fgarib Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Hey there, I just spent some time fiddling with the Avia Guide to Home Theater in my system, and man oh man was it an amazing experience. A little background: I had gotten a Lexicon MC-8 after saving up for months and months, and finally hooked it up to my 62" rear projection Toshiba, coupled with a whole variety of Klipsch speakers. I finally settled on KG Bookshelves up front, paired with an REL Stampede sub, an RC-3 and different surrounds. Once I got over the initial excitement of "Wow, dude!!! I have a Lexicon processor!!", I started realizing that perhaps it wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. I was missing punch, dynamics weren't there, the sound was diffused from where it shouldn't be... in short, I just wasn't getting a good experience. Enter this forum, and things started to change drastically already (see my posts titled, "I didn't know what I had!"). Armed with an SPL meter, and an earnest desire to do good (!),... well, "Wow!" was all I could say. Anyway, I plugged in the AVIA cd last night, and it was just a brilliant experience... HIGHLY recommended to all those that think their HT is finely tuned. Drawbacks: - It's geared a little towards the complete novice, so if you've been frequenting these forums on a regular basis, you are sure to blow past the advice sections. - It's geared towards 5.1 systems. So there is no way to calibrate your rears with this dvd. Plus Points: - The spearker calibrations that it does have are just amazing. The regular 5.1 channel pink noise that comes in all pre/pros / receivers is also obviously a part of this DVD, and you might actually be better off with the built in internal noise of your equipment. Aside from that however, the calibrations are amazing. They offer a lot of different calibrations, including tones to check to see if your fronts are timber matched. - The best part about speaker matching is how it handles the sub in your system. Again, it's geared towards just one sub, so keep that in mind. My favorite part of this is that they provide a frequency sweep from (I think about) 2KHz to about 30 Hz for each channel, to let you see how big of a frequency drop off (if any) there is in your system between each separate channel and the sub. - Their calibration for video is also simply stunning. They have different test patters to help you set the various adjustments in your display (White Levels / Contrast, Black Levels, Sharpness, Tint, Color, etc.) Breathes new life into your display, because after being done with this, it's a whole different experience watching movies on your system. Anyway, I'm sure most of you have heard of and / or used this dvd for your systems. For those of you that haven't, you NEED to buy it. One word of caution: You WILL need and SPL meter with it so be sure to keep it handy. There are very few times that you hear / see such an apparent difference after some changes in your system. This is a must have for all HT theater lovers. Any interesting experiences you people have with the Avia? -Fauzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 The Avia disc does make a huge difference no matter how good a person thinks they are with contrast, brightness, color etc. I'm just 2.1 here though so it is great. The frequency sweeps are entertaining as well, I'm easy to amuse...........[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fgarib Posted July 8, 2006 Author Share Posted July 8, 2006 "The frequency sweeps are entertaining as well, I'm easy to amuse..........." Speedball! LOL!!! On a serious note though, I found a huge gap between the sub and my Center channel. Since I'm still new to this "business", it took me a loooong time to figure out how to not only effectively adjust the crossovers for the center, but also the surrounds vs. the L/R mains. In the end, I ended up recognizing the flexibility of my sub, where you have a line level connection along with the LFE input. But entertaining it was when a glass swan fell off the side table when the bass got down really low... and I found new rattles in my room which (maybe it's my imagination, but) are getting worse. [] -Fauzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Those sweeps are great for finding rattles throughout the room. I put the foam shelf liner in the china corner cabinet and it is quiet again, now to work on the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted July 9, 2006 Share Posted July 9, 2006 LOL!!! On a serious note though, I found a huge gap between the sub and my Center channel. Since I'm still new to this "business", it took me a loooong time to figure out how to not only effectively adjust the crossovers for the center, but also the surrounds vs. the L/R mains. In the end, I ended up recognizing the flexibility of my sub, where you have a line level connection along with the LFE input. -Fauzi Arn't those REL subs nice? I have a REL Storm III, and I absolutly love it! It may not have the "slam" as something like one of the bigger SVS subs, but wow, does it have an incredibilly clean and accurate bass. Me and one of my friends was playing a Fleetwood Mac CD on my system and he could not get over just how clean and natural the kick-drums were sounding. Glad to hear that you are working out your HT woes and truly unlocking the power and magic of your very fine system. I should get that Avia disk myself, as everything I did was using the test tones in the Denon that I am using as a pre/pro as well as that "THX optimizer" that often comes on THX DVDs (such as the Star Wars DVDs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kde Posted July 9, 2006 Share Posted July 9, 2006 Not to dispell the positive remarks, but I really didn't think the cd was that great. Maybe I should have been more patient... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fgarib Posted July 10, 2006 Author Share Posted July 10, 2006 Steven, I LOVE the REL! The flexibility on that sub is just brilliant, and I love the little remote they give with it. It just makes the adjustment so much easier. Frankly, I haven't had that much experience with subs in general, but I can't imagine it getting much better than this. Oh well... I gotta stop watching movies now.. my wife's gonna disown me soon! Fauzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fgarib Posted July 10, 2006 Author Share Posted July 10, 2006 Kde, Sorry to hear that you didnt' get much out of the DVD. I found most of the CD just not helpful at all... but there were certain sections of it that I have mentioned in my post that just made it more than worth my while. I can't begin to tell you how much my display has improved since I've done the right calibrations. I don't know of too many dvd's that have such useful calibrations for your HT in one place. Good luck, Fauzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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