Quote:
Originally posted by soundhound:
A sound level meter is useful for establishing a baseline level between the main LCR speakers, and the surrounds. A $30 Radio Shack meter is all that is needed - in fact the daily level balance tests on movie dubbing stages is done with this very meter. If you want to make adjustments in the relative levels after that, then do so, knowing that you can always go back to the 'standard' setting. Keep one thing in mind though, and this is a big one; the pink noise tests on consumer DVDs (and the internal pink noise generator in components) is band limited to a narrow range of frequencies. If your surround speakers, say, have much different frequency response than the main LCRs in the range of the pink noise band, then your results will be skewed. Professionally, it is done with full bandwidth pink noise. In the end, some by-ear tweaking will almost certainly be needed.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited August 13, 2002).]