Help me setup my room! Advice wanted :)

[ParadigmDawg]

Looks like you are getting a good handle on things.

You are lucky as you can set the crossover on your speakers individually and you are correct on your thinking (set the smaller speakers at a higher setting)

It looks like the "LFE on LEFT/RIGHT" is the option to allow your mains to take over some LFE duties. I would find the setting for sub only.

 

[quiksr20]

OK started the calibration tonight. Positioned the mic ( remote ) on the tripod in listening position and it set the levels to these settings. ( this alone sounds way diff ) my rears were at like +1 and are now at +10 It seems it brought each speaker to 72dbs with the reciever set on -15

Now for the part im not to sure about. I know you said that it would get the x-over points wrong and just set them to small and adjust manually but it seems it didnt adjust any of my x-over points at all, They are still where I set them just testing.

Also Delays were not touched at all, Were they suppose to be set?

When im on my x-over screen :Where it says LFE : Left/Right I get the following options ( options are only avail. when in x-over mode )

Left / Right , Center, Surround, Surr Back ( each click changes it to each diff one )

When its going by Small/Large its just set to SUB : SUB ( no options to change )

Heres a copy of my manual if you have a second to take a quick look.

https://www.hci-services.com//tech_doc/documents/harman kardon/Home/Electronics/AVR/AVR 430/Owner's Manual/AVR430 English.pdf

Im not really too sure How to have my receiver take over my bass management totally. With just the levels set its shaped up nice the sub still has to be set properly but thats next. Currently its on 75hz on the actual sub.

Piece by piece its getting better and better!

 

[the grunt]

I just looked at the manual for your AVR430 online and I think the only thing that your remote sets for you is the speaker levels.

You will need to do the rest of the setup manually. Go to the system configuration part of your manual starting on page 20. You have already done much of this but there are a few things to complete.

1st picture above: Page 27 of the manual.

Looks like your remote’s spl has set the speaker levels for you however, those numbers look suspicious unless your front L/R and surround speakers are small compared to your center speaker. For now I would say stay with those numbers and see how it sounds however, you may want to buy a calibration disk and Radio Shack SPL meter later to check things out. For now you can just use your ears to see how things sound.

2nd picture: Page 22 of the manual

When im on my x-over screen :Where it says LFE : Left/Right I get the following options ( options are only avail. when in x-over mode )

Left / Right , Center, Surround, Surr Back ( each click changes it to each diff one )

When its going by Small/Large its just set to SUB : SUB ( no options to change )

On this screen make sure all your speakers are set to small to start with. Set the “bass mgr” to “independent”
“lfe” to “sub”
And leave the X-over as is if those are the settings you want.

3rd picture: Page 25.

Measure the distance from each speaker to the center of your listening position with a tape measurer or something. Enter each of these distances for the corresponding speaker on this screen. Leave the “A/V sync delay” set to “0” for now (this will adjust the whole audio signal if you notice the sound is coming out before or after the image on the screen.

After you get the bass management (picture 2) and delay (picture 3) set the way you want rerun the calibration with the mic (remote). See if that doesn’t give you different numbers for the screen in picture 1.

Post back with the results and or any questions if things don’t seem to be working out.

After today I might not be able to help anymore for awhile as I’m deploying to Guam on Thursday and don’t know when I’m getting back but I’ll stick with you as long as I can and I’m sure others will help.

 

[quiksr20]

I just looked at the manual for your AVR430 online and I think the only thing that your remote sets for you is the speaker levels.

You will need to do the rest of the setup manually. Go to the system configuration part of your manual starting on page 20. You have already done much of this but there are a few things to complete.

1st picture above: Page 27 of the manual.

Looks like your remote’s spl has set the speaker levels for you however, those numbers look suspicious unless your front L/R and surround speakers are small compared to your center speaker. For now I would say stay with those numbers and see how it sounds however, you may want to buy a calibration disk and Radio Shack SPL meter later to check things out. For now you can just use your ears to see how things sound.

My Fronts are 8' bookshelfs and my center has dual 5.25's ( I will set the feet to speakers in the Delay adjust to reflect actual distances and then re-run the speaker calibration. ) My rears are small ( 3.5 woofer ) Klipsch Quintetts.

2nd picture: Page 22 of the manual



On this screen make sure all your speakers are set to small to start with. Set the “bass mgr” to “independent”
“lfe” to “sub”
And leave the X-over as is if those are the settings you want.

When its on the SMALL/LARGE setting screen ( not x-over mode ) it says SUB : SUB
If I change it to X-OVER where I can actually adjust the Hz the LFE has no option sub, Just the ones I listed before. I think the Independant vs Global just means that these settings are for 1 source or all sources. ie xbox/tv/dvd etc.

3rd picture: Page 25.

Measure the distance from each speaker to the center of your listening position with a tape measurer or something. Enter each of these distances for the corresponding speaker on this screen. Leave the “A/V sync delay” set to “0” for now (this will adjust the whole audio signal if you notice the sound is coming out before or after the image on the screen.

Sounds good will do.

