7.1 surround speaker output

Of the surround sound speakers, it always seems in my setup that the rear most speakers are dominant compared to the immediate R&L surround speakers, even if the speakers are all the same brand and model. Is this typical? Or do I need to go back and tweak the calibration settings for the R&L surrounds and boost them? Curiously during the speaker calibration via the AVR, the test tones from all of the surround speakers are at the same volume level. Or another spin on this is that the immediate R&L surrounds are the least important speakers in a 7.1 home theater system and it may not be advisable to spend much on them.

Ah, back to basics. Checked the wiring connections and they are correct, leaving the possibility that inside the AVR the surround sound connections are reversed so that the rear most speakers are receiving the feed for the immediate surrounds and vice versa. For the sake of discussion, let's say that's true which might imply that there is no pressing reason to buy matching speakers for the rear most surrounds? At one time I had four Polk two way R50's in those positions, but they have been replaced with better 3 way speakers.

Standard stuff. I have a Panasonic SA-BX500 and run through the auto speaker set up via a microphone at about ear level pointed towards the ceiling. The out put has always been the same with the immediate R&L surrounds definitely suppressed, when compared to the rear most speakers. This isn't a huge deal, but if my results are abnormal, then I would just switch the inputs on the back of the AVR. As you say, it really is not a possibility because the test signals during the calibration are always in the proper orientation. Still, quite curious. Just so that readers can understand, after the Polk R50's were pulled out of the rear most surround speaker position, I put in a pair of 30 yr old Infinity Qb's that sounded dramatically better than the R50's, not too surprising. I still had a pair of the Polk R50's in the immediate surround positions. Then I got a pair of Infinity P362's that I moved into the rear most surround positions and moved the Qb's into the immediate surround position. And that is where I am at today. The pressing question to me is whether or not to pick up another pair of Infinity P362's and replace the Infinity Qb's. There is always the possibility that the AVR is defective in some respect?

Well, my dense understanding is that once the speaker calibration is done via the AVR, then the resulting info is processed and something is spit out and that becomes the default for the audio output throughout whatever HT system one might have. I suppose that the speaker calibration is somewhat primitive but it should take into account the speaker distances from the microphone and set appropriate delays, one way or another. It also sets whether the speakers are designated small or large, depending upon the output of the subwoofer, as well as the crossover for the subwoofer. There is always the possibility that the calibration system just gets confused. For the present, I have just accepted the calibration when it came to setting the speakers. Whenever I get back my main front speakers from repair, I can start to play around with this stuff in earnest. It is somewhat humorous to encounter these sorts of problems after setting up the HT system 18 months ago. For me, it turns out to be continual tweaking as well as upgrading components. That is the path and I have learned a lot along the way. Then there is always the continual thought of how I can improve it and not break the bank. That is the challenge and the fun of setting up a home theater system.

Anyway, I don't exactly understand what you are getting at when you write not to have anything turned on. If you are referring to the calibration procedure, then the only thing that is on is the AVR and the powered subwoofer. Everything else is electrically off.