Don't be an audio snob, turn those surround speaker levels up!

Texasjack

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I'm enjoying my system so much more now that I've actually increase the levels on some of my surrounds. I was indoctrinated into feeling it would be gimmicky if I did this because " I won't be hearing it how they intended for me to". Wrong, Odyssey does not set surround channel levels high enough. I find movies so much more enjoyable this way. To hell with "how it's supposed to be"!
 
Good for you, alternatively, just turn your centre channel down!
 
I'm enjoying my system so much more now that I've actually increase the levels on some of my surrounds. I was indoctrinated into feeling it would be gimmicky if I did this because " I won't be hearing it how they intended for me to". Wrong, Odyssey does not set surround channel levels high enough. I find movies so much more enjoyable this way. To hell with "how it's supposed to be"!

Audyssey, YPAO , etc. are not that accurate or even repeatable in a lot of cases.
Those little plastic mics are not great.

Run them multiple times and they will get you “ in the ballpark” as it were, but you will almost certainly have to do some tweaking.

Chances are your adjustments are closer to how its supposed to be than the mic and system is telling you.
 
Top advise from the regulars as always :).

I'm enjoying my system so much more now that I've actually increase the levels on some of my surrounds. I was indoctrinated into feeling it would be gimmicky if I did this because " I won't be hearing it how they intended for me to". Wrong, Odyssey does not set surround channel levels high enough. I find movies so much more enjoyable this way. To hell with "how it's supposed to be"!

Completely agree, especially with movies. I don't think it's "snobbish", it's all completely subjective at the end of the day.

There isn't really a hard & fast rule with audio calibration like there can be with the visual aspect (such as setting a TV to a True Cinema mode to see the movie as intended by the director, etc., etc.). There are so many variables involved with audio calibration & the auto calibration may not always come out exactly as desired/expected. If you need to make adjustments go for it.

I increased the levels for both my surrounds & more so the upfiring height speakers (although lowering the vocal center channel works too if you don't have heights). They were both a little underwhelming following Sony's DCAC EX. I've tweaked other settings to best suit my environment etc. as well. As already mentioned, auto calibration does a pretty good job but it's not always 100% perfect & we all hear differently.

We have no concerns about disturbing others with any sudden bursts of action at an increased volume over the vocals & it was a big improvement after the manual adjustments, even more immersive than before :).

Enjoy :).
 

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