What adjustments are necessary to optimize surround sound?
For the surround effect to work as the sound designer intended the speakers must be balanced in level and the sound from each should arrive at the main listening position simultaneously. Ideally, levels are set using a sound pressure level meter and appropriate test signals. Time delays are required to compensate for speaker positions which are not at equal distances from the listener. Generally these are set by measuring the distances to each speaker and entering that information into the setup menu for your receiver, although the delays can be measured using appropriate equipment. Subwoofer adjustments are trickier than the level and delay settings. The subwoofer should integrate smoothly in level, frequency and phase (timing) with the other speakers and adjustments should ideally take room acoustics into consideration. Proper analysis of this requires a knowledge of acoustics and sophisticated test equipment, and may not be cost effective for some systems, but is a very worthwhile i
