Some subwoofer setup help

[drunkmunk]

So I go to radioshack and pick myself up an analog SPL meter, add that my Avia disk and i'm ready for system calibration... or so I think. During the subwoofer setup portion i'm having difficulties getting the meter to do anything other than peg out followed by a few dips followed by pegging out again. The thing is when i went through the first portion of the speaker set up I got everything to read right about 75db (comfortably loud in my living room). but with no adjustments the subwoofer setup portion is all in the 90db range. I was just wondering whether anyone else had noticed this or whether i've missed something. thanks in advance for any help.

drunkmunk

 

[nova]

I've noticed similar readings when my mains are set to large and lfe+main. How are yours set-up?

 

[mtrycrafts]

So I go to radioshack and pick myself up an analog SPL meter, add that my Avia disk and i'm ready for system calibration... or so I think. During the subwoofer setup portion i'm having difficulties getting the meter to do anything other than peg out followed by a few dips followed by pegging out again. The thing is when i went through the first portion of the speaker set up I got everything to read right about 75db (comfortably loud in my living room). but with no adjustments the subwoofer setup portion is all in the 90db range. I was just wondering whether anyone else had noticed this or whether i've missed something. thanks in advance for any help.

drunkmunk

Where is the level on the sub set at? How about the internal receiver setting for the LFE? Sounds like someplace, it is set too hot, hence the 90dB spl. You need to turn down both places, most likely.

 

[drunkmunk]

I have all my speakers set to small and set up the following way:

LFE CUT OFF >70HZ
FRONT CUT OFF <70HZ

i turned the dial on the front of my sub (Yamaha YST-SW315) to cutoff at 70

I leave the settings alone after doing the speaker setup portion of the Avia disk (everything 75db). Then once i get into the subwoofer set up...
BOOM!!! 90+db.

i've finally just gotten frusterated enough i didn't play with it last night (my wife was getting pretty tired of the test tones and i was getting tired of her high pitched whining throwing my meter readings off even further

dunno what i'm doing wrong but i appreciate your guys suggestions i'll look at it some more tonight

 

[fergusonv]

As the others have said, turn down the volume on the sub and make sure it is not set to a high value in your AVR then try again.

 

[drunkmunk]

round four of drunkmunk vs the sub has started again and once again the sub is winning. I believe people are misunderstanding the setup that i've done. with the first part of the speaker setup i adjusted all speakers (to include the sub) to 75db. the avia disk would play noise out of each of the speakers and then out of the sub. i got it to match with each. it was only once i started the "subwoofer setup" portion of the disk where it drops the frequency on each channel to the point where the crossover should be routing the signal to the sub that from start to finish the spl meter jumped up to 90+db. changing the crossover and the lfe cutoff isn't working so i think i've narrowed it down to a crappy reciever (Sony str-de875).

i'm going to keep trying and hopefully i will eventually just annoy my wife to point of letting me a get the RX-V2500 i really want

 

[nova]

I have all my speakers set to small and set up the following way:
LFE CUT OFF >70HZ
FRONT CUT OFF <70HZ
i turned the dial on the front of my sub (Yamaha YST-SW315) to cutoff at 70
I leave the settings alone after doing the speaker setup portion of the Avia disk (everything 75db).

This could be part of the problem,... looks like you are doubling up on your crossovers ;-) Unless I'm still mis-understading. On your sub, turn the Low Pass switch off, if it has one. Otherwise turn your low pass crossover up all the way (200Hz, 250Hz, whatever the limit is) and let your receiver handle the bass management.

Could be that when you are doing the speaker / sub tones to get them both equal the sub is NOT getting a full signal because the subs crossover, and the receiver crossover are at 70.

Does that make any sense?

 

[mtrycrafts]

round four of drunkmunk vs the sub has started again and once again the sub is winning. I believe people are misunderstanding the setup that i've done. with the first part of the speaker setup i adjusted all speakers (to include the sub) to 75db. the avia disk would play noise out of each of the speakers and then out of the sub. i got it to match with each. it was only once i started the "subwoofer setup" portion of the disk where it drops the frequency on each channel to the point where the crossover should be routing the signal to the sub that from start to finish the spl meter jumped up to 90+db. changing the crossover and the lfe cutoff isn't working so i think i've narrowed it down to a crappy reciever (Sony str-de875).

i'm going to keep trying and hopefully i will eventually just annoy my wife to point of letting me a get the RX-V2500 i really want

Something here is not clicking.
You mean on that 2nd round of testing, your meter jumped to 90+. Is this second round a sweep frequency, individual frequency passed and decreasing in frequency, or just a low frequency pink noise? Is this 90+ at the crossover point or all the way down towards 20Hz?
If it is a swept frequency, you may have room interaction issues, room modes excited. Yes, you could have such high levels, independent of the level matching setup as one is an overall level, the swept frequency is individual frequency levels that can be greatly different from 75 dB spl.
Get back so we can learn and help.

 

[Ryan_Lilly]

Is it only louder at a particular frequency?

If so a few things could contribute to the boost in spl. If the sub is ported it could be at the tuning frequency, although I doubt that this alone would cause such a peak.

Placement in the room? Port tuning combined with room acoustics could cause a hump in response. try moving the sub around the room and testing again.