If anyone is in need of professional calibration service, you can get in touch with me vide my company as below :
We provide video and audio calibration service
What I can assure you is that not only your system will benefit greatly with the calibration, you will understand your system better , the good, the flaws, the corrective action needed to take the system up to the next level, in short, Level Up!
If you need to understand what is possible, feel free to get in touch with me @93538945 for a demo session
@Ronildoq - initially I thought you are the one who helped @Cash with his recent “audio tweaks/calibration” for his home system…but immediately it dawned upon me that it could not be you since you are the type that relies on science and hardware for audio calibration rather than tweaking sound by “ears and gut instinct”. Maybe for the same fee he paid to that dude from Carousell, @Cash may want to engage your calibration service to bring his system to the next level.
If the charges are similar to the guy with ear calibration, then I don’t mind having a “graph and science” calibration…
I can ditch the Audessey calibration in profile 1…hehehehe!!!
as a person who believes on self sense of tuning/leveling, i wouldn’t object some folks who go for such professional tuning/leveling service which is backed by one’s training and Certification… if one is clueless on what to deal with.
one chef’s dish, may not be a Coulinary work to a diner, however, it’s an art worth to be tasted/appreciated once.
Congrats Bryan on the launch of the new service. As you know, Kris Deering in the US has endless appointments for video calibration at USD2,000 a pop. If this goes well, it could be a good business. I’m looking forward to reports on the latest and greatest hardware you acquire with this business.
[quote=“sammy, post:9, topic:1004, full:true”]…Kris Deering in the US has endless appointments for video calibration at USD2,000 a pop…
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US$2K a dish of steak, must be one damn good STEAK!!! die die must try!!!
for me, i’ll just go pasar western food stall to get a $20 mix grill… old oredi lah, cannot taste where’s the soul of US$2K steak.
Oh yes, i do tune by ear as well, for certain things. Because not everything can be measured with tools. On tuning with ears, we use specific test tones to find out how to solve the issues. Things like phantom imaging, soundstage, degree of toe in for speakers, balanced perceived loudness, these cannot be measured with tools.
It is also different from someone liking “brighter” sound vs “Warmer” sound. More aggressive bass, less aggressive bass. These fall under the preference category. Preference will always supersede reference for many when it comes to sound signature.
Also, some dont like to use room correction, because of over equalisation from the room correction software. whilst it may be good for some, it is not for others. Some people can hear the EQ sound from over equalisation done by room correction softwares. So they prefer to turn this off and some have very bad experience with room correction because pre-optimisation and post optimisation work is incomplete.
However getting it to reference, is a different matter all together. It has nothing to do with preference like how much bass, or how the speakers sound, ie warm or bright or whether or not one uses room correction. i believe experienced users will possess the ability to tweak by ear, but it is only up to a certain degree. Using proper measurement tools and technique will ALWAYS, ALWAYS be better than tuning by ear. Using ears to calibrate is better than no calibrate, but using tools will take it up to the next level. Things like SPLs, time domain information, acoustical delays, phase, distortion, compression, 1st reflection, late reflections, decay, RT60 times, polarity, RTA, room modes, room simulation, tone generators…
out of the 20+ parameters to tweak, lets just take one example. Assuming you have a subwoofer A and B, one at corner, one at mid room. You dial in the phase for these two, so they sum. If they dont sum, they cancel. This you can hear the difference between both subs summing or both subs cancelling. However, the guy tweaking by ear will have no clue, if they are summing up “PERFECTLY”. they will know it sums up but they wont know if that is the best blend and if it is the perfect summation, so you have a +4db summation. But a perfect summation is +6db. So this is one simple example out of many that the tools can tells you “this is the best possible scenario” in this given room
Similar to video, brightness and contrast setting is something we tune with our eyes, depending on each individual room and ambient light… so the tools cant tell us this. so ya, some things we need to tune with ears and eyes. But for most of it… the tools available to us will be far superior to tuning by ears.
Its a new start up. so going with the very basic stuff
The process involves the use of a calibrated microphone with REW software. It also involves the use of a Spatial Audio disc with specific test patterns that cannot be measured with REW to tune the system. Things like imaging, object panning, Phantom images and sound stage. A combination on the use of these special test patterns with measurement mic and REW will bring your system up to the next level. This process will also help and train you to understand the equipment better and to calibrate your own system independently in the future.
