Confused on Sub calibration

[George Bellefontaine]

It was always my understanding that all speakers should be calibrated to the same level. In my case I have 7 speakers and 2 subs and all were calibrated to 75db. But recently I read in a few posts at other HT sites that the sub(s) should be calibrated to 85db and the rest of the speakers at 75db. Seems to me that if I calibrate my subs to 85db that I would have too much bass. There are times now when my floor and the walls rumble, and since I added the Thundercats to my digital connection, there are times I even feel air moving my pantlegs.Any ideas on this.




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[P-Dub]

The sub should be calibrated above the main speaker levels, how much higher is dependent on what you like. Some say 10dB, Phil's site says more like 4-6 dB higher than your mains. I've got mine at 6 dB over my mains and that seems to work quite well.

Feeling air moving your pantlegs is an indication of nice low bass, this is good. If you start to puke, that's even better. :B

[Andrew Pratt]

There's generally a lot of confusion regarding setting the LFE channel up properly and frankly part of it has to do with the two most common calibration DVD's. DD automatically adds 10 dB to the LFE channel during processing at your receiver (or at least it should) given this info Avia's calibration disc sends a signal that already has the 10dB boost in it so when using it you should calibrate ALL channels to the same volume (85 dB) If you're using Video Essentials though they didn't provide the boost so in order to get it to the proper levels you need to calibrate the sub to 85 dB. Now in both cases the sub shouldn't dominate the soundfield for the other speakers since the boosted signal would have been accounted for during mixing. One problem that some people have (had) is that DTS doesn't need the 10 dB boost so some earlier processors had a problem with applying the boost to DD and not to DTS. As far as I know Denon's have always done this fine but I'm not sure about the other products out there.

As far as making the LFE channel hot compared to the other channels I don't advise it. There are very few subs out there that can handle ture reference level bass when properly calibrated never mind an inflated level. If however you never listen to it very loud you may find boosting the signal useful but beware that it may sound bloated at times esp for music

[Markj]

Calibrate to taste! I can set different levels for DD and DTS with my system. Andrew's post is right on.

[George Bellefontaine]

Well since I posted this message, I tried recalibarting the subs to 85db and gave it a test run on a couple of my favorite sub test scenes, the best being U571. Well, I went back to 75db in a hurry. Too much bass is worse than not enough.Thanks for the input,guys.




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[Lex]

Set just below glass breakage and sheetrock falling, LOL.

Really, adjust for comfort. Some like more than others, and sometimes you yourself may want more than others. Unfortunately, there is no real unity of recording levels of our movies, so variation by title is likely best.

Lex

[George Bellefontaine]

Right,Lex. At the 85db setting I found the bass to be overly boomy.I like bass to be there when it should be, not all the time. My 75db setting for the subs is probably closer to 78 or 79db because I found I had to go for an average on the spl meter. The 85 setting was probably averaging closer to 90db.Just too too much.BTW, I find the bass has much nicer presence with the Thundercats digital cable.I did a test switching from the Cats to the cheaper cable I was using on some bass heavy test scenes and the bass was so much cleaner and THERE with the Cats. You really know how to make a cable.




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