So I am getting some new speakers :-) and will need to do a complete level recalibration. Right now I have speaker efficiencies all over the place with channel calibration levels of -5 dB (sub), -3 dB, -2 dB, 0 dB, 0 dB, and +9 dB. Yes, and these actually make sense given the various speaker specs in dB/watt and their given locations. My questions are: First, is there a "standard" for what volume level to register on the SPL meter for the manual test tones during calibration? 75 dB is what I have seen mentioned here and used before, but I have read about larger values and THX standards. Second, is there a "standard" for the setting of the main volume control in dB displayed on the front of the 990 at this or some other reference level? That is, should 0 dB on the display correspond to some number of dB of SPL? There are already a lot of audible level differences among sources (CD, DVDs, cable box, phono), so I realize it is not critical.

The standard approach for calibrating your 990 is to set the volume control to 0dB (preferably on an inactive input) and to adjust each channel to 75dB on the SPL meter. Under these circumstances and with the 990's internal test tones, the 0dB volume setting will represent "reference level" for DVD's.

Thanks Gonk. It seems I did that at the beginning, because it is exactly at 0 dB for 75 dB SPL. Still I find most listening is done at master volume settings between -20 dB and -10 dB. -10 is quite loud, much louder that the 990's manual calibration tones. It is not live concert loud, but loud enough. It is hard to imagine listening to music or a movie with the volume set at 0 dB for any length of time, but then I still hear enough high frequency content that I care about it after all these years. :-)