What happened?

[ThA tRiXtA]

<font color='#000000'>I posted a question here today and it is totally just disappeared?

Anyways I will ask again!

I finally got my SPL meter last night and got to work.

I noticed my left main tower speaker was 2 decibels louder then my right main tower speaker?

Why would this be? Why would the levels coming from the receiver be unbalanced?

I calibrated the levels to 75 dB. I had to bring the sub down 11 dB to get it to 80, as I read was reccomended to set it to 80 on an article I read here on audioholics.

Why was the sub so high?

Any help on this new topic would be great!

Thanks,

Rob</font>

 

[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>Your listening room does more that impact the sound than any other component you have, except the speakers- room &amp; speakers are about equal. &nbsp;

If you could accurately plot the frequency response you're getting in room, down to the smallest detail, and then measure the RT at every freq, it would make your hair turn white and fall out!

</font>

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

<font color='#000000'>Hi Rob

Thanks for your reply.

So you think it is the room's frequency response making the sub louder than the other speakers?

How would it make it that much louder though? 16 dB over all others is quite the jump.

No wonder movies sounded so heavy!

PS: what is RT?</font>

 

[annunaki]

<font color='#000000'>What you are experiencing is quite normal. Room interaction and response are often the biggest contributors to unbalaced spl. One other thing to consider is that on many receivers, the channel bias can be off. Meaning that one speaker may be receiving more power than another causing the discrepancy. Obviously this is why we calibrate our systems. Even though it is difficult to detect a one or two decibel difference, it may cause a drift or bias of the sound stage.</font>

 

[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>A signal that leaves the speakers &quot;flat&quot; +/- 1dB can vary by over 20dB at the listening position. &nbsp;This is especially true in the bass department where peaks and nulls can create areas of extreme volume differences.

That's not to say there couldn't be something wrong with your speakers/gear. &nbsp;Reverse the speaker cables, see if the volume difference follow it. &nbsp;Then try the ICs, and so on.</font>

 

[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>One more point- if you run a series of test tones at different freqs, you'll often find that at very low freqs tones that read very high on your SPL meter don't really sound that loud. &nbsp;The ear doesn't percieve volume in a linear fashion at all. &nbsp;100dB @ 20 hz would take a lot of acoustic power and will really rattle the room, but won't sound &quot;loud.&quot; &nbsp;But I guarentee 100dB @ 1.5 khz will get your attention!

Bear in mind, too, that if you're using the Rat Shack analog meter it isn't extremely accurate at the low end.</font>

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

<font color='#000000'>I am using the radio shack digital meter, thats the only one I could find.

thanks for the info guys!</font>