How Do You Calibrate Your Receiver's Surround Field?

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skherbeck

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I thought it would be interesting to get some different viewpoints on how people calibrate there system for the optimal "sweet spot" surround field experience.

I have a Yamaha rx-v661 receiver and I use the Yamaha "Parametric Room Acoustic Optimiser" feature... it's basically a sensor that I place where my ears are when sitting in the sweet spot... it detects a series of tones played from each speaker and adjusts the speaker levels automatically. It generally works perfect... when I play a surround mix that sounds wrong, it's usually because it was mixed that way (as reflected by the wave forms using Audacity). Rather than making adjustments to each song as I listen, I usually rip the disc and make permanent changes in Audacity; then I just play the customized flacs.

How do you calibrate a system if you don't have an automatic feature such as this (I'm a novice and would love to know for future receiver purchases)?
 
Ah.. the luxury of being a novice in these times.. first thing, coming to surround music/home theatre nowadays you missed out on masses of cabling.. thanks to HDMI, even though I hate the bloody thing its convenient when it works and tidies up the number of wires needed, it is remarkable what you can do with HDMI.. I remember my first Dolby Digital setup which required the following just to get LaserDisc's AC-3 surround to work = 1 RCA from LDP to Demodulator > 1 RCA from AC-3 Demodulator to outboard Dolby Digital decoder > 6 x RCA's from DD Decoder to MultiCh analogue In on Receiver.. phew! 8 cables just to do lossy Dolby.. BUT it was discrete 5.1.. WOW! No more Pro-Logic! The irony is I'm just about to go back to those demod daisy-chain times, now I've thrown myself into the CD-4 quagmire, with all the spaghetti of cables that will require! Can you say "glutton for punishment"..? :eek:

Lets stay on memory lane a bit longer together though and talk about Multichannel speaker setup.. you had to calibrate the speakers all by yourself by ear! I could have used an SPL, if I'd known what one was 20+ years ago.. I use the term calibrate like it was some fancy shmancy process, my first receiver only had settings for volume level of Centre and Rear (one vol setting for both rears).. the unit output white noise/test tones and you used the "Balance" knob on the front panel to balance out Front Left & Right (no mean feat working out front channel balance levels on your own when stood nowhere near the listening area.. impossible in fact!).. then, when you'd fudged the fronts, you clicked a switch that engaged test tone in the centre, you raised or lowered the volume of the centre, then clicked the button again to turn the rears up or down (yes both rears lowered or raised in volume at the same time!). No sub calibration (you had to walk around the room and find the best compromise of room location for the actual sub unit itself - basically where it sounded best/loud but not boomy at just under 12 o'clock on the volume knob.. and you could then adjust the sub's own LPF knob depending on how much bass front L&R could put out.. initially I was alright there was no real duplication of bass as I had bookshelf's up front but in time when I got floor standers I distinctly remember having to turn the upper roll off knob down some..) all those knobs, you'd think I was in heaven! Compared to today's YPAO it was bloody hell..! Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Audyssey after all.. :D

What was the question again!? :eek: Oh yes, how do I calibrate? Instead of twiddling knobs and crawling round the room, I twiddle my thumbs while YPAO/Audyssey does all the hard work! :p

Ps. That YPAO sensor that goes in your sweet spot is in actuality a microphone rather than a sensor but it is sensitive, so I'll let you off! :)

Oh and Pps. I've no idea if my experience with old ProLogic AVRs is anything like the Quad gear that came before it as the Quad gear came before I did! The Quad receivers may have been more sophisticated with their setup than my AVRs were in the ProLogic days, IDK, you'd have to ask some of the folks here who "were there" :upthumb
 
In my 4.0 system, I'm using an Oppo 105 with analog-out into 2 integrated tube amps (Musical Paradise MP-301 MK3) which feed 4 Paradigm Studio 60 v2 speakers.

First, I physically position the speakers with the FL and FR equidistant from my listening position and the RL and RR also equidistant from the listening position. I get pretty fussy about these distances because I only care about the sweet spot as I am the only user of my system.

Then I use a hand-held sound meter, ear-height a few inches in front of my face from the listening position, to set the channel levels in the Oppo analog configuration screen. Finally, since I have separate volume controls for the front pair and the rear pair I will adjust these levels on a album-by-album basis as necessary.
 
