Basic Audio Tune-Up

After you have carefully put together your entire home theater system with the right display, DVD player, receiver and the various speakers you need for optimum performance, basic audio tune up is the next step. The sound of your home theater system will determine its performance.

There are several Internet resources that provide information about how to go about basic audio tune up of your home theater system. A prerequisite is selecting the right speakers for your system. It is better to get a matched set of speakers rather than putting your speakers together at random, since it will make for more unified sound.

Your receivers will come with a set up menu. You will need to explore this first. You can input the speaker to seating measurement into the set up menu. This basic audio tune up is necessary to ensure that sound from all your speakers reaches you simultaneously. The receiver sends a test tone to each speaker and based on this, you can adjust the channel volumes. Once adjusted, notice that the loudness of the sound moving from speaker to speaker is the same. A sound level meter is an affordable instrument that helps to match sound levels accurately.

There are home theater system calibration or set up discs like the Avia Guide that guide you through basic audio tune up. These discs also lead you through the various complicated speaker cable connections to ensure they are done properly. While adjusting speaker levels, you will need to make sure that your test tones come out of the speaker from where they are expected. Good quality speaker wires and cables are better than going in for cheap ones.

Big speakers produce more bass sound. You will therefore need to set your subwoofer’s crossover knob at the lowest range so that the bass sounds smoother. It is better to place your speakers on floor stands or wall mount them, rather than positioning them on bookshelves or on top of armoires. This will make a significant improvement in sound quality. The front speakers and the tweeters must preferably be at ear level. The distance of the left and right speakers must be identical from the main listening position. This optimizes the speakers’ position to the listener.

The process of basic audio tune up also involves room acoustics. If you have wood or tile floors, you will need to use thick floor rugs and window drapes to improve the sound quality.