Check Your Speaker Distances and Polarity, OR, "A Chorus of YUMS! Ran Round the Table!"

Most Home Theater setups these days will include some variant on Surround Sound speakers.  Indeed, a major factor in the enjoyment of modern movies at home is the ability to hear an "aggressive" Surround Sound mix as it was INTENDED to be heard:  With key sounds originating from specific points all around you, and with blended sounds, such as the musical score, filling the entire sound field.

In this post I'll discuss the two most common ways people screw this up, and how to avoid doing that!

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Balancing Speaker Volumes Trims with an SPL Meter

One of the basic steps in setting up any Home Theater system is making sure all of your speakers, and your subwoofer(s), are matched in output volume.  Although you could try doing this by ear, this is really something best done with the aid of an inexpensive measuring device called a Sound Pressure Level (SPL) Meter.

This post discusses how to use your SPL Meter correctly.

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