Stupid question #1

I've had the 950/770 for about a week now. Still fine tuning a few things, and one of them is the speaker calibration.
As opposed to using the internal pink noise that the 950 generates, can I use Avia to set the speaker levels?
I tried to, but when I went into the "adjustment menu" while playing Avia, the tones reverted (or defaulted) to the 950's tones.
I've got it dialed in using the 950, but am expecting delivery of my SVS 20-39PC+ on Monday, and the Avia disk provides more flexibility when integrating a sub.
I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious, so this question becomes stupid #1, as I'm sure there will be others

I am sure you're not the first to ask that question. I will be doing the same next week when I get my 950. Give the search engine a try and see if you get any bytes. :-)


[This message has been edited by MeanGene (edited September 28, 2002).]

ESFIII:
it's not a stupid question at all, and i don't really know the answer, but i think i would set the channel calib settings all to '0' and use the "channel trim" menu for calibration with the avia disc.

if you have to tweak the trim of a speaker while playing a particular disc (after calibration), you have to remember to reset afterwards, but you'd have to do that anyhow.

let me know what you think. also, before you reset the channel calibration menu to '0', write the settings of your "dial-in" down and compare to the calibrated settings in the channel trim menu when you finish.

actually, it's an interesting question to me.

When calibrating with Avia, just be aware that the tones are recorded 20db below reference. Hence you must calibrate at 85db. Most processors' tones are recorded 30db below reference. Hence you would calibrate at 75db.

The Sound & Vision home theatre tune-up DVD includes pink noise for 6.1 set-ups, in order to set the level of the rear surrounds if you use them. the Avia does not have these.

bossobass has the best solution that I know of. I had to do the same thing with my previous equipment. I set the trim levels using the AVIA test tones then adjust the calibration levels to match. It's kind of a pain but at least you only have to do it once in a while.

Thanks, you guys...
The question was asked back in, I think April or May, but it went unanswered.
That's what a search on the subject revealed.
I was aware that the Avia tones are different. In fact, that's what clued me in that the 950 was defaulting to it's own tones. I tried to calibrate to 85db with Avia and kept cranking and cranking the trim levels...
"Hmmmm", I said...and then I noticed that I was trying to make 75 85. Duhhhhh...
I figured I could always resort to using the trim controls, but I knew it would mean constantly re-calibrating.
I also have the Sound and Vision disc in addition to Avia. I find it simpler to use, as it's not quite so involved. I don't yet have 6(or 7).1, so I haven't had to calibrate rear speakers.
I am not convinced that this is an impossible task. I will continue the hunt and would appreciate anyone who finds the answer first to let me know.

Slightly off the orignal subject, I just noticed that Radio Shack says their sound meter amp will clip at anything over +3 on the scale. That implies to me that we shouldn't use +5 on the 70 scale if shooting for 75. Drop the volume control to -5 and calibrate to 0 on the 70 scale. Is this what others do?

[This message has been edited by jlib (edited September 28, 2002).]

I don't understand. On my 950 the TRIM and CALIB adjustments affect each other. If you set CALIB to -2 for center speaker, TRIM will show -2 for center speaker. CALIB provides a signal to use, and TRIM does not, but they seem to adjust the same settings.

I just finished adjusting the 950 with Sound & Vision for the following setup:

Outlaw 770
NHT 2.5i mains
NHT AC2 center
four NHT 1.5 for surrounds and back
SVS PC Plus Sub

It was curious, I couldn't see a lot of difference on the RadioShack digital meter between setting the mains at LARGE with a 40Hz crossover and setting them at SMALL with a 150Hz crossover.

Robin,

I'm pretty sure the trim settings are temporary. Even if they match the CALIB settings while the 950 is on, once you power cycle the 950 it should default to the your original CALIB settings. I'm going to try this later to see if it works the way I think it does.

didjdude

From my experience, the calib and trim settings are identical (change one, the other also changes) and permanent. The difference is that one includes the 950's internal test tone and the other doesn't -- which is necessary if you want to use AVIA or Video Essentials instead of the test tone to set your channel levels.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

gonk is right. The trim setting are permanent. Very interesting....

That's what I thought. Now, if I just had a better understanding of crossover...

Does it really matter what level the tones are recorded at, as long as they're all at the same level? After all, what you're calibrating to is parity among all the speakers, not an absolute level.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net