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How loud do you listen?


Youthman

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I don't go to theaters anymore.

Some of you might like to bombarded with crowds

and overly loud movies but I don't.

I can fine turn my own private, little movie night at home.

As far as listening levels,

I'm much more likely to listen to a Music performance

or something like H. Potter at reference than I would

something like Transformers.

Of course I wouldn't watch Transformers, LOL.

I'd rather watch porn at reference levels, LOL.

Edited by rebuy
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Hey, If you're happy, these "fixes" are not for you.

OTOH- If you're catching hell from the wife for SPL being too loud,

my advice is worth a try.

 

If your AVR doesn't have an EQ function then level-matching with an SPL would be the way to go for most people. If the fixes you suggest work for you that's great but moves are level-matched when they are mixed.

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Most of you are Missing The Point.

I have auto calibration. 

I can set up in an infinite numer of ways.

I choose to run my theater in a way that when running at

very loud levels, it sounds very good without running you

out of the room or reaching for the remote to turn it down.

I understand that movies have preset levels but they don't

do it for me because I don't live in a movie house.

 

My solution was to guys whose wives complain because the sound

gets too loud during movies.  If SPL gets too loud, it can take the

enjoyment out of watching for the other family members who are not

as rugged as you who can take the 100DB of special effects.

 

Personally, I think most movie houses suck when it comes to

SPL and I don't need hearing damage from going to a theater.

 

I just think most of you don't understand what the message is here.

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I'm much more likely to listen to a Music performance or something like H. Potter at reference than I would something like Transformers. Of course I wouldn't watch Transformers, LOL.

 

Neither would I.

 

A film like Amadeus works really well at Reference level.  Over Christmas we screened The Nutcracker, The Motion Picture and it was great at Reference.  So is Shakespeare in Love.   Both West Side Story and Ben-Hur are slightly compressed compared to the 70 mm theatrical versions, so we have to go above Reference for the dance at the gym (WWS), and the galley ship crash, the thunderstorm, and the end music (BH).  Game of Thrones, Homeland and Mad Men work well at Reference.

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Most of you are Missing The Point.

I have auto calibration. 

I can set up in an infinite numer of ways.

I choose to run my theater in a way that when running at

very loud levels, it sounds very good without running you

out of the room or reaching for the remote to turn it down....

 

My solution was to guys whose wives complain because the sound

gets too loud during movies.  If SPL gets too loud, it can take the

enjoyment out of watching for the other family members who are not

as rugged as you who can take the 100DB of special effects.

 

...I just think most of you don't understand what the message is here.

Okay. Fwiw, if any speaker is "too loud" then it means there is a setup problem in your system if you are having to do this with all movies or music.

Edited by tkdamerica
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ost of you are Missing The Point. I have auto calibration. I can set up in an infinite numer of ways. I choose to run my theater in a way that when running at very loud levels, it sounds very good without running you out of the room or reaching for the remote to turn it down. I understand that movies have preset levels but they don't do it for me because I don't live in a movie house. My solution was to guys whose wives complain because the sound gets too loud during movies.

 

The speakers are not the problem with things loud, the subs are the culprit since their sound goes thru walls

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The dynamic range on the typical "comic book movie" soundtrack I find is too great myself so I simply turn the volume down for the entirety, instead opting to read subtitles throughout in order to fully understand spoken dialogue.  It's a lot easier. 

 

(This situation is the opposite problem from compressed CDs.) 

 

http://lifehacker.com/5920290/how-to-fix-movies-that-are-really-quiet-then-really-loud

Edited by Chris A
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Scrappydue, I run the exact same 3 F20's for the front sound stage.

The issue I'm taking about is the loudness of the mains when "the action starts".

The mixing of today's movies makes it loud when this happens that it makes

your family complain. I find when I use my formula of boosting the center a

couple of DB above the rest of the system, movies are Much more enjoyable.

It's not that I cannot hear the center, it's that the sound effects are too loud

from the mix of today's engineer's.

off topic but I said a BIG center channel. F-20 and kpt-904's are quite different.

And I hear what your saying about doing your own thing but I still agree with everyone here sounds like it's just not right if after calibration everyone runs out of your room. My 60 year old parents come to watch movies all the time. I watch quieter with them of course but have no issues with ANY movie all of the sudden getting crazy loud where people have to leave or cover their ears.

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The dynamic range on the typical "comic book movie" soundtrack I find is too great myself so I simply turn the volume down for the entirety, instead opting to read subtitles throughout in order to fully understand spoken dialogue.  It's a lot easier. 

 

(This situation is the opposite problem from compressed CDs.) 

 

Hi Chris, is it really very high dynamic range that is the problem, or is it that the dialog is more or less at the normal level, but that the effects are first compressed, then turned up considerably, resulting in a much greater duration of the sound being near FS in a "comic book movie," than in a normal, sane film?   If I set my pre/pro for my normal level (5 dB below Reference) and compare a single loud peak in a "comic book movie" with the loudest peak in Amadeus (The Commodore coming through the wall), the peaks sound about the same SPL to me.... haven't tried this with a meter (yet).

