Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater center channel volume

Is the center level suppose to be maxed on your reciever menu?

I balanced every thing to zero and was amazed at my theater sound! I was able to crank the volume and could not belive me ears! My sub and mains came to life! I mean really came to life! I never knew my sub could produce little bursts of base! And the mains and surrounds filled the room !

Its silly but when i had my BOSE system connected the the reciever i had to keep the center channel maxed because it was such a little speaker.

When i removed the BOSE system and connected the AXIOMS i left the center maxed .

You should set your center channel so that it produces the test tones at the same volume as all of your other speakers. I would measure things from your main listening position with an SPL meter, or if your receiver has an auto setup with mic you can use that.

You should def. not have to max out the volume of your center speaker.

If your receiver has an auto setup routine and mic, you need to calibrate all speakers to the same. If it does not, you need to get an SPL meter and run the test tones (pink noise) so all speakers are the same, normally 75dB.

Some people do like to bump up the center channel a few dB's to help with the dialog.

I had mine maxed to 10. My Yamaha HTR5660 has no auto setup with a mic.

I still cannot find an SPL meter!

I went to 2 SOURCE outlets (RADIOSHACK) and they looked at me like i had 2 heads!

We never herd of anything called a SPL meter for measuring sound sir. We dont think they make such a thing.

I gave up after that.

Search "Radio Shack sound level meter" on ebay and you will find it.

John

Radio Shack not knowing what a Sound Pressure Level is, that is crazy. As far as I know you can still get a digital and analog version?

Lets see if I can find it.................a quick search for "sound meter" on their website gives you the following.

It even says they are a Radio Shack exclusive item, I think I would ask to speak to the manager.

http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=sound%20meter&origkw=sound%20meter&sr=1

They looked at me like I was crazy the other day as well. Then I said decibal meter and he took me right to them. They had an analog and digital.

See, Randy, you just have to use the right words; they knew that they had a "decibel meter", but they had no idea that decibels had anything to do with sound level. You think they got PH.Ds in physics working there?

I'm just glad I have a PHD in Google searching.

An SPL meter is easily found at almost any Radio Shack in the US. Radio Shack in Canada sold all there stores to Circuit City and rebranded them as The Source. The inventory carried by the Source differs from RS and they do not carry the SPL meter. As someone else suggested go to ebay or even try Radio Shack online and see if they ship to Canada.

You can get the RS SPL analog meter in Canada from sonicboom audio (SVS sub Canadian distributer).

Analog meter

On the centre channel topic, here's related question. I just received my vp100, and I've been trying to manually adjust it to fit with my m60 mains. It seems to need to be set a bit higher to even levels out. I seem to have two options:

1) Set the 60s to "0" and push the centre to "+2" or
2) set the centre to "0" and drop the 60s to "-2"

Any advice on whether one is preferable over the other, or does it matter?

Doesn't matter. Don't forget to adjust your surrounds too!

Again, get a radio shack meter and a calibration DVD. It's fairly common practice to set the left main to 0 and go from there.