Manually adjusting speaker level vs Audyssey

[BM1]

I was working on configuring my new receiver (Denon 2312CI / Audyssey MultiEQ XT) yesterday, and I came up with a speaker level question. I have a simple 2.1 system with Infinity P363 fronts and an Infinity PS312BK sub.

I went through the Audyssey auto setup, and it set both front speaker levels at -4.5dB and the sub at -12dB. Since this is just a 2.1 and there are no other channels to balance out, I went ahead and manually adjusted the fronts up to 0 dB and the sub to -7.5 dB making sure to retain the difference of -7.5 dB between the fronts and the sub since that's the difference Audyssey came up with during auto setup.

Is there a disadvantage to bumping the levels up so that the fronts are at 0? My reason for doing it was so I wouldn't have to turn the master volume up as loud to get the same output level. The bass balance is still the same since I kept the -7.5 dB offset between the fronts and sub.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I was working on configuring my new receiver (Denon 2312CI / Audyssey MultiEQ XT) yesterday, and I came up with a speaker level question. I have a simple 2.1 system with Infinity P363 fronts and an Infinity PS312BK sub.

I went through the Audyssey auto setup, and it set both front speaker levels at -4.5dB and the sub at -12dB. Since this is just a 2.1 and there are no other channels to balance out, I went ahead and manually adjusted the fronts up to 0 dB and the sub to -7.5 dB making sure to retain the difference of -7.5 dB between the fronts and the sub since that's the difference Audyssey came up with during auto setup.

Is there a disadvantage to bumping the levels up so that the fronts are at 0? My reason for doing it was so I wouldn't have to turn the master volume up as loud to get the same output level. The bass balance is still the same since I kept the -7.5 dB offset between the fronts and sub.

What you did is fine. The important thing is to keep the levels balanced, and you did. (according to the Audyssey measurements)

 

[BM1]

Thanks. I thought so, but I wanted to be sure.

That said, I'm very impressed with the improvement Audyssey MultiEQ XT makes. I never thought it would make that much of a difference, but it's a dramatic improvement compared to my previous Sony STR-DH820 receiver. Everything sounds much warmer without any overpowering spikes, and the dialogue in movies is much easier to understand.

 

[avliner]

I'd also suggest you to adjust the LFE channel on the AVR to 0dB and leave it there. Reason is to avoid overloads in both, output and input stages on AVR and SW amp. section, though. If you want + / - boost, all you gotta do is to use the SW's volume knob and you'll be done

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I set my Denon 3312 + P362 gain levels to + 4.0dB.

As others have pointed out, Denon likes to keep their voltage gain LOW, probably to improve specs like SNR, and crosstalk.

I also set my Denon 990 + Phil3 gain levels to +4.0.

If you look in the Parasound manual, it says to turn the Gain knob all the way clockwise to the MAX gain level in order to "reach fullest sonic potential".

As long as you are not hearing hiss sound from your speakers (dead silent), increasing the gain levels is just fine.

In fact, I set all the channel levels on all my speakers above 0.0dB.