Good calibration discs?

[Sawtaytoes]

Hi! I have a ton of demo content for my home theater, but I don't have any calibration discs and don't know where to find them.

Do you know a good list of calibration or reference discs?

I know there's one some YouTubers worked on, but I don't know the name of it nor the contents.

One thing I'd like is to verify LFE and crossovers. I'd also like to test various speaker arrangements as load on my amps. What about all heights or all bed-layer or all speakers at once? How can I do this?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Spears and Munsil.

Welcome

You've found Spears & Munsil, home of the world-famous Benchmark series! Here you'll find information about our discs and video calibration. Welcome!

spearsandmunsil.com

 

[Sawtaytoes]

Cool. I grabbed the 4K one. Are there others too?

 

[Verdinut]

Should you be interested to verify the frequency responses of your system, this is one kit to get:

CLEARANCE Dayton Audio OmniMic V2 Acoustic Measurement System

Dayton Audio OmniMic V2 Acoustic Measurement SystemAcoustic Measurements Just Got EasierDayton Audio's OmniMic V2 was developed in collaboration with Liberty Instruments, inventors of the Praxis analysis tool. Powerful, versatile, yet easy to use, the OmniMic V2 will become an indispensable part...

www.parts-express.com

 

[Sawtaytoes]

How's that different from REW and UMIK-1?

 

[Verdinut]

How's that different from REW and UMIK-1?

I wouldn't exactly know as I never used the REW. The OmniMic is an acoustic testing software and I sometimes use it for calibrating my system with Audyssey XT32.

 

[lovinthehd]

How's that different from REW and UMIK-1?

It's similar except that the Omnimic kit is a system with test discs...and the mic can still be used with REW....

 

[lovinthehd]

This the youtuber one you mention?

 

[Sawtaytoes]

Correct. I picked that up, and it had dual-speaker phase checks in it. Super helpful.

 

[Verdinut]

Correct. I picked that up, and it had dual-speaker phase checks in it. Super helpful.

The phase check is not really necessary if you have properly connected the speaker cables.

Also, you can actually verify with your ears whether your speakers are connected in phase. With the proper phasing, you hear a fuller sound with increased bass.

 

[gene]

This the youtuber one you mention?

I cannot recommend that disc at this time. It's a bit expensive and AFAIK they may NOT have a licensing agreement with Dolby to be using the Dolby render software in their video NOR has it been vetted by Dolby despite they are marketing it as an Atmos calibration disc. Dolby has demo discs that include calibration tools, Spears & Munsil is legit as well, both are much cheaper options.

 

[lovinthehd]

I cannot recommend that disc at this time. It's a bit expensive and AFAIK they may NOT have a licensing agreement with Dolby to be using the Dolby render software in their video NOR has it been vetted by Dolby despite they are marketing it as an Atmos calibration disc. Dolby has demo discs that include calibration tools, Spears & Munsil is legit as well, both are much cheaper options.

Good to know. I avoid most youtuber stuff anyways, not a subscriber to either of these guys in any case. My first thought would be Spears&Munsil (and have had one of their discs for quite a while).

 

[gene]

Hi! I have a ton of demo content for my home theater, but I don't have any calibration discs and don't know where to find them.

Do you know a good list of calibration or reference discs?

I know there's one some YouTubers worked on, but I don't know the name of it nor the contents.

One thing I'd like is to verify LFE and crossovers. I'd also like to test various speaker arrangements as load on my amps. What about all heights or all bed-layer or all speakers at once? How can I do this?

REW has test suites for this available on AVnirvana I believe.

 

[isolar8001]

Spears And Munsil .18 Bucks.

Two Guys From YouTube .100 Bucks.

That's greed in action, friends.

 

[gene]

Spears And Munsil .18 Bucks.

Two Guys From YouTube .100 Bucks.

That's greed in action, friends.

Especially since the test files are available for free here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dgrL-hDfX_AvLfERHZXqyK3__z_7vXgR/view?usp=sharing

Dolby Atmos and REW

I downloaded these files and I had to convert to WAV. Then I tried to import the WAV files but the files need to be created with the newest version with REW. Would you please make the WAV files with the new version of REW? Thanks

www.avnirvana.com

 

[-Jim-]

Especially since the test files are available for free here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dgrL-hDfX_AvLfERHZXqyK3__z_7vXgR/view?usp=sharing

Dolby Atmos and REW

I downloaded these files and I had to convert to WAV. Then I tried to import the WAV files but the files need to be created with the newest version with REW. Would you please make the WAV files with the new version of REW? Thanks

www.avnirvana.com

Hey Gene, That link didn't work.

"Sorry, the file you have requested does not exist."

 

[Sawtaytoes]

The phase check is not really necessary if you have properly connected the speaker cables.

Also, you can actually verify with your ears whether your speakers are connected in phase. With the proper phasing, you hear a fuller sound with increased bass.

It's actually important for me since I couldn't easily hear phase differences after calibrating with YPAO and Audyssey, but when doing checks after Dirac Live, the difference of in and outta phase was crystal clear. Probably because it adjusts phase based on their impulse calculations.

I bring it up because both Audyssey and YPAO complained about the phase of my Polk R700s, but everything's connected correctly.

I agree that those YouTubers are charging a lot for their calibration files. It's not a good look.

I did buy the new HD Spears&Munsil disc as well.
I thought Spears&Munsil cost a lot more honestly. After finding out the price, I wondered why the YouTuber one cost so much.

 

[David Susilo Unscripted]

Good to know. I avoid most youtuber stuff anyways, not a subscriber to either of these guys in any case. My first thought would be Spears&Munsil (and have had one of their discs for quite a while).

they don’t know the first thing about calibration at all. Being a mixing engineer (their claim) doesn’t make one a calibrator. That’s why even mastering studios hire calibrators in from time to time to recalibrate their setup.

 

[gene]

It's actually important for me since I couldn't easily hear phase differences after calibrating with YPAO and Audyssey, but when doing checks after Dirac Live, the difference of in and outta phase was crystal clear. Probably because it adjusts phase based on their impulse calculations.

I bring it up because both Audyssey and YPAO complained about the phase of my Polk R700s, but everything's connected correctly.

I agree that those YouTubers are charging a lot for their calibration files. It's not a good look.

I did buy the new HD Spears&Munsil disc as well.
I thought Spears&Munsil cost a lot more honestly. After finding out the price, I wondered why the YouTuber one cost so much.

This is typical for 3 way designs that often invert the phase of a driver for proper acoustic summation. Most streaming apps like Tidal have phase checkers.

 

[David Susilo Unscripted]

LOL. When someone who never been trained by Dolby, never looked at the actual Dolby white papers (the ones available for public don’t count), and then claim that Dolby speaker placements to be wrong AND THEN sell calibration disc while saying that you can calibrate by ears… stay away. Stay very far away.
Even if he is the best Atmos content creator in the universe, that doesn’t make him suddenly know everything about Atmos and/or how to calibrate his studio.