Should the volume vary on speakers in a home theater setup?

Question

I was told that the rear speakers should be 5 db higher than the fronts, and that the center should be 3 db higher than the fronts.

Answer 1

Hi. It is entirely up to you .The 3 front speakers are your main sound for music and dialog.The 2 or 3 rear speakers are mainly for sound effects.Not all movies are balanced the same with their soundtracks. So you should be able to increase or decrease the rear information to your own liking.Also if the room is mainly reflective(bare walls no carpet etc.) or absorbent (heavy furnishings,thick curtains et.)the sound will need adjusting. Hope this made some sense to you.
Cheers.

Answer 2

Ideally, all speakers in the system should be at the same level from the listening position. Some people like more subwoofer or surround channel, and that is fine, but it is of the utmost importance for L-C-R to be the same level. Run the test tone from your surround receiver through all the speakers. You can do the shotgun method and use your ears, but the Radio Shack SPL meter would be a great investment for this purpose.

Answer 3

Movies are made with the idea that all speakers will be set at the same level. That is they should be of equal volume to you as you sit in the sweet spot. Run a test tone and adjust the speakers so that they all sound the same to you. Use a sound pressure meter if you can. Installers set speakers this way and you will find that this is how the system sounds best.

Answer 4

Don't know who told you this but this is false and incorrect info.
Your speakers should all be playing at the same level but this according to your listening position and it's relationship to your speakers.
This can be accomplished in one or two ways.
One way is that some of the newer receivers does a self assessment of your speaker placement and adjusts speaker levels accordingly.
The other way is to buy a sound level meter and do your own assessment, and adjust speakers levels as needed, till all your speakers are playing at the same level from your listening position.

Answer 5

The 0db setting is standard, if the rear speakers are placed further away, then you can boost them for that purpose.

I tend to make the center 2-3db for clarity of speech, but this is a personal preference.

I have found that if I increase the sound too much in the rears, that I lose the subtlety of the other speakers.

Answer 6

Something that is often overlooked when setting the relative speaker volumes is that many people have worse hearing in one ear than the other,and may benefit from compensating for that.
I also suggest upping the center just a bit for the sake of dialogue. I have found that many people like it like that.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Buy one these for $35.....

http://www.svsound.com/pix/g_rssplmeter.jpg

...and set all 6 channels (5.1) to an equal decible using a test tone.