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This sound's important While it's a good idea to make sure your picture is as good as possible,
corner or against a wall. Placement against a wall will make the bass
make sure your sound is too. Properly calibrated sound can add inches to
sound "boomy" which is cool for about 10 minutes. Lastly, you can tell that you have a polarity or "phase" problem when
your display as it is a key ingredient for the suspension of disbelief. In fact, I now believe m y 13-inch screen is 50 inches' with the addition o f a
certain frequencies sound muddy when running test tones across all
properly calibrated surround sound system and a pair of binoculars.
the speakers. One speaker will be moving in the opposite direction of another, cancelling out sound waves. If this is the case, check your
Hello, is this thing on? The starting point for setting up your system is placing the speakers in
speaker wiring for continuity.
the correct positions, pointing them in the right direction and making sure they have the correct polarity before calibrating. For example, if you have
Now you can actually start calibrating. Quite a few receivers offer an auto-calibration system where you place
the left and right channels reversed, screen objects will move in one
the supplied microphone where you normally sit. This is very handy but
direction and their corresponding sound in the other. Very art house, but
it's common for high-end receivers and pre-amps to require you to break
not usually desirable and, yes, it happens. Also, all speakers should point
out the measuring tape and SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meter.
toward the listening position, ideally at ear level. This guarantees that
Occasionally, auto-calibration can be fooled and you'll have to do it
there is no high frequency drop-off as tweeters tend to be very directional.
manually anyway. You'll have to ferret around the internet to find one
The left and right speakers should be 30 degrees off the centre axis and
now for under $100. In either case, make sure the calibration mic or
the rear speakers placed all the way to 110 degrees on either side. They
SPL meter is pointing up to the ceiling at "ear height and in the place
should follow a perfect circle around the listening position. I f you can't
where you plan to sit. Also, make sure you're not blocking any of the
place your speakers in a circle around the listening position you will have
speakers during the test sequence or reflecting any sound to the mic
to add delay to compensate. This means the left and right speakers are not
with your body. Fortunately for me, my body absorbs sound due to
flat against the wall but stick out slightly and are angled to the centre. This
high fat content but you may not be so lucky.
circular placement is an ideal and not always attainable. The placement of
Manual or automatic, calibration is done to make sure that all the
the subwoofer is not very important other than to avoid putting it in a
speakers sound equally loud and the sound arrives at the proper time. This isn't an issue if you put all the speakers in a perfect circle around the listening position but, again, this is usually not possible and adjustments need to be made. Use the measuring tape to measure the distance from
O F * T E K LT
your listening position to the closest speaker. Then measure the others.
L i e g a t i , e r.
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The ideal listening volume, according to George Lucas's THX, is 75 dB SPL at the listening position. So set the SPL meter to the 70 or 80 dB level with a "C" weighting with "slow" response. Adjust the volume so that the test tone is within the ballpark and not off the scale. Run the test that uses pink noise and adjust the volume level for each speaker separately except for the subwoofer. Finally, test the subwoofer using pink noise which falls within the frequency capabilities of it, usually under 200Hz. Well, I have to stop writing as the cops are here due to another noise complaint. Apparently, sound testing makes the neighbours testy. By Andrew Carruthers
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Important Sounding Terms
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White Noise: Pink Noise:
Random sounds of equal volume across all frequencies. Random sounds made across all frequencies where the volume drops by half for every octave up Also, Harper's term for a question from the press gallery
THX: NW,
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George Lucas's company that sets standards and certifies audio/visual equipment.
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Point where a wave is at a particular time such as crest or trough. Sound Pressure Level (SPL): The physical measurement of sound volume Tweeter. S m a l l speaker designed to replicate high frequency sound Woolen L a r g e speaker designed to replicate low frequency sound. wwvv.hubcanada.com
