Parasound Halo C1 Controller manual 28ADJUSTMENTS, MENUS, AND SETUP continued, Level Setup

28ADJUSTMENTS, MENUS, AND SETUP continued

Level Setup

For proper surround, the sounds reaching you from the different speakers should have the same relative levels as the sounds reaching the audio engineer who mixed the soundtrack. Because home systems vary, the simplest way to do that is to send a standard test signal through each of the speakers in turn, measure each one’s sound levels at the main listening position, and then adjust each channel’s signal level so that all the sound levels are equal. The C 1 can do this auto- matically (see “Level autocalibrate,” on page 30) or manually. The “Level setup” menu can be used for manual calibration or simply to check on the levels set by the autocalibration system.

Level setup			To make manual adjustments, you will need an SPL
			(sound-pressure-level) meter; it should be held, micro-
Left		0.5dB	phone end upright, near where your head would be when
Center		0.0dB	you sit at your main listening position. Set the meter to its
Right		0.0dB
Right	surround	0.0dB	80-dB scale and to “C” weighting.
Right	back	None	Once the meter is set up and the “Level setup” screen is
Left	back	None
Left	surround	0.0dB	displayed, press the “Test” key on Page 1 of the Master
Subwoofer		0.0dB
Exit			remote’s C1/C2 screen. This will start a test noise that
			cycles through your speakers. As each speaker plays, the
			“dB” on its line of this menu will be replaced by a musical
G-clef symbol (		), giving you a quick way to make sure each speaker is connected to the proper

channel. Speakers entered as “No” in “Size setup” will be shown as “None” on this menu, and no signal will be sent to them.

For actual level setting, rock the Master remote’s thumbpad up and down to select the speaker you wish to adjust, then rock the thumbpad to the left or right until your sound-level meter reads 75 dB (–5 on the 80-dB scale). Then proceed to the next speaker. The noise will automati- cally go to the speaker you’re adjusting. If you pause for more than a few seconds, the test noise will resume cycling through your speakers.

Distance Setup

Proper surround also requires that the sounds reaching you from the different speakers in your system should have the same relative timing as they did in the studio mixing room. If the speak- ers in the studio were equidistant from the engineer, but your main speakers are three feet further from you than your surrounds are, the sound from the main speakers would reach you about 3 milliseconds (0.003 sec.) late, and you might hear, say, a gunshot’s echo before the shot itself. To compensate, your system would have to delay the sound from the surround speakers by three milliseconds, enabling the sound from the main speakers to catch up. The C 1 does this automati- cally (see “Dist. autocalibrate,” below), but you can also set delays by measuring the distance from each speaker to your head and entering it in the screen below. The C 1 then translates distance into delay, as sound moves at approximately 1 ms (millisecond) per foot or per 0.3 meters.

Distance setup
Left		7ft
Center		6ft
Right		7ft
Right	surround	5ft
Right	back	None
Left	back	None
Left	surround	5ft
Subwoofer		10ft

Exit

For each speaker, the distance can be set in 1-foot incre- ments from 0 to 71 feet (0 to 21.4 meters, if you have set “Distance units” on the “Display setup” screen to “Meters”). If the distance between you and the left and right main speakers differs by more than 2 feet, the display will warn:

Left and right ch delay difference exceeds 2ms

If your on-screen display is set to a color mode (see “Display setup”), any speaker distances that seem unrealistically high—more than about 22 feet (5.9 m)—will appear in a different color.