Sound Calibration Questions *HELP*

[Chris12]

I was hoping some individuals can help me answer some sound calibration questions.. I am a newbie with sound calibration (been using my system for awhile now without relizing anything about it until I read up on calibrations). My setup is the follow:

JBL PB 10 Subwoofer
JBL S310 II (Front and Left Floorstandings)
JBL S Center II (Center)
JBL S 36 II (2 Surrounds)
AVR 525 Harman Kardon Reciever

I ran through all the sound tests for Avia with a sound meter and all of the tests seem to have gone good but wanted to see if anyone thought my settings were wrong or somewhat off base since this is my first time calibrating my system.

Front and lefts are set to small, x-crossover is set to 80 hz and my sub crossover is set to 40 (not sure if this even is a factor when FL and FR are set to small). I moved my sub's freq. dial to max and phase is 180. Im not sure where my dip switch that states "Normal" or "LFE" should be. I set it to normal assuming LFE means its both sub + FR + FL ? All of my audio readouts at -25db were around 72-75 weighting C slow response on the meter so according to AVE it seems pretty good.. The volume of my sub has a total of 6 dots at each 6th, and im at 4/6 on the volume dial to achive those db readings on the normal sub tests with Avia. On the Avia test however that goes down in Freq. when it hits around 60ish it boosts to 80 db on audio meter but im assuming thats normal? My main questions are do those settings seem relisticly correct and should is my sub volume up too high for normal playback or is it whatever achives the db readings ? Should I lower my crossover from 80 to 60 possibly for my speakers? Thanks to anyone who can give me any input since this is the first time im doing this!!

Chris

 

[MDS]

On JBL subs, you set the switch to LFE to disable the sub's internal xover. If you are connecting the sub to receiver using the receiver's sub pre-out and have set the xover frequency in the receiver's setup, you want the switch on the sub set to LFE. If you set it to normal, the internal xover is active and you need to set it as high as it will go.

 

[mfabien]

Front and lefts are set to small, x-crossover is set to 80 hz and my sub crossover is set to 40 (not sure if this even is a factor when FL and FR are set to small). I moved my sub's freq. dial to max and phase is 180. Im not sure where my dip switch that states "Normal" or "LFE" should be. I set it to normal assuming LFE means its both sub + FR + FL ? All of my audio readouts at -25db were around 72-75 weighting C slow response on the meter so according to AVE it seems pretty good.. The volume of my sub has a total of 6 dots at each 6th, and im at 4/6 on the volume dial to achive those db readings on the normal sub tests with Avia. On the Avia test however that goes down in Freq. when it hits around 60ish it boosts to 80 db on audio meter but im assuming thats normal? My main questions are do those settings seem relisticly correct and should is my sub volume up too high for normal playback or is it whatever achives the db readings ? Should I lower my crossover from 80 to 60 possibly for my speakers? Thanks to anyone who can give me any input since this is the first time im doing this!!

Chris

Normal Phase setting is 0 which puts the sub in phase with other speakers. Should your AVIA test demonstrate that the sub is out of phase with speakers, then the 180 setting should be used. You should try setting phase at 0 and hear the difference.

Surprised too see that high volume setting on your sub. Check your frequency volume for sub in your receiver...suspect it's set at a low volume setting.

The previous poster indicated that your sub's crossover was disabled. And with setting your speakers to small (all speakers) the receiver's crossover becomes the effective one. If you then enable the sub's crossover, and you suggested at 40 Hz, you would lose and have a hole between 80 Hz and 40 Hz.

 

[Chris12]

Yeah, I changed it like it was suggested and it does sound better. I will try to put phase at 0 and see how it sounds. My sub is at about mid volume now, 3 of 6 and it sounds good with enough bass. I am going to recalibrate it with the reciver test tones though at -15db to be more accurate for my reciever, because right now I did it at -25db and almost all my speakers are +10 db in the reciever to equal the 74ish db rating. Is there an optimal calibration db for the audio meter I should strive for at -15db.. Or doesnt it matter as long as its between 70-75 ish