Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Need a little help with audio calibration

Yes, you should calibrate with your receiver volume knob at "0" (Reference). Protect your ears while you do this. You probably won't listen to music or watch movies at reference, but you should calibrate at that level. Once calibrated properly, listen at the volume that pleases you.

I use the Video Essentials disk, too. Keep in mind that Video Essentials should be calibrated to 75db, not 85db, as you would with the Avia disk. The instructions on the disk itself should make this clear. Run through the audio calibration part of the disk without calibrating so you have an idea what to do when you do calibrate.

If DVE's tones are 30db below reference, you will need to calibrate at 75db, which will not be loud at all. Once calibrated (again with the receiver volume control at 0 db) you will then have a known reference. That's why they call it reference level. Again, setting the volume control at 0 when you watch the movie will allow you to hear the film as it was heard by the sound engineer.

And Ray3, yeah it ain't life-threatening, but if one's going to take the time to calibrate the system, one might as well do it right. They call it reference level for a reason.

Here is a link to an explanation of reference level:

http://www.audiovideo101.com/dictionary/dolby-reference.asp