Please help setting up speaker levels

[vasia]

just got the Kenwood DV-5700 hooked up for DVD-Audio and I am trying to calibrate my Marantz SR8300 with a pair of MA Silver 8's, silver center and Hsu STF-2 sub (SFX surrounds are hopefully coming very soon). When I do tests using SPL meter and SR8300 menu, I have to set up sub pretty low. However, on Kenwood DVD-A setup actually sub turns out pretty low and need to be turned up. To have sub properly levels in both setups I had to set the dial on the sub's amp to about 50% and -12dB on SR8300 level setup (other speakers are around 0dB) and Kenwood 5.1 channel setup has all speakers at -8 to -10 db and sub at 0 db. However, when I watch movies, the sub does not seem to produce level of oomph that I guess it should with 5.1 DD.
Couple of more things, my mains are set to large and center to small and Marantz also has individual level setup for 7.1 inputs that I use for DVD-A,but I have not tried changing those.
What am I doing wrong? Are all speakers supposed to be set to small for movies? Also, is it better to have sub amp set tp low and have high setting in the receiver (e.g. have +smth dB) or vise versa?
Marantz does not seem to allow to set sub level for each playback format, just a general setting for all modes.

[vasia]

Can someone tell me whether in general should the sub volume on the sub amp be set to low and then the volume in the receiver setup set to high, or the other way around (sub volume set to high on the sub amp and to low in the receiver)?

[Burke Strickland]

vasia -

You won't want either the pre-pro/receiver or the sub amp "maxed out". Setting each somewhere toward the middle of the range where there is still room for adjustment is usually the "best". As you get closer to the top of the output range, you run a greater risk of overloading and you limit the opportunity for upward adjustment of that component's control if that becomes necessary to keep things in balance with your other speakers' output. But which one should be set higher or lower kind of depends on the specific equipment. The "best" setting is usually a matter of experimentation.

After trying it with the sub set very low (like about 10 %), I have my sub's internal amp set between 25% - 33 %. Since it is a very powerful amp (it's a Velodyne FSR-18 with a 1250 watt Class D amp) if I had it turned up to, say, 90 %, there is no way I could attenuate the input enough to keep the sub from overpowering everything else in the system. (I accidentally set it at 90% one time, and thought for a minute that my other speakers were turned off.) :>) That means the output to the sub on my pre-pro gets boosted a bit, but not nearly to its limit.

I suggest starting with the sub level for both the pre-pro/receiver and sub amp set somewhere near 50 % and adjusting from there.

BTW -- it seems that a lot of DVD-A (and SACD) set up procedures end up with the bass very low. In my system, I had to boost the bass in the DVD-A player up about 4 db to get it in balance.

As for movies, I've found that my center works best as "small' but have all the others set to "large". But your results with your equipment might be different. A lot of folks say that setting all speakers to "small" is best, letting the processor handle the distribution below 80 Hz to the sub. Others insist that their "full range" speakers handle their channels' bass best and leave the sub to LFE duty only. This is another area where experimentation is advisable. Try it both ways on some familiar movie passages (do it with more than one sequence) with lots of bass activity and decide for yourself which setting ("large" or "small") sounds better to you.

Also, since my sub has a remote control for volume, it is very convenient to punch up the bass a little on movie soundtracks. My pre-pro has a quick-adjust feature for each channel's volume too. But I'd caution that while bass is the "foundation" of sound, it isn't the whole "structure". If explosions sound like a finger-snap, or T-Rex sounds like a debutante pouting because the limo is late, then you need to boost the bass. :>) But if the bass shakes the plaster off the walls but you can't hear the dialog or the music score, then it is time to turn down the sub a bit.

Bottom line -- unless you are using all THX-certified gear from the same manufacturer, then there probably is no "standard recommendation" that will precisely fit your combination of equipment. Rooms and their contents play a big role in how our systems sound, too. So it is likely that you will need to experiment to find the best combination of settings to please you with all the various sources you plan to play. (It might be helpful to make a written log of what you try and what your impressions are, since there are so many variables to play with.)

Good luck!

Burke

[vasia]

Burke,
Thanks a lot for your reply! It really covers most of my questions. I have set up the sub to about 50%, which made me decrease the boost in the receiver and as you said increase the boos quite a bit in the DVD-Audio. I'll try playing with setting speakers to small/large as well.
I have just couple of other questions. Would decreasing sub output in the receiver setup (to -8 or 10 dB right now) somehow confuse the receiver to send only very loud bass to the sub and it would be better to adjust the sub volume so that it would be positively boosted by the receiver? And, also, is there any special way of making sure that LFE goes to the sub? In the Marantz I can see one setting that actually reduces LFE by 10 dB, but there does not seem to be one to boost it.