I have a friend who just bought the Atlantic Technolgy FS-7.1 soundbar and he brought up the issue of speaker level calibration. I have no idea what to do with test tones or what Audyssey, which he has on his receiver, is going to do.

Should you set all speaker levels the same using the SPL meter? Is Audyssey even going to work?

Anyone ever do this or have any ideas?

This is from a Chicago Tribune review:

"the FS-7.0 cannot use the automatic calibration system in most
new audio receivers ...Atlantic Technology asks that you measure the distance
between the seating position and the soundbar, then enter
that number for the front channels in the receiver’s setup
menu.
Setting the side speakers, however, seems more like a
problem on the math portion of the SAT: If you measure
the distance from the closest side wall to either side of the
soundbar, add 2 feet, then add 6 feet to the distance from
the soundbar to your seat..."

"one tweeter to the left,
center and right channels, then asks the bigger drivers
to multitask. By adding a dual-voice coil, the speaker’s
designers enable that left 4-by-6 driver to produce the
left-channel track and part of the center-channel track.
The right 4-by-6 driver, meanwhile, plays the right-channel
track and half of the center.
The side-panel drivers, with triple voice coils, produce:
1. Part of the front-channel information to add spaciousness,
2. The surround channels of a 5.1-channel soundtrack
3. The back surround channels of a 7.1-channel
soundtrack."

Good to know.

Thanks.