I calibrate manually using an SPL meter on my phone, and then I might make a small adjustment by using a mix or two that has the same thing passing around all 5 channels. If the levels are pretty consistent from channel to channel, then that's what it is.
A good example of a mix I use for calibration is "Helpless Dancer" from The Who's album "Quadrophenia". That has Roger's voice going around FL-FR-SR-SL a few times but then at the very end it goes to the center. So if the engineer mixed it correctly, that means that it's a good mix to use to make sure the voice level sounds consistent across all 5 channels. :)
 
The key thing --I believe-- is the front-rear balance. I do it by ear. The sound meter (or my procedure) for some reason does not provide the best results.
 
I calibrate manually using an SPL meter on my phone, and then I might make a small adjustment by using a mix or two that has the same thing passing around all 5 channels. If the levels are pretty consistent from channel to channel, then that's what it is.
A good example of a mix I use for calibration is "Helpless Dancer" from The Who's album "Quadrophenia". That has Roger's voice going around FL-FR-SR-SL a few times but then at the very end it goes to the center. So if the engineer mixed it correctly, that means that it's a good mix to use to make sure the voice level sounds consistent across all 5 channels. :)

There are a couple of Tom Cochrane songs from Trapeze that have that same sort of "roundabout" effect. The same effect can be found on some Moody Blues albums which is very helpful because the rears on those albums are too low to begin with.
 
I run 5 identical bookshelf monitors and a subwoofer. I set the system to run all 5 speakers as "large" and use analog bass management (an Outlaw ICBM). I set levels first by ear and verify with an SPL meter using the systems noise generator. Bass level for the sub are set by ear using a few well known (by me) stereo sources. I set the LFE level by ear as well. My only experience with a calibration system is early generation Emo-Q on my pre pro. I don't like the system. It sets levels OK but it screws up the EQ (IMO). It has however led me to the point where I got more satisfying mid bass by raising the systems crossover from 80 to 120Hz.
 
I send all kind of different mono music tracks through my speakers. Usually two speakers at a time. Fronts, Rears, LF+LR, RF+RR,LF+RR,RF+LR...then I really get crazy and blend in another channel and hope it sounds balanced, if not, very minor tweak.

I mix up the types of music, mainly vocals, bass heavy, balanced, ect.

You begin to learn how much the room makes a difference on your matching speakers. Bass will sond different on an identical speaker. I have gathered a bunch of different tracks for this specific purpose.

Center channel only of America - Homecoming (dvda) is great for vocal balancing. Piper at the Gates of Dawn mono Anniversary edition is pretty balanced and fun to listen to.

My pc sound card has software that makes it simple. Slider for each 5.1 channel with mute and solo check boxes. Much tougher to do on my Oppo but still workable...
 
Audyssey. Auto volume balance for all speakers plus auto time delay for varying speaker distances = perfect sweet spot. Same calibration handles stereo, quad, 5.1, 7.1.
 
I also use Audessey. My version takes readings from upto six different spots in the room. I bypass the EQ for the front pair, but currently have it applied to the rears and centre. I don't employ dynamic volume or dynamic EQ. Dynamic EQ definitely messes significantly with the front/rear balance. These auto set-ups can produce errors though, and you need to use the right mic for your amp.
 
I calibrate manually using an SPL meter on my phone, and then I might make a small adjustment by using a mix or two that has the same thing passing around all 5 channels. If the levels are pretty consistent from channel to channel, then that's what it is.
A good example of a mix I use for calibration is "Helpless Dancer" from The Who's album "Quadrophenia". That has Roger's voice going around FL-FR-SR-SL a few times but then at the very end it goes to the center. So if the engineer mixed it correctly, that means that it's a good mix to use to make sure the voice level sounds consistent across all 5 channels. :)

What does "SPL" stand for? What is the name of the App you're using on your phone?
 
I use the internal test tones in my 7.1 receiver along with a Radio Shack SPL meter to make adjustments. This yields excellent baseline results, especially with regard to left/right sound levels. Then I dink with the front to back balance - usually juicing up the surrounds - quite often depending on the recording. There is a lot of variation among surround recordings and it seems that many engineers are a bit shy about providing sufficient oomph in the surround/rears.

Occasionally, left/right balance also needs adjustment such as Grazing In The Grass on AF's The Collection album.

Bottom line: I start with a good baseline but mess with all the controls available to me to get the most satisfying sound.
 
Primarily , a white noise test and a phase test (clicking sounds) from my Pioneer receiver.
I also check it with any DVD that has test tones (Silverline, etc.) on each player....
 
What does "C weighted" mean? (sorry...novice:mad:@:)

Don't worry some of us have been at this for yonks and still don't know what it means! :D
(I even googled it and I'm still not much the wiser, its all too technical for a tech-hell-no-phobe like me :eek: it seems like it might be something to do with the frequency range of hearing and how we perceive and then measure loudness, IDK! Have a google and see what you make of it maybe? )
 
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