When I first got my Pioneer 24tx a long time ago I used a digital SPL meter from Radio Shack to dial in all of the speakers. I also ran around the room with a measuring tape getting just the right distance down.

Fast forward a few years and now with my Pioneer 45tx I just plug in the microphone, choose automatic surround setup, and walk away for about 10 minutes.

So why am I boring you with all of this? If you have a receiver that must be manually calibrated our buddies at Engadget wrote a good little how to on dialing in your surround sound.

Do take note though, if your receiver does allow for automatic setup, use it. They are much more accurate than anything you can do with a meter because many of these newer surround setup programs like MCAAC will check the sound level for different frequencies on each speaker. This would be difficult to impossible for someone to do with just a meter.

For example, I believe that MCAAC on my pioneer looks at 5 different frequency ranges for each speaker. For a 7 speaker system (not including the sub) that would 35 different tests. I don’t know about you, but I would have one whopper of a headache listening to all that pink noise.

By the way I do still modify some of my settings each time I run MCAAC. The program likes to make my front speakers large and I like to turn up the center channel just a +.5db to catch every conversation.

Now if someone could come up with a system to first check my hearing, then tune the surround sound around me. That would be nifty!

How-To: Dial in your surround sound