Enable the test tone generator that’s built into all surround-sound processors, which will play pink noise from each speaker. Listen to the noise as it plays through each speaker and adjust the individual trim or volume controls until all the speakers seem to play at the output level. Inexpensive systems often won’t include an internally generated noise for the subwoofer so you may need to play some bass-heavy program material and adjust it on the fly. You can also use test discs, like the aforementioned 5.1 Audio Toolkit, which will offer test signals for all channels.

Humans are surprisingly good at perceiving slight differences in volume level from different speakers and studies have shown that we can adjust these levels by ear quite accurately. We are also surprisingly unsure of ourselves. Fortunately, Radio Shack caters to our neuroses and for a meager $40 we can purchase an SPL or sound pressure level meter. This handy little device measures the volume level of a source and tells you how loud it is in dB-SPL. Theoretically you’ll only need this device once when you set up the system, but this assumes you’ll never upgrade another component ever again and there are other uses for it that we’ll mention later . Besides, you never know when you might need to see if your neighbor’s dog or St. Patrick’s Day party is violating local noise ordinances. It’s a safe investment.

5.       Check your subwoofer’s settings. The point of the subwoofer is to augment the low frequency or bass response of the system, adding weight and depth to the sound. Since low frequency sounds are non-directional, the subwoofer doesn’t need to be prominently located. If you have a subwoofer, there will be at least one, if not two main settings for you to double check. The first setting is the subwoofer’s crossover control, or the point, measured in hertz (Hz) where the low frequencies are cut off from the main speakers and the high frequencies are cut off from the subwoofer. If the crossover is set too low, extremely small main speakers won’t reproduce frequencies low enough to meet with the sound coming from the subwoofer, making the main sound seem disjointed from the bass. If the crossover is set too high, sounds coming from the subwoofer will likely be localized, which will give away the subwoofer’s hidden position and distract the listeners. Ideally, the crossover will be set as low as the frequency response of the main speakers will allow, roughly at 80 Hz but no higher than about 130 Hz. The THX group specifies 80 Hz as their reference crossover point and it’s a good starting point for most systems. If you have small, cube speakers, though, or if the sound seems disjointed, try a higher crossover point.