Okay. I have been reading forever that I should get one of these babies to calibrate my home theater. I gotta tell ya, I have never done it. I just leave all my speakers set with little test tones set by ear and I have been happy. What am I missing here?

I did the same thing you are doing for a number of years, but somewhere along the way I picked up a meter to use. I found it to be quicker and easier to get the channels adjusted evenly using the meter, and the system sounded more cohesive and uniform afterward. Individual speakers blended in with the rest of the speakers better, and pans seemed a bit more fluid.

There was once a very lengthy, energetic debate here about the benefits of an SPL meter for calibration. A substantial majority of the debate's participants reported finding it to be beneficial. Some people went back and made subtle adjustments after using the meter, of course, but they still found the meter helpful in giving them a relatively even starting point.

Considering the very low cost of the meter, and the time saved over having to do a calibration by ear (which is very inaccurate anyway), it's a no brainer.

When I first got my 950, I set my speaker levels by ear and was conmvinced that not only did it sound good, but my golden ears had helped me set the levels quite accurately. When I picked up an SPL meter a few weeks later and re-calibrated, I discovered not only that my ears were not as golden as I thought, but that everything sounded so much smoother and natural. Considering what we pay for all the other components in our systems, the RS SPL meter is a tremendous value.

So with the meter am I essentially adjusting the speakers for room acoustics according to what reaches me at my viewing position? Not exactly sure.....

The meter measures sound pressure levels in dB, allowing you to adjust channel trim with much more accuracy than the ear alone can.

wingnut,

you are right. it's to adjusts your system to room acoustics (furnitures, carpets, ceiling height, distances, etc) which is different for everybody. i was myself skeptical about the meter when i bought my 950/7100 just last month. yes, i was happy with the new system but was much happier after calibration. sound blended smoothly, seamlessly. soundstage opened up. in the meter manual, it mentions that you need the meter for health reasons, too - prevent ear damage from too powerful sound waves.
if it's any worth, i used the following:
"C" weighting, SLOW, 70dB on the dial, 0dB on the 950 volume, and adjust TRIM to 75dB. It was my first time to do this and I guess I must have done it well. No big deal but the rewards are huge.

Okay. Thanks. I will give it a shot and see what the difference is.

I have to tell ya, that I calibrated my ht with the RS meter and the test disc but, the software varies so much that I find I'm adjusting the balance for each sacd, dvd-a or dvd I put on. I think of the calibration as a starting point.

Jay

Okay. I bought the Spl meter today. I went by Testtone's instructions and set the 950 volume to 0db and adjusted each test tone to 75 with the meter set at C and Slow. My Trim adjustments got results of: -6, -9 for fronts L/R. -10 for center, -9 for surrounds and -12 for back. This seems kinda low but I guess it is right. Star Wars Attack of the Clones sounded smooooooth. I am surprised that my fronts would have such different settings. They are set up pretty much evenly as far as positioning goes.
So...thumbs up on the SPL Meter. I guess I don't have the golden ears I thought I did either. Thanks to all for the help. It really sounds great.