If you want to get the best performance from your audio system you need to change some settings in your A/V receiver. The stock out-of-the-box settings will certainly make sound come out, but your audio components won’t be working together as an optimized system. The basic settings that are listed here apply to how your receiver directs sound to the speakers. The size, crossover, delay, and level settings all give the receiver some helpful information so it can figure out how to best use your speakers to make accurate and smooth sound. Read through the guide below and then set up your system accordingly.
Speaker Size
Most receivers have a setting in them to indicate the size of the speakers that are connected to each channel. The normal choices are “small” and “large”. This size terminology can be kind-of confusing. You aren’t actually telling the receiver the physical size of your speaker, you’re telling it how capable your speaker is at playing low bass. The reason they use the size-based terms is because large tower speakers can usually play fairly low bass while smaller speakers can’t.
If you choose “large” then the receiver will send full-range sound to that speaker channel, but if you choose “small” the receiver will use a crossover filter to pull the bass sounds out of the signal going to that speaker and instead play those bass sounds through the subwoofer. In 95% of home theater systems the correct setting is “small” because most people don’t have big tower speakers that can play loudly down to 30Hz, so if in doubt, choose “small”.
Crossover Frequency
When you’re using any speakers on the “small” setting your receiver has to filter out the low frequencies to send to the subwoofer and send the higher frequencies to the main, center and/or surround speakers. The frequency that it chooses to perform that filtering at is called the crossover frequency.
On most receivers you can adjust that setting anywhere between 60Hz-150Hz. Ideally you should not set the crossover higher than 80Hz; this is to prevent your ears from being able to identify where the sound coming from the subwoofer is originating. Your ears can’t really tell what direction sound comes from when it’s 80Hz and below. If you followed my recommendations here then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to use 80Hz since those speakers can all play that low. If you have some other system with itsy-bitsy woofers that can only play down to 120Hz then you’ll need to set the crossover higher so your speakers aren’t overloaded by bass they can’t handle. On the other hand, if you have nice big speakers you can trying using something lower such as 60Hz and see how you like it.
When you’re using the crossover built-in to your receiver you’ll want to disable the crossover on your subwoofer amp. The crossover in your sub amp is meant to be used if you’re not using one built into your receiver, and if you use both at the same time you will cause a dip in frequency response just above your crossover point. When we get down to the nitty-gritty fine-tuning that’s actually a trick you can use to potentially even out excessive mid-bass response, but for now you should disable the crossover on the sub. To disable it either turn the crossover frequency all the way up, or if you have a “bypass” or “disable” setting on it then use that.
Speaker Delay
Since most people don’t sit exactly the same distance from all their speakers the manufacturers have built a delay function into A/V receivers. The delay allows you to correctly time-align your speakers so that sounds don’t arrive earlier at your listening position when coming from the closer speakers.
Normally your left and right speakers are the “zero point” when setting up the delays; this is because they are usually the farthest away. I’m going to assume that’s the case for you. To figure out the delays you will need a tape measure. Measure the distance from your left or right speaker to your listening position (where your head would be). First of all, make sure that the left and right distances are the same. After that you should measure how much shorter the distance is to the center speaker, and to the surround speakers.
Some receivers allow you to directly enter the distances, while others require you to calculate the delay time. If you need to calculate the delay time just multiply the number of feet by 1.1 and that’s the number of milliseconds that you need to set the delay for. Note that the delay amount is not the total number of feet to the speaker, just the difference between the left/right speaker measurement and the measurement to the speaker you’re setting the delay for.
Once all the delays are set you will need to set the levels
Speaker Levels
If all of your speakers are the same make/model and the same distance from your listening position then you can skip this section. For all you normal people, read on. Without any adjustments the speakers that are closer to you would sound louder than the ones far away. Thankfully the A/V receiver has a setting to fix this.
Usually the receiver will have a mode to output either a test tone or pink noise. Turn that on, and then you’ll need to adjust the speaker levels accordingly. Ideally you would have a decibel meter to measure the tones accurately, but you can also just listen carefully. Sit back and relax. Listen to each channel one at a time. Pick a channel to use as your “zero point”, it doesn’t matter which one and then adjust all the other channels to exactly match that sound level. You’ll probably need to spend 10 or 20 minutes on this process if you don’t have a meter since it can be hard to make out those small differences in level.
Testing
Once you have all the settings tuned to your liking you should make sure that they are applied to all of the modes that you’re going to use the A/V receiver in. For example, my receiver has different level settings for stereo mode and surround mode. This is helpful because I use a different subwoofer level setting for the two modes. Go through your various inputs and modes and make sure they all are tuned properly.
For a listening check you should play a couple of familiar media sources. Start by playing a stereo CD that just has the left/right speakers and the subwoofer in use. When you’re listening you should pay close attention to the crossover setting and the subwoofer level. Turn off the subwoofer in the middle of the song, then a few moments later turn it back on. When it comes back on does it stick out and overwhelm the music, or does it fit in like a clean extension of the main speakers? Adjust the level and try again until the crossover transition is smooth and natural sounding.
For the next test you should play a movie that has a soundtrack that you’re familiar with. Go to a scene with some surround effects such as rain or a gunfight, and also some dialog. You want to make sure that the surround effects are present so you can hear them, but they should not be as strong sounding as the main speakers; they should envelop you, not distract you. The dialog coming from the center speaker should be strong and clear. It should be easily intelligible above the sound from the left/right speakers and the surround speakers. Finally check the bass. The subwoofer should sound like an extension of the other speakers, but with some extra impact from the low-frequency effects. It shouldn’t be overwhelming, just “whelming”.
Next time I’ll discuss some ways you can use equalization (EQ) to optimize your audio system.
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