 

The event toward the beginning of The Grey would be a lot easier to take if the sound at that SPL lasted only a few moments, perhaps 3 or 4 equally loud pulses, rather than it going on and on.

Edited by Garyrc
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ost of you are Missing The Point. I have auto calibration. I can set up in an infinite numer of ways. I choose to run my theater in a way that when running at very loud levels, it sounds very good without running you out of the room or reaching for the remote to turn it down. I understand that movies have preset levels but they don't do it for me because I don't live in a movie house. My solution was to guys whose wives complain because the sound gets too loud during movies.

 

The speakers are not the problem with things loud, the subs are the culprit since their sound goes thru walls

 

 

That's one thing that turned out pretty well in my house.  I lined every interior wall with fiberglass insulation, every interior door is solid core, and the kids rooms are on the extreme other side of a long house from the theater room.  I can rattle dishes in the kitchen in the middle of the house but by the time it gets to the kids room you can't hear it much.  Had a friend over Friday night and we blared some Metallica out at 1 AM, no issues. 

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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Brother-in-law came over on the weekend and was playing Rodrigo y Gabriela's rendition of Stairway to Heaven on my home theater at 0.  Holy crap, it was loud.  I have never had the volume that high prior.

I wish they had a concert blu ray. They have a DVD, and there are youtube vids and obviously CD's, but no blu ray.

The ironic thing is though, I've seen them in concert. It's not that loud. Gabriella's guitar neck is pointing right towards me in the pic below, I was front row on the balcony at the Ryman in the middle of the far left section.   Had a line array at head level pointed right at me too. That's my problem with "reference", it's not necessarily realistic.  Metallica at this range, maybe.  Rod y Gab?  Nope.  Maybe it's fun but that's not how they play to the crowd.  

 

10550835_10154428725105459_1735078510331

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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  • 2 weeks later...

There is a table floating around the internet.  It's not reproducible on this forum.  Check the AVS forum in the "Official" Audyssey thread.  It was post number 73646.  The table is by Tomlinson Holman (as in THX) in his book of a few years ago, Sound for Film and Television, which is still available on Amazon and other places.  If you have a copy of the book, you will find it as Table 13.4 Reference Sound Preference Level for Various Room Volumes.   If I understand correctly, the 85 dB SPL entry would be Reference level for the THX test noise for a room the size of a 20,000 cu. ft. or larger cinema, and would provide an absolute maximum  -- "full scale" -- of 105 dB from each channel except the subwoofer channel, which could go up to 115 dB.  In other words, for the main channels, 20 dB headroom over the 85 dB test sound.  It should be noted that, for the home, Audyssey changed their test beeps to 75 dB to avoid irritating customers during set-up, and uses 30 dB headroom over 75 dB, which produces the identical 105 dB full scale.  The table reflects (I think) the fact that nearby walls and early reflections in a HomeTheater -- even a well treated HT -- produce a somewhat louder impression psychoacoustically than exactly the same dB SPL heard in a huge room.

 

Many of us (myself included) have a HT somewhere in the 2,500 to 5,000 cu. ft. range, so it looks like psychoacoustic Reference Level would be about 7 dB below that of what Audyssey calibrates Reference Level to be on our Main Volume controls.  That seems right to me because for most movies I lower my MV control to about 5 dB below what Audyssey designates Reference Level to be.  The 2 dB difference might just be because of the individual characteristics of my treated room, or just be error variation.

Edited by Garyrc
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It's funny to me when people say they want "realistic" gun fire.  Sometimes this would mean that after the first shot all you could hear  is something like the old Indian head test tone for the rest of the movie.

 

312px-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.JPG

 

I can go out back if i want realistic gunfire. What would be nice is realistic gun shooting. Visible/realistic recoil, magazines that aren't bottomless, etc.

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It would be fun to watch those guys hitting themselves in the face from the recoil and shouting at each other trying to hear afterwards.  I was 10 or 11 the first time I shot a .44 mag.  Even with a 2 hand grip it seems like it came close to my forehead every time.  

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What would be nice is realistic gun shooting. Visible/realistic recoil, magazines that aren't bottomless, etc.

We watched Lone Survivor the other day. I'm not sure I ever saw a single mag change. There was the scene where the radio guy gave up his mags plus the pistol went to slide lock at the end, but that's it.

My pet peeve is when they run out of ammo with a semi-auto and don't realize it, so they pull the trigger and it goes click, so then they look at the gun all confused like what the hell just happened, sometimes they pull the trigger a few more times and its clicking the whole time. Yeah, well, it don't really work like that, but that didn't stop them from doing that on Lone Survivor, even with multiple SEAL's on set.

Second biggest pet peeve is when you hear a "chik-chick" of a slide being racked, every single time a gun is raised, even if the shooter can clearly be seen NOT racking the slide.

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