I'll play around some more this week. I like the SMS-1 as you can watch the curve change without filters. It was strange that with all the subs at 180 I had the flattest curve. I figured since the front subs were next to my 80's, "0" would be better, but the curve had a lot of peaks(humps) in the lower freq's.

Sounds like I pretty much followed your methods as you descibed. When I was trying to reduce peaks, say at 50hz, it would raise instead of go down, usually peaks are easier to lower? I was just worried about having the Denon to low on the sub gain, as this required me to crank the 350's up to about 3/4.

I wouldn't be too concerned about where you set the gain on the sub since what matters is cumulative line voltage from the processor and the sub volume control. ie. low processor and high sub volume is the same os high processor and low sub volume though I prefer low processor volume to keep distortion as low as possible.

John, one more question in regards to my statements above using the SPL meter. Do you use 70 or the 80 on the selection dial? It seems if I use 70, and calibrate all my speakers to 75, when I switch it to 80, it reads around 78 or so dB's. Likewise, if I use 80 on the dial, then go down 5dB's to 75dB, it shows about 73dB when the selection dial is on 70.

I'm just trying to make sure I'm calibrating to 75dB.

That's a new one Randy. Something is off. But its not a problem as long as you leave the setting at one place and use it for both speakers and subs. I'd suggest leaving it at 70db since that is the central part of the range where you want to calibrate the subs.

Oh gosh, I ammuse myself at times. Just a reminder to all to check your battery from time to time, amazing what a fresh battery will do. Now it is working.....back to calibrating.

John,

With my Denon on the lowest setting of -12dB and my 600 gain all the way to the lowest setting "Min". I'm still getting about 72dB on the meter, I can't get it down to 70dB. The 600 is about 16ft behind the main chair just to the left of the walkout door. Ignore the black square in that corner, that is my planned bass trap column.

Can't you just pop up the levels on the other channels 3 or 4 dB and go from there?

Kcarlile is right. Instead of calibrating speakers to 75db, try levelling speakers to 85db and the subs to 80db so you have some room to lower the sub trim if necessary.

You are getting an unusually high signal out of that Denon! What model is it?

2805

I went through everything, and am using -11dB on the receiver right now. I'm getting a combined 77-78 dB's with all 3 subs using my RS meter from the listening position.

The flattest response before EQ comes with my 600 at 180 phase. Interesting enough, I remember Ian and Alan saying placing the 500 and 600's on 80hz versus bypass brings about a flatter response around the crossover point. I am seeing that on the SMS graph.

Maybe I'll try a higher goal point of 85dB's.

I'm talkin bout sum serious lowwwwwwwwwwwwww FEEEEEEEEEEE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mUcslrHEZrY