SPL meter usage questions

[fido87456]

These may be a daft questions so apologies in advance

I'm not completely happy with the sound I'm getting from my Yamaha DSP-AX763 and have been playing with the graphic equaliser settings for each speaker in an attempt to make my ears happier.

As each speaker has its own 7 band graphic equaliser there is clearly a lot of room for fiddling, but trying to change each speaker by ear while listening to a film or piece of music is just not working as I find that unless I change a channel by its full range, my ears can't tell much difference. I have run the auto setup a few times to try out the different modes ('natural', 'flat', 'front') and like the 'front' setting the best, so was thinking it would be easier if I could manually setup the equalisers to replicate that sound and then tweak it from there.

Would an SPL meter help me set the 7 band frequencies for each speaker manually to replicate the auto setup? Or,instead of doing that is there an industry standard output for each frequency the SPL meter would help me achieve?

I've searched t'interweb for some guides, but they seem to mainly focus on setting the crossover frequency for the Sub which isn't relevant for me as I don't have one at the moment.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[fido87456]

Maybe I didn't phrase my question very well

What I want to know is can you use an SPL meter for balancing different frequency tones or are they really just for making sure the speaker volumes are spot on?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Basically only for setting levels.

 

[Stokesy]

Hi, depends on the SPL meter you are using - some have the ability to filter the content of the sound they are measuring to provide spectral content - Industrial Audiologists sometimes use these to assess noise in the workplace. Or alternatively you can use a real time spectral analyser. I now use type 2 SPL meters in my job as an audiologist to calibrate free-field audiometers/amp/speakers - here we use the actual audiometer to produce specific pure-tones but I'm sure you can get CDs with these pre-recorded. However when I previously used to run a car stereo shop (ironic I know) we used to have access to our own real time analyser to set-up equalisers etc... Might be worth having a chat with your local car stereo dealer and ask if they'd oblige?