I have owned the NAD 762 for about 6 months and have them paired with Paradigm Ref. Studio 60's in the front and Polk CS400i center, and FX300i rears. I have always had the settings set at 0db for all speakers except center which i put to a +2 to eccentuate dialogue during movies. I recently played with the settings and found once I put the front L and R channels to a +5, the sound blew me away during music listening. Does anyone else set their fronts above a 0db level?
I used an SPL meter to calibrate my speakers. I set all the levels off my center speaker as it is the most important in movies and I use my receiver for movies 90% of the time. I think my fronts are at a +1 or +2 and the surrounds are at a +3 or +4. During certain movies however I punch up the surrounds even higher to get even more "surround" effect.
Pete
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Thanks Johnny, that was my concern, whether the sound would be as good in movie watching with the fronts set so high. Would be a pain to reset levels every time i switched inputs. But with basic stereo music listening, the higher front levels made an incredible difference. Now I see why people on this site praise the NAD/Paradigm marriage.
Check out the A/V presets. Read about them in the manual. That way, you are able to have different channel levels set for each input...and all you have to do is press one button. I have one preset of levels for music listening, one for movie watching, and one for playing X-Box.
Pete
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I guess my main concern is if I up the speaker output to a +5 or more level for stereo music listening, am I risking damage and/or distortion to the speakers, or is this normal practice?
I may be totally wrong here, but changing the levels on specific channels is the same as changing the volume on just that one channel. So, manually increasing the level +5db on all of the channels would be the exact same thing as raising the master volume 5db. If you up the level on your front speakers for stereo music listening, that just means that you won't have to turn the master volume up as loud to get the same overall level. Does that make sense?
Correct! specialy if you say for music listen, then I'll assume that it's in stereo mode, that would mean if you increase your speaker setting to plus 5 you would'nt have to turn your master volume control as high to achieve your desired listening level
Pete
Unregistered guest
Posted on
So I guess no damage could come of pumping up the overall settings, just trying to attain proper balance of all settings. What are some of the settings you guys use for all speakers in a system for movie and/or music? Center, fronts, surrounds, and sub settings...just curious how my preferences compare.
Use a spl meter to get a proper balance of the speakers. Another person's settings aren't going to help you because there are too many variables such as room size, speakers, speaker placement, room shape, room dynamics. The idea is to get a good uniform level with all your speakers. Once you do that, you can save the settings. Then listen to your music or movie. Find out the best surround mode and you can tweak it. The remote also has the ability to boost the surrounds, subwoofer at the bottom. Making the speakers louder by boosting them up to +5db doesn't really change the overall dynamics. It is well known that listening to an amp louder makes that amp more preferable.
