set up tips /help for small home cinema system

[steveo3002]

ive got myself a modest onkyo home cinema 5.1 system , ive ran the self tune audesy feature and its not too bad with a few level tweaks

i find bright and sparkly stuff like glass breaking and laser beams etc sound a bit dull and naff

can anyone suggest what sort of freqencys i should look at ajusting ..im new to this and dont want to make it worse messing with everything

also are there any dvd's that are a benchmark for set ups ? ive listened to 2 of my favs and they sound totaly differant lol

[JustinP1]

Turn it up louder.



Seriously. Everything jumps out more when it is louder.

Altering the overall EQ will just make something else sound rubbish. DVD and BD audio is mixed pretty much flat to sound good on a 'flat' system.

What speakers are you using? Just set up the father-in-laws Onkyo, and compared to my system costing a multiple of 30 times more it is great 'bang for the buck' and I was pretty impressed.

If you have the 7.1 amp, I really would recommend adding the extra 2 speakers. My FiL was initially sceptical but trusted me, and he took my advice and bought a pair of cheapy floorstanders for the front and use the package 5.1 speakers for the extra 2 rears.

That made a hell of a difference and the surround effect was quite immersive despite it only being a few hundred quid's worth of kit, and an extra £120 for the floorstanders.

[steveo3002]

its just with the onkyo speakers

i might set it all to flat and 0 level and see how that sounds , i can always run audessey again if its bad

[Maxf]

I was stunned at how good the audyssey setup was - it might be that the sound is better but different to what you are used to, so sounds poor at the moment?

[steveo3002]

i must admit it set things up very differant to my idea of ok lol

i guess i could try differant positions with the mic too

any suggestions on a good dvd that should sound right?

[Maxf]

My setup gets you to place the mic in various places and takes some kind of average - perhaps its a little more advanced?

The pixar discs have a THX setup which might help you?

[steveo3002]

yeah this gets you to place it in 3 differant spots , i'll keep tinkering with it