How do I calibrate subwoofer level?

Good morning guys and gals. I've got a question.

If I use the 950's internal test tones to calibrate all of the speakers, I come up with some reasonable trim levels for everything. However, if I use Avia, I have to bump the subwoofer trim down by about 10db to get it to match. I understand that Avia doesn't use the LFE channel for the sub but rather sends the low frequency tones through the main channels so that the 950 will route them to the sub. I can see where this is a more "real world" scenario since most of us set our main speakers to "small" and have the bass (below crossover) sent to the sub. The problem is that I have to turn the sub trim way down to get it's output to match. This is fine, except that now any information on the LFE-only channel gets cranked way down too. Any words of wisdom on this? Thanks.

Cary

A little wierd, Avia and the 950 test tones match better on my system, than Avia and the test tones on my prior Sony pre/pro.

What you could do is to try some music/movies each way, and see what sounds better. One might be bass heavy, one might be "just right", or one might be bass-lite, and the other "just right".

Might want to double check your bass management settings, and how the sub is setup too.

Thanks Kevin, I did just that.

Calibrating with the 950 resulted in too much bass. It sounded fine after calibrating with Avia. I'm not sure I totally understand why yet so I'll probably play with it a bit more this weekend.

Cary

With the SVS 20-39 PCplus sub, I had to lower the 950 setting to -7db with the 20-39's gain/volume to just over half so it doesn't bottom out. I also used Avia for this.
DmC



[This message has been edited by DMC (edited November 01, 2002).]