# Help....totally confused



## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

Hey everyone, 
I am a total newbie trying to set up a home theater. I have polk rti5, csi4, fxi4, polk woofer pro 500 with onkyo 876. I am still not getting the best sound out of the system. So I decided to join in here and learn how to calibrate the HTS. Soon I will be taking measurements and try to EQ. Everyone here seem to EQ only the bass. Is there any way I can EQ all the 7.1 channels? What will be the best equalizer to buy ? Any help is appreciated. Pnkflyd


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Hi Phil,
Welcome to the Shack.

Lets back up a bit here, what have you done already to set up the receiver with the speakers. Have you done the Auddessy setup properly meaning setting the mic up on a trypod where you sit (pointed up)and reading at least 5 positions?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Most receivers these days are able to accomplish acceptable equalizing for the main channels. If you want outboard equalization, you’ll need not only one equalizer per channel, but outboard amplifiers as well. That can easily add another $1000 or more to your system cost, and that’s if you buy used gear.

Regards,
Wayne


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## Andysu (May 8, 2008)

It’s your party and you want to be online. Go and have some fun.
Happy birthday :yay: Wayne

Buy the AVR cheap with most of the good trimmings on it then spend like Wayne says on additional EQ and amps even though in few DCX2496 to manage the LCRS/LFE.1. Most cinemas now are moving towards loudspeaker management crossover systems from dbx but that will cost you an arm and leg and home cinema doesn’t make any profit returns so use an alternative route that will only be in the hundreds per item. 

dbx is well into the £$3K DCX2496 is in the hundreds. Most the Behreinger amps are within the hundreds even their DEQ2496 and it will still provided satisfactory results.


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

tonyvdb said:


> Hi Phil,
> Welcome to the Shack.
> 
> Lets back up a bit here, what have you done already to set up the receiver with the speakers. Have you done the Auddessy setup properly meaning setting the mic up on a trypod where you sit (pointed up)and reading at least 5 positions?


Thanks for the reply. I have set up a 7.1 surround system with mainly polk speaker just to keep all the channels blanced. Left, right and the center speaker are at the same distance from the sitting position and calibrated for equal sound output. Subwoofer is also calibrated for the sound output. All the surround speakers are at the same distance from the sitting position, calibrated for volume output and extend an angle of 90(for surround) and 135(for surround back).Mains extend a angle of 30. All the surround speakers are at 2 feet above the ear level while the center and mains are at the ear level. Using a 12 g speaker cable. All the surround speaker are at dipole switch.

I had used auddessy and it improved the performance markedly but I used about 3 reading at the same location. The problem I was having was that the subwoofer and the mains were not getting integrated well. I can hear the output from these very distinct. Then I tried to do some tone adjustment (bass and treble) foe the mains and center in my onkyo but still problem persist. During my online serach I found this forum and joined to get some help. Guys in here appear to be very knowledgable. But more I read more I get confused, as I am not very technical.Trying to set up calibration with EMC 8000, preamp, external sound card aand room EQ. Everyone here seems to be EQ the woofer but how about the whole 7.1 system---woofer with mains, mains with center, left and right mains, surround with the mains. Can anyone recommend a good book, I can read about calibrating a 7.1 system. :huh:


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

pnkflyd said:


> But more I read more I get confused, as I am not very technical.Trying to set up calibration with EMC 8000, preamp, external sound card aand room EQ. Everyone here seems to be EQ the woofer but how about the whole 7.1 system---woofer with mains, mains with center, left and right mains, surround with the mains. Can anyone recommend a good book, I can read about calibrating a 7.1 system. :huh:


Dont get yourself too overwhelmed, First lets just work with Audyssey and get your Onkyo set up properly as that is the first step in geting it to sound right. 
By taking only three readings at the same position your not really letting Audyssey do a proper job. (you must have more than one place to sit)? Also make sure that you have complete silence when running the setup as that makes a big difference. Audyssey does a great job and will make your system sound its best if done properly.


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

Thanks Tonyvbd....I will go home and get my system calibrated with auddssey with 5 readings. Do I need to do any EQing after that for my woofer? Shall I also run Room EQ software during the auddssey test tones? Will post the results. Thanks for the advice.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Dont do any other testing when Audyssey is going through its tests just follow the on screen directions and you will do fine. We will tackle REW after you have done this.
Your sub may need some tweaking but again we will use REW to do that in more detail.
Again make sure you use a trypod for the Audyssey mic and place it at ear level on your seat.


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

tonyvdb said:


> Dont do any other testing when Audyssey is going through its tests just follow the on screen directions and you will do fine. We will tackle REW after you have done this.
> Your sub may need some tweaking but again we will use REW to do that in more detail.
> Again make sure you use a trypod for the Audyssey mic and place it at ear level on your seat.


Hello guys 
I was busy this weekend trying to get some reading using my radioshack mic and my laptop sound card. So here are the pictures of the reading. All the graphs are average of 5 consistent readings. The woofer readings are in four phases 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree. Then I have the main speaker individually and then together. All reading are taken at crossover frequency of 120 Hz. The main intention was to find the right crossover frequency between the mains and woofer. All reading are taken after running auto calibration with auddssey with 6 measurement and the mic fixed on a stand. Now what do you guys think?


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

I am also trying to make a new setup to measure using a UCA202 sound card and a better mic EEM 6 but I am not sure of the connections. UCA has 2 RCA inputs and 2 RCA outputs. So mic---phantom power--UCA right input ---both the left input and ouput act as control and connected ---UCA right out to nowhere. USB connection fron the UCA202 to the computer. 3mm pin to the AV receiver Aux RCA input for sound output from the speaker. Am I doing anything wrong with the cables?


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Now what do you guys think?


Please post your graphs with the standard we use here of vertical axis = 45dB-105dB and horizontal axis of 15Hz-200Hz with a 75dB target. Be sure to run the Calibrate SPL routine directly after the Check Levels routine and match it against your SPL meter.

brucek


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

*some more pictures*

The first is for the right speaker and then the left one and then both together. I have applied 1/3 ocatave smoothing. Enjoy.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

To repeat:


brucek said:


> Please post your graphs with the standard we use here of vertical axis = 45dB-105dB and horizontal axis of 15Hz-200Hz with a 75dB target. Be sure to run the Calibrate SPL routine directly after the Check Levels routine and match it against your SPL meter.


The way the graphs are scaled now they don't tell us much.

Regards,
Wayne


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## pnkflyd (Sep 13, 2009)

OK guys I will try to do it again after calibrating my mic and sound card. Also I will make sure it is in the standard range. But about calibration of the main speaker, wont we want to see how it is doing in the 200 to 20000 Hz. Just a dumb question I guess.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

> But about calibration of the main speaker, wont we want to see how it is doing in the 200 to 20000 Hz.


Sure, but you can't do that using just the Radio Shack SPL meter. It's only accurate to about 3 kHz. For accurate full range readings you'll need a calibrated ECM8000 mic and a mixer or soundcard with a mic pre-amp and phantom power supply.

Regards,
Wayne


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