration should be done.

Oh, and yes I agree that listening at 0 dB is a bit too loud for me too. I'm usually around -7 dB for movies, and anywhere from -15 to -30 dB for music.