Well my center is sat infront of the TV and is lower than my sides. I've pointed the Gallo speaker up so that the sound is projected upwards to the listening position.
KEF HTS2001.3, good?
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Well my center is sat infront of the TV and is lower than my sides. I've pointed the Gallo speaker up so that the sound is projected upwards to the listening position.
I went for the Nucleaus Micro's.
I managed to get the 3 gallo's for £435.00 all in. I got the high gloss black versions and they charge an extra £25 for each of them.
I have to say they are very discreet and look really cute. They pack a punch aswell.
Obvisiously, i have to allow for around 100hrs for the speakers to settle in so im not getting the true sound out of them yet.
I'll get some pics up later
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Those rear levels seem a bit high. Is that setup by your ear or by a spl metre? By ear
Also once you get the sub all speakers should be set to small. I don't know of many speakers capable of delivering the low frequencys of movie audio. You are best off leaving that to your sub rather that swamping your fronts. Will set them to small when sub arrives.Does this include the 2 fronts aswell?
I have my crossover set to 80. You don't want it set to high. Subs are only good for the low stuff. Check your speaker stats. See how low they go and set it a bit above that as speaker companys can sometimes be a little optimistic with their products. So if yours go to 70 try it to 80. The Gallo's are "Frequency Response 80Hz to 18Khz"
See my comments
Also once you get the sub all speakers should be set to small. I don't know of many speakers capable of delivering the low frequencys of movie audio. You are best off leaving that to your sub rather that swamping your fronts. Will set them to small when sub arrives.Does this include the 2 fronts aswell?
I have my crossover set to 80. You don't want it set to high. Subs are only good for the low stuff. Check your speaker stats. See how low they go and set it a bit above that as speaker companys can sometimes be a little optimistic with their products. So if yours go to 70 try it to 80. The Gallo's are "Frequency Response 80Hz to 18Khz"
See my comments
If you have done it by ear, I take it your amp doesn't have a setup mic?
If not I would say its worth a few £ to get one and set it up properly, I bought this just last week
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103668
Only done basic setup so far, just making sure the levels are even across all channels (with a slight +2 extra on the center as I prefer it that way)
Yes set your fronts to small as well, I have a set of £800 GS10 up front, there spec says '40 Hz - 43 KHz' but I still have them set to small and the crossover to 80 and they sound all the better for it. not swamping them with the low end stuff lets them work better with what there good at.
If not I would say its worth a few £ to get one and set it up properly, I bought this just last week
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103668
Only done basic setup so far, just making sure the levels are even across all channels (with a slight +2 extra on the center as I prefer it that way)
Yes set your fronts to small as well, I have a set of £800 GS10 up front, there spec says '40 Hz - 43 KHz' but I still have them set to small and the crossover to 80 and they sound all the better for it. not swamping them with the low end stuff lets them work better with what there good at.
It does have a mic but i've read countless threads over at AVForums about auto calc and it adding hiss noise. Thats why i have done it manually.
had a quick look on AVForums and your right, seems its a pretty big issue with the DSG820. And a pretty damn annoying one as well. you would have though Sony would have fixed it by now.
I also had a look a few other levels others with that amp are using, and there is quite a few people with what I would class as hi levels such as you have used. mine are something like
And that was set using the sound meter, all equal except slight boost to center channel.
Set all speakers to 'Small' and try balance them again and see if you can get an even sound. I would still try and get hold of a SPL meter when you can, seen them on eBay for £8.99 from hong kong, dont know what they are like, they look pretty much the same as mine that cost £27
I also had a look a few other levels others with that amp are using, and there is quite a few people with what I would class as hi levels such as you have used. mine are something like
- Front L +/- 0
- Center +3
- Front R +1
- Surround R +2
- Surround L +3
And that was set using the sound meter, all equal except slight boost to center channel.
Set all speakers to 'Small' and try balance them again and see if you can get an even sound. I would still try and get hold of a SPL meter when you can, seen them on eBay for £8.99 from hong kong, dont know what they are like, they look pretty much the same as mine that cost £27
Im going to get hold of one of these sound meters and see what i can do with it. How do you use them? Just play a test tone on each of the speakers and see what the levels are and then adjust levels so that the test tone is the same dB on all speakers?
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it doesnt matter what levels you use as long as you are happy with the audio. what levels other people use have absolutely no bearing on your steup because they may well be using different speaker in different places in a different room.
also if you want to set up using an spl meter, you should be setting to 75DBa not 70!
tests tones on av amps are set to play at 30db below reference level. reference level is 105db for the mains speakers with an additional 10db headroom for the subwoofer. 105db - 30db = 75db. if the amp is playing test tones and it registers less than 75db on the mic then the levels are too low.
also if you want to set up using an spl meter, you should be setting to 75DBa not 70!
tests tones on av amps are set to play at 30db below reference level. reference level is 105db for the mains speakers with an additional 10db headroom for the subwoofer. 105db - 30db = 75db. if the amp is playing test tones and it registers less than 75db on the mic then the levels are too low.
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Wasnt telling him to set them the same as mine, just advising the OP what mine were, obviously each amp/speaker/room size is different so each persons settings are going to differ.
with regards to setting the SPL meter to 75, take a look here
I guess some SPL meters are different, but for mine it clearly states use 70, go figure.
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it doesn't lol. it says set the scale to 70db (on the meter). you should still be setting the speaker to measure 75db on a test tone.
notice the the target line on the graph in that OPand how its set at 75db.......
The reason for setting the scale to 70db is that it the meter will measure +/-10db from the set scale. so, with 70db set on the meter it will measre from 60db to 80db. If thats what you're doign then thats the right way to go about it, but the speakers still have to be set to 75dba initially.
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Nah i didnt get them. I got the Micro's. They seem more than adequate for a center and rear speakers. I believe the main difference between the MIcro's and the Ti is that the Ti's support 100/120Hz (only 80Hz on Micro) and that they are 120W (micro only 100W). They only have a different "Driver".
Micro: 3" full range
Micro Ti: 3" Pure Titanium full range
I think the Ti's are designed to be more like your main speakers.
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OK well spotted
, but as I mentioned, I haven't even used REW yet, going to have a crack this weekend if I get time.When I measured my levels just off the meter (not hooked up to PC) I used 70 as that got the needle bouncing (my meter only goes up in units of 10, 70/80/90 etc) and at 70 it allowed me to get a steady reading of each speaker.
I wasn't setting the levels so they all went to 0 on the meter if you know what I mean. the front left measured around +3, so i tweaked all the levels of the other speakers so they also measured +3 on the meter.
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That'd be 73db which is close enough anyway 
Yeh, the website makes it out like you don't need a sub if you get th Ti range. now as good as they are I think that's more than a little hopeful. Quiet a price premium for the Ti as well
ye a BIG price premium and totally un-necessary when you have a dedicated sub.
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looks good, im wondering how well that center is going to integrate with the front speaker though, its pretty important to match the tone of the center to the fronts. it'll be interesting to find out what you think of it
That looks like it would sound terrible to me, the centre where the main dialogue sound comes from is going to be way over shadowed by the big fronts.
I could be wrong but I have never seen a set up like this and most manufacturers have a hefty front speaker for the main sound in 5.1 compared to the other satellites for the reasons I said above, such as these Kefs with the bigger centre speaker.
I could be wrong but I have never seen a set up like this and most manufacturers have a hefty front speaker for the main sound in 5.1 compared to the other satellites for the reasons I said above, such as these Kefs with the bigger centre speaker.