# help setting speaker levels correctly



## jorgecontreras78 (Aug 5, 2012)

hi i recently bought a sony str-dh520 av reciever,and it came without the auto calibration mode>does anyone know the calibrated speaker levels on this av reciever thanx


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## Mauritzvw (Sep 19, 2010)

Welcome!

AFAIK you will have to set distances and levels manually. Distances are measured from your ears to the front of the individual speaker. This will allow the receiver to time align signals. Levels you can set by ear or DB meter using pink noise or I find a looped recording of rain with all channels running by ear to be good too. Do you have a manual? If not try download one or if you pm me your email I can send you a copy of my str870 manual. 

Cheers


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Go buy a radio shack SPL ($35)

Measure speaker distances to the primary listening position. 

Next, set the channel level (dB) for each speaker. Hopefully your Sony produces a pink noise that can be played out of each individual channel. Set each channel to 75 dB. You can try to do this by ear. But easier said than done - especially because the tones will likely sound slightly different coming out of each speaker (based on speaker placement/room characteristics)... 

If you have a sub, you'll need to set that too. Different ways of doing this... Most likely, you'll want to set the volume knob in the back of the sub to 9 or 10 o'clock. Then play a pink noise tone through the sub (again, hopefully your AVR can do this)... Then adjust the volume level via the settings in your AVRs settings. If you are using the radio shack meter, make sure you google "radio shack SPL correction" and get a hold of a correction table for your meter (the SPL meter is "off" by a dB or two down in the low frequency range). You can set your sub to 75dB to 80dB based on your preferences. Most will strive for it to be slightly louder than main speakers. 

You can always manually turn the volume knob up if you find a particular movie isn't sounding quite bassy enough - just switch it back. 

HSU has a more precise way of setting sub volume... Just go to their website and download a user manual for one of their subs. Follow the instructions!

Good luck.


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