5.1 calibration

[Supravista]

Greetings everyone!

I just signed up here. I've been reading a lot from this site, and learned a lot! (Also researching all over the internet about this stuff)

So I'm working on calibrating my 5.1 home theater setup. I'm running a Pioneer Elite VSX-33. I've dug pretty deep into that machine and reasonably know my way around it. The step I'm at right now is setting the speaker levels and EQ. I've run the MCACC calibration in the Elite, and it's sounding ok, but I'm a geek about these things and would like to dig deeper.

The two questions I have right now is this:

1) what SPL meter do you guys recommend. I keep seeing sites recommend the Radio Shack SPL, but it's discontinued. I'd like to keep it under $50. After researching I've come to the Neewer USB Digital Handheald Sound Noise Level Meter. It does weighted C, and slow. Would it be sufficient?


2) How about calibrating EQ? Novice question - can and SPL meter help determine EQ settings in the Elite?


Thanks guys and girls!

(I've plenty more questions, but those will come later

 

[Alexandre]

I'm no expert but I don't think an SPL meter will help calibrating EQ, you'll need a full range microphone… I bought one of these a little while back because I too – probably like a lot of people here – am a geek: http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-umm-6-usb-measurement-microphone--390-808

It's a bit more than $50 but it comes with a calibration file and has helped me figure out a few things. You can also use it to measure sound pressure (SPL).

 

[Supravista]

I'm sure an audio/acoustic program with a mic will give me tons of data - EQ/reverb/reflections/etc. I'm assuming I can then make adjustments in my receiver and resample the test sounds until I get desired results. That's the idea, right?... niceee NOW we're geeking out. (once my brain starts with a simple calibration, I end up ripping down walls and reconstructing roads in from of my place to adjust car sound levels as they drive by. I can't help myself lol)

Thanks for the reply, and looking forward to others!

 

[Alexandre]

REW (Room EQ Wizard) is the de facto standard for this kind of stuff, it's a bit difficult to use/comprehend but eh… it's free http://www.roomeqwizard.com

On the mac there is also this app which is a bit pricy ($99, 50% off if you're a student) but significantly more user friendly: http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/fuzzmeasure

Note that both of these require a measurement microphone.

And yes, I think you've got the gist of the idea: program runs a sweep sound, measures, gives you graphs, you tweak (speaker position is probably the biggest thing to tweak first) and re-measure.

 

[Supravista]

Thanks I'll check those out. (YEARS ago, setting up a project music studio me and a friend ran a program like that, with the waterfalls and things)

Yup, I'll get something like that... I can't help myself but tweak-out on this stuff till I see numbers and dimensions behind my eyelids when trying to go to sleep)

> I modeled the dimensions of my theater space and my projector screen in a 3D modeling program, ran the Benq projector throw calculator, and mapped precisely where to mount it in my space for optimal picture quality lol)

I'm going to finish the model with the speaker dimensions, objects like the couch, and placement in the model. That should help in some way or another.