Audio speaker calibration help! I am clueless when it comes to this..

It could be a lot of things, room acoustics is certainly a suspect.

My first question would be: Are the results fairly consistent from run to run, with individual speakers only changing by a little bit, or do you find that say, the rear right is sometimes +6 and sometimes -3?

No. All speakers should not be at the same volume. The calibration processor is compensating for the many variables involved in your room. Are the right speakers farther away from the mic?

Does the receiver have built in test tones for each speaker? Do you have a sound pressure level meter? This is a manual way, and also, for you, it would be a visual way of seeing how each speaker is set different due to many room/acoustic issues...The mic is attempting to set each speaker to a level that is equal to your ears at the seating area. Proper placement of the speakers is a very good place to start, prior to calibrating.

I downloaded the user manual for your system to be familiar with what you're seeing.

My first, probably most obvious question may seem a bit dumb, but please bear with me.

How closely did you follow the setup instructions in the manual - particularly the speaker wiring, connections and assembly?

If meticulous attention is not paid to speaker wire polarity and connection integrity, it can have the results you describe. That's quite an assembly project, and re-checking the connections is a good idea. Be sure to verify the surround speaker's connections to the WiFi module too.


You mention "rear" speakers. Your 7.1 system doesn't have "rear" speakers. Instead you have 4 Front speakers -

You should have

• L+R Front plus L+R Top (4 total - arranged in two towers?)
• Center
• L+R Surround
• Sub Woofer

Total: 7.1

Do I have the correct manual - Is what I'm describing what you have?

Rather than go on speculating, I'll wait to see your responses.
Edited by 50BMG - 2/2/13 at 11:30am

Well, that manual is a bit lacking. In looking at other's reviews of your system, I suspect the way the wiring works is glossed over in the manual...

Is this what your unit's speaker connection look like?

If so you can't screw up the polarity, as was my concern - just which wire / speaker goes to which plug. So just re-check that.


The documentation alludes to the "manual" (aka - non-automatic) speaker settings menu, but doesn't describe it at all. If I can't find one, we'll need to interact on that a bit.

Do you have the ability to post a screenshot of it?

I'll keep looking for it online.

No offense but all calibration systems are not created equal. If you are sure that you are doing it properly then I would just set it manually however it sounds good to you.

Return it. You can do a lot better with that money. This would sound way better and is half the price:

http://www.amazon.com/MartinLogan-MLT-2-Theater-System-Black/dp/B0049P2000/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359872299&sr=1-1&keywords=martin+logan+mlt-2

Then get you a 3d bdp for $99. And one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V373-5-1-Channel-AV-Receiver/dp/B007JF8FD8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359872655&sr=1-1&keywords=yamaha+rx+v373
Edited by Bond 007 - 2/2/13 at 10:27pm

Probably.

You should consider improving how you have located your speakers.

I'm thinking that if you posted a drawing of your room layout, some truth would be revealed.

The greatest AVR and speakers in the world can't fix a bad room or poor speaker placement, and you ain't got the best AVR or the best speakers in the world!

If you want to test whether or not your AVR is worth going forward with, you might want to find the biggest room you can like a reasonably empty basement or garage, and set up the speakers and AVR towards the middle of the room in a classic arrangement. See if the AVR can balance out something that is already in the ball park. If it can't do that, then get your money back, it is junk! If it can, then see how you can fit a better arrangement into the room you want to use it in.

What model avr do you have?

Yes. And you cant. There is no way to make it sound perfect every place in the room at the same time.

+1 If your setup requires somebody to sit significantly off axis routinely you can adjust to decrease the annoyance factor of being off axis, but it will makek the sweet spot a little less sweet. For a while I had my right surround down 3 dB from its proper level for that very reason . . . but that's about compromising sound not achieving perfection