Receiver calibration vs. manual settings

[rogerm]

I am curious what the new Sierra owners are using for settings. Right now I have the Sierra's in front and Usher S520's in the back. All speakers are set to small and the crossover is set at 80 (My receiver won't go lower) Today I decided to see what the receivers auto surround setup would choose. It set the Sierras to large, the center to small, the Ushers to small and the crossover at 120. I'm listening to it now and it sounds darn good on a 5.1 digital broadcast. This setting seems to bring out more depth in the surround speakers. Of course, it's subjective, I can't hear both settings at the same time. The 120 crossover seems high to me, am I losing much music input with this setting? I am using a Def Tech Procenter 2000 right now but after I add the Sierra center next week I will probably get a meter and try it that way. Thanks

[mattopia]

I used the Audyssey feature of my Denon AVR-787 to calibrate. I currently have Sierra-1 for L/C/R, no sub or surrounds at the moment. With no sub, it did not set any crossover points, but it did detect the Sierra's across the front as "Large".

I think my center ended up a bit low so I think I will be manually tweaking that one by ear, but overall it did a decent job.

[Mag_Neato]

My Onkyo TXSR-703's auto setup/EQ set the L/R Sierras as small, and the crossover was set fairly high, even higher than yours I think. I reset everything to 80Hz(THX) in the setup menu. I have tried the Sierra's with a 60Hz setting but I could not tell a difference in casual listening. I am using a UFW-10 sub which is pretty tight and musical, so it blends in very well even at higher crossover points.

[rizzxx7]

I have the new denon 3808ci and the set-up is inaccurate, so I had to do everything manually except I did let it do the eq.

[bikeman]

I used the Audyssey feature of my Denon AVR-787 to calibrate.

I did the same with my 787 but was not satisfied with the results. It set the 340SE's to large even with the sub connected. Outside of that, it did a nice job. My manual settings using a RS SPL meter were very close to the Audyssey's settings.

David

[curtis]

Bikeman!!!! Good to see you!

[Ecks]

With Sierras as L/C/R and using the Denon 987, I found the levels to be off. I manually adjusted them.
The crossover is set to 80hz. The current channel level settings I'm using are:
L = +3.5; C = +2.5; R = +3.0; SW = +.5; SR = -10.0; SR = -8.5. No EQ used.

This weekend we're having guests over for dinner, and a look-see/show-off/listen-to. So I'll update this after another 6-8 ears have had a chance to say their piece. I am looking forward to seeing what tunes will be brought over to audition the Sierras, and then of course to playing my faves.

[enoch]

I've set my crossover at 60 for the L/C/R Sierra's on my Outlaw 970 (no auto setup, no EQ) with speakers set as small. Got my NHT surrounds at 120. Sounds pretty darn good so far. I'll probably try setting the Sierra crossover at 80 though just to see what the difference sounds like.

John