Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Should I have a professional calibrate my system?

Next month I’ll be purchasing a Denon AVR-3808CI and two M2’s to complete my 7.1 system. One of the dealers in town has offered to come to my house—for a fee, of course—and calibrate the receiver and speakers. I find this offer attractive in that I have a hard time doing audio calibration myself and figure that if I’ve spent several thousand dollars on Axiom speakers and a new Denon receiver, I’d like to get the most out of my set-up. What do you think? Have you ever had a professional using the best audio calibration equipment tweak your system? Is a couple hundred bucks worth it? Or should I try it myself and save my money?

Before you spend money on a professional calibration why don't you run the Audyssey through your auto setup and see how you like the results, I'm more than happy with the results in my room.

Well i'm kinda new to the forum here. But trying stuff is fun! Buy an spl meter and an avia set up disc or just do some reading online.

I'll be frank, you can have a pro come set it up but-audio is so subjective to the listener you may not care for it. I'd hate to see you get into the rut of thinking the way the "pro" set it up for you is the only way for you to enjoy your new speakers. IMHO i vote for no.

I agree with Michael, let the receiver do the calibrating for you. There is no need to pay anyone to do what the receiver can do for free.

What exactly is his scope of work?

He's an audio expert ya dummy

Bayne may want to read this. If all he is going to do is "basic calibration", then I think Bayne and Audyssey can do this without the expert's help.

Here's the website of the home theatre company I've been talking with: www.homeconceptsdesign.com

They're a Denon dealer that gave me the second best quote for the reciver I want. I haven't settled on anything yet, and I may yet change my mind completely once I hear back from another dealer this weekend. Do I think me and the Audyssey, heck yeah. I just think I'll always wonder what a professional could have achieved.

Their website says the following:

Acoustic Calibration

At Home Concepts we use highly sophisticated calibrating devices to produce the perfect balance of sound throughout your home. Acoustically calibrating your home theatre system is one of the most important parts of developing a mind blowing home theatre experience. By calibrating your home theatre system to produce the proper sound for the placement of your speakers, whether they are in cabinets, in walls or on stands, properly adjusting the levels of these speakers can produce a much more enjoyable experience. Without calibrating your system there can be peaks and valleys in your sound waves producing dead and live areas in the room. The dead areas will cause the person in that area to be removed from the movie and the person in the peak areas to develop listening fatigue. So when you decide to design and develop your home theatre system make sure you ask us about calibrating your system!

The only value-added part that I see is what I've highlighted in bold. Now how do you think they are going to accomplish this?

Quote:

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Now how do you think they are going to accomplish this?

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By selling him more stuff after evaluating one's listening room.
I've heard of companies that do this to get their foot inside your house.
If they really only setup the receiver and speakers with distances and SPL adjustments, they are not worth even paying them twenty bucks for the job.
Read the receiver manual.
It's damn easy.