Reference Levels

[stanrozenfeld]

yes, I can increase my sub level, but then I would have to redo my settings on the receiver, which is not a problem, except that I talked to the guy at Atlantic Technology, and he implied that for movie playback (with digital connection to receiver), it would best to leave sub on thx setting... I am not sure I understood his reason why.

Unfortunately, my subwoofer doesn't have a remote control. If I were to adjust it every time, I would have to open the grill and manually adjust it.

Unfortunately, the one flaw of this player (Sony DVP-NS9100ES) is that it doesn't have a bass boost.

I still want to repeat my question...is there something wrong in setting everything at 67db, as long as all levels match? Keep in mind that on analog out, I only play SACDs and CDs. For movie playback, I rely on digital connection.

Thanks,
Stan

 

[MACCA350]

stanrozenfeld, what model receiver do you have?

Also you can adjust the speaker levels on your player(under 'SPEAKER SETUP' you have 2 options for bass management, 'DVD' and 'SUPER AUDIO CD', see the manual) to suit your multichannel music tastes by upping the sub level because this does not effect the digital output.

cheers

 

[stanrozenfeld]

My Receiver is Marantz SR-18 (yes, it's old .

On my dvd player I can only trim the levels, not increase them.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Unfortunately, my subwoofer doesn't have a remote control. If I were to adjust it every time, I would have to open the grill and manually adjust it.

That is what I was driving at. Should be easier than readjusting the receiver and quicker? You could make two marks on the sub volume. I wonder how often you would do this.



I still want to repeat my question...is there something wrong in setting everything at 67db, as long as all levels match? Keep in mind that on analog out, I only play SACDs and CDs. For movie playback, I rely on digital connection.

Thanks,
Stan

Why don't you try this and see where the master volume ends up at normal listening levels.

 

[MACCA350]

Also you can adjust the speaker levels on your player(under 'SPEAKER SETUP' you have 2 options for bass management, 'DVD' and 'SUPER AUDIO CD', see the manual) to suit your multichannel music tastes by upping the sub level because this does not effect the digital output.

stanrozenfeld, Have you tried this yet? This way you wont have to adjust levels when changing from the digital connection to the multichannel analogue input. Either put the sub up or the other channels down on the player to suite.

cheers

 

[shokhead]

I think most have the gain on the sub itself around 11-1 o'clock.

 

[stanrozenfeld]

mtrycrafts,

I would have to change the sub volume every time I change from movies to music. I can live with that, I guess, if I go that way.

Right now, I have it left at thx, and turned down all the levels on the player, to match the subwoofer level. So all channels are reading 67db with master volume set to 0. Master volume on the receiver goes up to +16. I wind up listening to music with master volume at -15 to -10 for CDs (because I get some brightness at high frequencies when I make it real loud) and around -5 for sacd (because it doesn't seem to hurt my ears when it's loud). My main concern setting levels lower is that the noise floor gets louder, the more I turn up master volume, but it's not something that I hear when I listen to music.

On the other hand, receiver manual states to set everything to 75 db, although I don't know if that's just a convention or not. I am going to try to up the sub for music playback and reset everything to 75 db and see if it plays cleaner, etc.

Thanks,
Stan

 

[shokhead]

I belive most will set theres between 75&85,mines 78 and the -10 and so on doesnt mean anything on the master volume as everyones different. There might be other stuff for sub like mine has a 0,-5,-10 and -15db for EXT. and 0 thru -10db for DTS.

 

[mtrycrafts]

mtrycrafts,

I would have to change the sub volume every time I change from movies to music. I can live with that, I guess, if I go that way.

Right now, I have it left at thx, and turned down all the levels on the player, to match the subwoofer level. So all channels are reading 67db with master volume set to 0. Master volume on the receiver goes up to +16. I wind up listening to music with master volume at -15 to -10 for CDs (because I get some brightness at high frequencies when I make it real loud) and around -5 for sacd (because it doesn't seem to hurt my ears when it's loud). My main concern setting levels lower is that the noise floor gets louder, the more I turn up master volume, but it's not something that I hear when I listen to music.

On the other hand, receiver manual states to set everything to 75 db, although I don't know if that's just a convention or not. I am going to try to up the sub for music playback and reset everything to 75 db and see if it plays cleaner, etc.

Thanks,
Stan

Can you try what Macca has suggested, if your player has this incorporated?

 

[stanrozenfeld]

there is no way to up the sub level on this player, only to trim it further, so I just leave it at 0.

 

[MACCA350]

stanrozenfeld wrote:

there is no way to up the sub level on this player, only to trim it further, so I just leave it at 0.

MACCA350 wrote:

stanrozenfeld, Have you tried this yet? This way you wont have to adjust levels when changing from the digital connection to the multichannel analogue input. Either put the sub up or the other channels down on the player to suite.

See the last part of the last sentence
cheers

 

[shokhead]

What do you mean to trim the level? Also the sr18 was the flagship receiver in 99 and has a ton of adjustments inc Timbre matching,re-equalization and adaptive decorrelation,all for your speakers.

 

[stanrozenfeld]

By trimming, I mean that you can decrease levels, but not increase them.

SR-18 is a great receiver, but you can not do adjustments when you're using the 5.1 analog inputs. The receiver processing gets bypassed and signals go directly to preamp stage.

Ok. I readjusted the subwoofer level on my subwoofer and reset all the levels on the player to 75db. It so happens that 75db on my subwoofer is exactly 12 o'clock, so it will be easy to switch between thx and 'music' position.

I think that it now plays cleaner and more effortlessly. However, I didn't do any double blind tests, so I won't discount that it's all my imagination. However, I am comfortable with the fact that the settings are in line with what's recommended in the receiver manual and with general accepted practice, so I am going to leave it like this and enjoy the music!

Thanks everyone for your help!
Stan

 

[shokhead]

Cool. Now reward yourself with a new cd.

 

[stanrozenfeld]

Already ordered three sacds to celebrate!