[akSun]

Hi,


I am trying to place my speakers (5.1) to get proper sound reception from the movies. My room is not exactly rectangular hence I have to experiment a bit in placing the speakers properly. Can anybody recommend me DVDs which they know at a particular scene the sound effect one should get ?


For example, in Start Wars V, in one scene there is sound of a spaceship which appears to come from the ceiling. Can anybody point me to DVDs and scenes and expected sound effects ? I am looking for sound effects which are spatial and not just seem to come from any particular speaker, rather from a combination of speakers. Another example is a scene in Finding Nemo, where the sound of water gurgling seems to come right in front of your face (but I forgot which scene it was).


If I know what effect I should get, I can run it again and again with different speaker placements and get an optimum layout.


Thanks,


SK

 

[William]

Quote:

Originally posted by akSun Hi, I am trying to place my speakers (5.1) to get proper sound reception from the movies. My room is not exactly rectangular hence I have to experiment a bit in placing the speakers properly. Can anybody recommend me DVDs which they know at a particular scene the sound effect one should get ? ...If I know what effect I should get, I can run it again and again with different speaker placements and get an optimum layout...

That is not the way to calibrate your system. You need a tape measure, SPM, and you can use the THX sound Optimizer on the SW DVD.

 

[Aliens]

You would do better running Avia or VE with an SLM.

 

[Rupert]

AkSun,


William and Aliens are correct. I thought I would make some of those acronyms a little easier to understand.


You need to balance the levels of all of your speakers so that they match. To do this, you need a
Sound Level Meter available at Radio Shack.


You also need a setup DVD like the AVIA or Digital Video Essentials .


A "lite" version of a setup disk can be found on most Lucasfilm DVD's (like Star Wars) under "THX Optimizer" in the special features section of the DVD.


Set the meter to "C weighting", the db level to 70 and adjust the levels on your receiver until all speakers register the same level.

 

[Aliens]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rupert AkSun, William is correct. you need a Sound Level Meter a setup DVD like the AVIA or Digital Video Essentials.

Not that it really makes a hill-of-beans, but I was the one who mentioned those things.

 

[akSun]

Thanks for the reply - that helps a lot.


Suppose I do the setup with the tools you suggest. I can only find out if the setup is proper if I watch scenes for which I already know what kind of sound effect I am supposed to get. I will look at Start Wars DVD and check the THX setup. I have tried similar setup found on 'Finding Nemo'. What this setup does is very basic. It fires each speaker in turn and I can set the volume. This is not exactly what I am looking for. What I want to do is to properly orient the speakers. For example, do I keep the sarround speakers in line with the observer and face each other ? or do I keep them behind and turn them towards the user ? Will the effect better if I keep one speaker in one corner or move it / turn it a bit ? I want to experiment a bit and find out how it sounds to my ears. (sometimes the setup you do with the instruments does not produce the right results - I wasn't happy with Yamaha RXV1400's auto setup feature. Didn't work too right for me.)


I can use the instruments and make the setup, but finally, I need to test this setup. And that is why I need to find out some known sound effects so that I can know if my setup is giving the same effect. I want somebody to say 'in this movie, in this scene, this is the sound effect I am getting in my setup' and I want to find out if I get the same !


I looked at some threads and also at Dolby website which talks about the speaker placement. It says that for correct effect, one has to take into account the actual room size, shape etc. And in the layout it shows there is a range of angle where you can place the speakers. Check this on dolby website -

consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html


If I do the setup using sound meter and AVIA or similar disc, can I be assured of a perfect setup ?


Maybe I can phrase the question differently -

If I want to demo my home theater to my friends, which movies/scenes would you recommend for impressive, spatial sound effect ? and what is that effect ?


Thanks,


SK

 

[Morris Jones]

Pick up one of the DVD demo disks with a collection of Dolby or DTS "logo" pieces. Those make for an impressive surround-sound demonstration, and maybe a good pleasing verification of your set-up.


We all need a little validation once in a while.


Mojo

 

[akSun]

Thanks, Morris.


Where can I get this DVD demo disk ? Any local store like BestBuy etc ? What title on the DVD do I look for ?


Thanks,


SK

 

[Morris Jones]

Man it's getting tough. I went searching for DVD demo disks and had a hard time. Back when DVD was young, they were all over the place.


I have a Dolby Digital surround demo disk that includes test tones, logos, and a pretty darn fine recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.


I found a pretty good list of DVD test and demo disks here: http://www.ecoustics.com/Home/Resources/Testing_Discs/


Might be worth starting another thread -- maybe some other folks have some references that Google doesn't turn up.


Mojo

 

[TK Doom]

Quote:

Originally posted by akSun What I want to do is to properly orient the speakers. For example, do I keep the sarround speakers in line with the observer and face each other ? or do I keep them behind and turn them towards the user ? Will the effect better if I keep one speaker in one corner or move it / turn it a bit ? I want to experiment a bit and find out how it sounds to my ears. (sometimes the setup you do with the instruments does not produce the right results - I wasn't happy with Yamaha RXV1400's auto setup feature. Didn't work too right for me.)

What kind of speakers are they?


Direct radiating?


Dipole?


Bipole?


Etc....


With that info, you'll get the answer, although it probably belongs in another forum, it'll probably get answered here.