Perfecting my setup

[Thors1982]

I have been trying to perfect my setup.... I have had the sub for about 3 months now.

The sub completed the system :-)

Anyways, I am very new to home theater and I will never get over how it sounds... but I am just now starting to think if I spent more time setting it up it could be better.

So, what are some good tips? Like I know I have to turn my center channel up cause i can't hear people talking in most movies if I don't.... however I can't decide how high my surrounds should be some movies they are to loud, some they are to soft. X-box the surround are VERY Loud.

Also, how far apart should the front speakers be, Is there someplace I could look this up or would it be best for me to create a diagram of my room and upload it for help???

[chuckears]

The best thing I did for my home theater setup (besides flooding myself with information available on the internet) was to plunk down $37 for the AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD, and run through the basic audio and video calibrations. If you don't already have one (and I hear they're no longer widely available), the Radio Shack analogue SPL meter is essential to set your speaker sound levels (including subwoofer).

The general rule of thumb I have always followed for placement of your mains is to measure the line from the center of one to the other; draw a straight line from the center of that line to your seating position, and its length should be 1.5 times the distance as the line between the speakers.

With Klipsch speakers, I have followed the company's advise, and "toed" them in, so that I am looking straight into the throat of the horns. This seems to provide the clearest response in my listening space. My Fortes are pushed back almost against the back wall (about an inch away on the inside back corners of the speakers; the outside back speaker corners are four or five inches away from the back wall, since the speakers are toed in); this is to allow the passive radiators in the rear of the cabinets to do their job, using the back wall to re-inforce the bass response. Otherwise, many will say that you will derive a better and deeper (in distance, not sound) soundstage if you pull them out away from the back wall a few inches.

I don't know how advanced your bass management capabilities are; many recommend using the Dolby Digital THX standard of an 80 Hz crossover, allowing your sub to do most of the sub-80 reproduction. I am a little more stubborn, and have set my mains, center, and surrounds to different crossover points, to take advantage of their inherent lower response. For my ears, it seems to make for a more seamless surround soundstage. Also, because I think it unfair to slight my Fortes by denying them the lower bass that they reproduce so flatly.

If the bass management in your receiver or processor does not allow for this kind of specific tweaking, then experiment, and decide what sounds best to your ears, in your listening environment. There are several DVD's beside the AVIA disc that I use for confirmation that I am getting where I want to be:

1. LOTR: FOTR (extended version, DTS): the whole thing, but especially the Bridge of Khazad-Dum.

2. Star Wars Episode Two: the opening, through the ship expoding on the landing pad.

3. Toy Story 2: the opening sequence, but there are also dialogue moments throughout that test your left-center-right balance.

4. Unbreakable: A part near the end, after Bruce Willis' character visits the warehouse where the train wreckage is at, a telephone rings in Samuel Jackson's character's house (although, it sounds like it's in my house), then our Hero goes to a train station, with a lot of good bass throughout.

5. Signs: Great sound throughout, with a lot of "shocking" moments. I enjoy making first-time viewer jump when the father and kids are reading a book, and the telephone rings (again, seemingly in my house). Later, when the aliens are trying to get in the house, there are some very nice thumps that seem to come from all around.

Remember... as much as you tweak and experiment, the most important thing is how you like the sound. Most houses do not have the ideal listening environment that the designers of the HT specs have utilized. I have a couple of spikes and holes in the frequency range with my own house that I work at every now and then; even though they're there, Klipsch speakers have made my HT experience far above most others I have heard (don't you hate having to lie to a friend or acquaintance when they ask you what you think of their Bose HT, or their system that looks like it belongs on a computer desk instead of a $2,000+ widescreen television?).

Happy tweaking!

[john4618]

The Radio Shack analog sound meter is now available again -- I bought one last week at my local RS store. I just went to their site and they're now listed there again too, here's the link.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=33-4050

I also have the AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD and it definitely improved my sound and picture.

[popbumper]

Chuckears has some VERY good advice; I also got the AVIA disk and the Rat Shack meter, and went through setups according to the disc. Neat stuff, and you can really appreciate what "dips and valleys" you DON'T know about until you go through a frequency sweep!

I also concur with his choices of DVD's, especially LOTR and Signs. I also suggest "Finding Nemo" - the scene where the "sub slides" (after the depth charge scene) has some AMAZING low frequency bass. I love to have people see this scene in particular, they can't believe what they are hearing/feeling!!

Good luck and enjoy. It's a most pleasurable process.

Popbumper

[easylistener]

I had a couple of people over the other night to watch Master and Camandor. The opening battle has some realy good stuff to see how well you have your system stet up right.

First the canon shots are amazing. Very good low bass. But realy what test the sysetm is if you have to turn it up to hear the dialog in the middle of the system. If you have it set up right you won't have to touch anything. the dialog will be as loud as the rest of the stuff.

Just play around and get an spl meter to do the test tones with. This will make the biggest improvement of them all.

[Thors1982]

Remember... as much as you tweak and experiment, the most important thing is how you like the sound. Most houses do not have the ideal listening environment that the designers of the HT specs have utilized. I have a couple of spikes and holes in the frequency range with my own house that I work at every now and then; even though they're there, Klipsch speakers have made my HT experience far above most others I have heard (don't you hate having to lie to a friend or acquaintance when they ask you what you think of their Bose HT, or their system that looks like it belongs on a computer desk instead of a $2,000+ widescreen television?).

LOL, I definately understand that. :-) also talked my sisters husband out of getting bose, all I had to do was say.. sit right here for 5 minutes *pushes play button* :-)

Anyways, I definately enjoy my system, I have never been happier with a purchase. I just always have a feeling I didn't set something up right and it could be better hehe. Because this time last year I didn't even know what DTS was... much less knew about cross over frequency :-)

[chuckears]

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Because this time last year I didn't even know what DTS was... much less knew about cross over frequency :-)

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Heh... sometimes it's hard to remember that there is a pretty big learning curve involved with the Home Theater Experience. I was fortunate enough to have the bare-bones audio knowledge when I made the leap a couple of years ago... I was running a 2.1 channel system for music-only, but I had been learning the audio-side of the equation for nearly 20 years.

Along came DVD and and RPTV, and thank goodness for the internet... the forums themselves contributed to about 90% of what I needed to learn about setting up and tweaking the video and surround aspect of HT. I asked many questions, and fortunately the web community is only too willing to offer advice and suggestions, or at least links to threads or sites that could help. The rest of what I needed to know came from owner manuals and my own eyes and ears.

At first, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be listening for, but thanks to a couple of trips to a higher-end HT store, and suggestions from forum members about what to listen and look for, I am on my way to a home system that I enjoy more than the local cineplex. While it doesn't quite have the center-channel clarity of a professional theater (probably something to do with the compromises made when designing a smaller unit to fit on your TV), and I don't have the Great Big Screen experience, my family enjoys it almost every day.