setting speaker levels with sound level meter

[krabby5]

ok...I just hooked up my rt800i's and SVS 25-31...

I am starting to calibrate the speakers...

I have a Kenwood vr-6070 (looking at getting a HK 635...3-4 years is apparently too long for me to go without upgrading :D )..

I am using it's internal speaker tones with the sound level meter...should I be using a setup disk's tones, instead..? or doesn't it really matter?

also..in the SVS manual, it says to have the subwoofer gain level at 1/3 to start...and the level from the receiver at 1/4 max (mine goes from -10 to +10)
so i set to -5..

since the reading for the sub was too low, I raised the volume on the subwoofer gain to just over half for correct settings...the receiver level was left at -5...did I do this correctly?

[pjdami]

ok...I just hooked up my rt800i's and SVS 25-31...

I am starting to calibrate the speakers...

I have a Kenwood vr-6070 (looking at getting a HK 635...3-4 years is apparently too long for me to go without upgrading :D )..

I am using it's internal speaker tones with the sound level meter...should I be using a setup disk's tones, instead..? or doesn't it really matter?

also..in the SVS manual, it says to have the subwoofer gain level at 1/3 to start...and the level from the receiver at 1/4 max (mine goes from -10 to +10)
so i set to -5..

since the reading for the sub was too low, I raised the volume on the subwoofer gain to just over half for correct settings...the receiver level was left at -5...did I do this correctly?

Sounds like you are off to a good start. Many of us prefer to use the Avia or Sound and Vision DVD to calibrate the speakers.

Your sub at -5.0 is fine. 1/2 way on the sub gain is typical. You could go -3 db on your receiver and maybe cut back slightly on the sub gain. For Home Theater, you can run your sub "hot" at +3 db higher than your left or right speaker. For music run it the same db.

[Frank Z]

http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/spl.htm

[adam2434]

Yep, -5 is OK.

And, as was mentioned, many folks like to run the sub 3-4 dB hot for movies, just to give some extra kick to the low freq effects. In your case, that would be -2 or -1 on the receiver's sub level.

My Outlaw sub calibrates to -2 with my sub's gain at just under 1/2. I run it 4 dB hot (+2) when I want some low end oomph in action movies.