After you get the bass management (picture 2) and delay (picture 3) set the way you want rerun the calibration with the mic (remote). See if that doesn’t give you different numbers for the screen in picture 1.

Post back with the results and or any questions if things don’t seem to be working out.

After today I might not be able to help anymore for awhile as I’m deploying to Guam on Thursday and don’t know when I’m getting back but I’ll stick with you as long as I can and I’m sure others will help.

OK will do tomorrow after work, Thanks for the effort and time. You guys are great! If I happen to miss ya Thanks again and have a safe trip.

 

[the grunt]

When its on the SMALL setting ( not x-over mode ) it says SUB : SUB
If I change it to X-OVER where i actually cant adjust the Hz the LFE has no option sub,

I noticed that in the manual’s pictures. I’d just go with that for now unless you can figure something else out from the manual.

Just the ones I listed before. I think the Independant vs global just means that these settings are for 1 source or all sources. ie xbox/tv/dvd etc.

Good catch! I misread the manual.

OK will do tomorrow after work, Thanks for the effort and time. You guys are great! If I happen to miss ya Thanks again and have a safe trip.

Thanks! At least it’s the Pacific and not Southwest Asia. My biggest risk will probably be getting sunburned on the beach.

 

[quiksr20]

I noticed that in the manual’s pictures. I’d just go with that for now unless you can figure something else out from the manual.


Good catch! I misread the manual.



Thanks! At least it’s the Pacific and not Southwest Asia. My biggest risk will probably be getting sunburned on the beach.

Cool ill start round 2 of this tommorow after work, And on the guam thing yeah much better than Southwest Asia for sure!

 

[quiksr20]

OK finally set all my Delay settings. Tommorow Ill test with a Movie, Any good movie recommendations that really sound good?

Do these sounds like normal listening position distances?

Im roughtly around 10ft from my front left, right and center channel and around 7 feet from each rear channel. This is from sitting dead center in front of the tv on the couch.

 

[the grunt]

Distances look good to me. Your room sounds bigger but the ratio of the distances is almost exactly the same as mine.

All of the “Lord of the Rings movies sound great. When I demo my system for prospective Axiom owners I like to use the fight scenes in the Mines of Moria in Fellowship of the Ring. They have both ambient ant directional sounds to show off your surrounds and also some good bass for the movie theater feel.

I also like the most recent three Star Wars movies. The opening scene of Star Wars 3 is also good as it starts right off showing off your system.

I really like the Anime move Appleseed. The combo of anime and CGI graphics looks good and I think the audio is awesome.

If you don’t get to many other responses just do a internet search of “best surround sound movies” “best bass movies” “best home theater movies” or something along those lines.

 

[quiksr20]

Awesome. Ill be picking a few flicks from blockbuster tommorow to see if my girlfriend is down for a movie and test

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Get Rataoulle, Hellboy or The Increadibles.

Hellboy will blow the woofer out of your sub and has great surround effects. All the Lord of the Rings have good extension but the movies are too lng just to use as a system check.

Awesome. Ill be picking a few flicks from blockbuster tommorow to see if my girlfriend is down for a movie and test

 

[quiksr20]

Cool gonna check out Hellboy, never saw that movie but it always looked pretty scary / cool. Incredible's i own already.

Just did the level check again ( i did it like 3 times each with the spl meter remote positioned a little different ) its strange it always jacks my left and right mains up too like +6 and my center to 0 even though there all around 10ft from the center and simulary sized ( mains are 8's center is 5.25s )

Do you think it could reading the center channel as closer since its angled up? Im wondering i thought it would be better than flat since it sits lower than my mains.

Rears it still jacks to 10 but those are small.

Going to try incredibles in a few mins since im off today and nobody is home.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Hellboy was odd, funny and weird but I liked it and the bass was out of this world.

I wish I knew more about the HK as the auto-cal seems off. It would probably be best if you get a SL meter and cal disc.

Cool gonna check out Hellboy, never saw that movie but it always looked pretty scary / cool. Incredible's i own already.

Just did the level check again its strange it always jacks my left and right mains up too like +6 and my center to 0 even though there all around 10ft from the center and simulary sized ( mains are 8's center is 5.25s )

Rears it still jacks to 10 but those are small.

Going to try incredibles in a few mins since im off today and nobody is home.

 

[quiksr20]

Yeah maybe ill head to radio shack this weekend. What kind of cal. disc do i need? I have one called Video Essentials but I dont remember that disc being too user friendly. ( havent looked at it in about 3 years )

I edited my above post. I wonder if its reading my center higher than the mains due to its angle up?

I have switched it to sit level which is a little lower than my mains and it raised the mains to like +5 still but also raised the center to + 4

The rears still goto +10 or so

 

[quiksr20]

OK just triple checked everything.. My couch wasnt totally center so some of my measurements were pretty off on distances. Now everything is dead nuts on.

Did a calibration on the delay distances and proceeded to the sound level settings.

Now I got a decent reading. Off to Blockbuster.

 

[quiksr20]

Just wanted to say thanks again guys.. System sounds tons Better! I definately need to pick up bigger rear channels.