If you get the Avia disc, it explains how to use it. It may also depend on your meter, but I have the Radio Shack analog meter, and you set it to C weighted and slow response. You should set your receiver to 0 and calibrate the level for each channel to 75 db on the meter. That will be what is known as reference level, but it will probably be a lot louder than you will want to listen, so you can calibrate each channel to a lower number, or do like me and just don't turn it up that loud, but still calibrate to 75 db.