recommended decibel setting fro 5.1?

[Bathawk]

hey all, I admit I'm definitely an AV newbie, but trying to get the most out of my system

I have a 40" sony 1080p screen with a PS3 and a yamaha 5.1 surround sound system.

My couch is about 6 feet away from the T with mounts for the rear speakers at the back corners of the couch

when I first sired it up sound was soming out evenly through the speakers explosions, music and effects were rich,detailed and loud, but I had to strain to hear voices

The best buy folks showed me how to adjust the decibel output levels. Now I have the center speaker at +10, and the other four speakers (andsubwoofer) at +4

I can hear dialouge fine now, but the sound/music/effects sound less rich, but it might just be my imagination

any recommendations?

[Esnesnon]

Follow the directions at this LINK.

[Bathawk]

appreciate the link, but fifty buck for a sound pressure meter sounds like a lot, I was curious what other folk with a similar 5.1 setup have thier decibels at?

[Esnesnon]

Ask 10 people and you'll probably get 10 different opinions, that's because it's not just the equipment that affects the sound, it's also the environment you put that equipment in...there are no absolutes when it comes to calibrating the sound from your receiver...If you want set up correctly then bite the bullet and follow that guide.

If you can afford all the other equipment in listed in your previuos post then the $50 for the SPL meter and $30 for a calibration disk isn't going to kill you.

Spend the extra $$ and calibrate it correctly...otherwise consider all the $$ you spent on you other equipment squandered.

[Aurora]

appreciate the link, but fifty buck for a sound pressure meter sounds like a lot, I was curious what other folk with a similar 5.1 setup have thier decibels at?

It COMPLETELY depends on your room, where your speakers are positioned, what speakers you have, what receiver you have, and where you sit in relation to the speakers. In other words, no one can help you with this at all. What settings other people have are completely worthless to you.

You need to invest in an SPL meter (as suggested). Many receivers have an autosetup function and come with a microphone. You put the microphone in the main listening seat, run the setup, and it sets all the levels for you based on what it hears.

I'd recommend putting them all at 0 if you don't use autosetup or an SPL meter. From there, you might adjust a couple channels individually if they're being overwhelmed in the soundfield; but in any case, +10 is a LOT.

[mrspeakers]

Also, if they are all up +4, you may want to set them ALL at 0, and the sub at +6. I'm assuming you have 5 identical speakers. If not, then you certainly are not getting an accurate soundfield by having all 5 at the same level.

Without question you should use an SPL. There is no substitute for accuracy. Find a friend to share the cost with, as once you set it up, you won't use it again very often...

[Bathawk]

yeah I thought my system should have had a mike, but if it did I never saw it (hope it didn't get thrown away but I doubt it

as it was all my decibel settings were setat +0 I was getting fantastic sound, but the voices were extremely faint, if it wasn't for that I probably would never have bothered messing with the settings

Are the mike's prety much universal? meaning if I have a friend with another 5.1 setup could I just borrow his?

Like the previous gentleman said, I won't have much use for i afterwards, and whole 50 bucks isnt much compared to my $3k setup....it's all on one of those " no intrest for a year" credit card things