I was just reading in the manual for my receiver about setting up individual speaker levels for a surround system. Could someone explain this to me?
During initial setup I also was asked the speaker distance from my listening position and the speaker sizes. These makes sense to me but after these are set I would've thought that the receiver and DVD/DVD player would've sent the sounds to the speakers at the volumes that would provide an optimal listening experience.
The manual doesn't really explain why I should adjust individual speaker volumes or what I should set them too.
Nick, the speaker distance settings are for delay and speaker level (volume) settings are for loudness. Ideally, you need a sound pressure level meter like the one from Radio Shack to adjust the sound from each speaker to the same level. However, you can set them by ears if you don't have a meter (that's what I normally do).
I also set mine by ear and then go back and play around with them for different movies. Ex, I was baby sitting and put on Jungle Book. This a stereo only movie so I set the play back for Pro Logic and set the center for "0" L&R for 3 and surrounds for 12 and the master volume for "0". Wow when the Panther calls out for the Bear after the monkeys take the boy what an echo!