☐ Client education about audio calibration process, its strengths and benefits and the overall improvement one can expect post calibration
☐ Main Listening position and equipment placement including vibration control
☐ Optimizing source settings, preamp or receiver option settings
☐ System gain optimization including subwoofer gain or level matching technique
☐ Phase check and connectivity
☐ Subwoofer placement options vide RTA. Phase. Level, Q, XO, Filters and EQ set up
☐ Speaker / subwoofer delays and dialing in accurate timing information for the entire system
☐ Crossover optimization and blending of all speakers to all subwoofers
☐ House Curve tweaked to taste with profile options
☐ Level matching the entire system with lab certified SPL meter (absolute levels using Dolby’s test tones)
☐ Compression, Distortion Test, critical measurements of the environment before and after the adjustments made and verification with various content
☐ House Curve tweaked to taste with profile options
☐ Dialing in Crowsons timing information for a seamless blend with subwoofers, Bass EQ(BEQ) with miniDSP 2x4HD
Key Benefits:
Improved realism
Improved bass performance with appropriate bass level
Clear dialog
Exceptional detail
Coherent sounding system
Pricing:
On site assessment – SGD50
Upon engagement – Project basis SGD1,000/project includes full optimization. 2 days required for full optimization. (7hours/day)
Pick and choose - $100/hr , subject to a minimum of 3 hours
Acoustic measurements of the room and acoustic treatment advice are separate and is @ $100/hr. Includes identifying early and late reflections and resonant frequencies in the room at their given location
Our mission statement really is about bringing up the standards for Audio Video in Singapore.
The fee is collected to compensate for time spent working with the end user to bring his system up to the next level in his theatre room. i have no intention of charging like $2k for a 3hr calibration work. thats not our mission statement.
We get some may not want the full package, and only optimisation for subwoofers. that is fine as well. the Hourly rate applies in that case, subject to a min of 3 hours. (travel to and fro etc)
I must also stress that sometimes its not always possible. Some may have preference for aesthetics and might not want to go with the proposed solution. that is perfectly fine as well if WAF comes into play. Some may even have limitations with room itself, like a square room, triangle room. We will just work with optimising what is best in that given scenario
Its something i love doing and enjoy. I have calibrated for more than 20 homes in singapore alone. Including Pete’s challenging square room. haha… that was fun…
We are stringent with our calibration approach, optimization process and we follow a professional standard when calibrating the system for our clients. The goal is always to bring the system up to the next level, one that the client will be astonished and extremely satisfied post calibration. Why are we different? What is the value you ask? This is unlike the common practice where most users run their automated room correction software and apply whatever room correction results provided by their gear, which often leads to over equalization. Here at Level Up AV, the process is unique as it involves pre and post optimisation of the system settings available for the best possible sound. The methodology deployed is unique and it involves the use of professional calibration tools and software to tweak settings that works best in that given room.
We go down to the detail and we are confident the system will be up a few levels once the optimisation is complete.
anyone interested to find out what is possible ? call me, 93538945…
I always abit hesitant to do audio calibration let alone charging a fee for it. Sound is subjective to individual taste. What a calibrator think sounds good but the customer insist it’s not worth the money etc. (Not saying you will encounter such customers but always good to preempt such a possibility), will you consider a refund? If I were you, I’ll let the customer know before hand that he should pay you a visit at your place first and demo a few movies and music numbers for him to sample what a properly calibrated sound system sounds like so that the expectations can be properly managed even before you start any work. Better to safeguard yourself first as you will never know when some nasty ones going to make a fuss over your service.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll do that for sure. Most are not aware what is the full potential of their system and how professional calibration helps
I am aware of the “situation” and have observed that many are used to “resonances” in the room, only to find , eh why is my bass lacking ( after room correction eq it). This is also normal post room calibration from anthem software or denons audyssey etc etc.
The approach I use is different. I guarantee the benefits will be heard because of the ability to A B. Most people focus on amplitude, I focus on time domain & amplitude , in short gated measurements. There should always be a A B to compare before and after. Preference for more bass is an easy job, increase the level and u r done. Showing the user what happens and how it distorts when over boosting is where I come in. Maximising the full potential of the gear is where I come in… An example would be
A system hitting 120db @20hz < 5% THD won’t sound the same as one hitting 120db @20hz > 15% distortion. How fast does the bass stop at 120db 20hz . This is easily audible . What is causing the distortion? 2nd harmonics ? 3rd ? Is it due to overboosting ? Over EQ ? How to solve it ? A normal person tweaking by ear won’t know how to do this …
One should not confuse the above with . “The bass sound more meaty, the bass sounds thin” this one is purely preference and is the sound signature from the subwoofers. This one has nothing to do with the calibration and optimising the system
Whether or not the end users uses room correction, it will benefit the set up for sure
I haven’t come across a professional calibrator here in Singapore who dives down to the details like I do , this is the main reason I started the company…
This was one example, some 4 years back when I helped out our member Pete at his place
That was like 4 years ago…
I have done it for a lot more homes in sg, so far it has been 10/10, but mainly because I’ve done it for free , to help. Like desray has mentioned, sometimes paid services have their own risk too… especially if we come across demanding customers
And of course, I had to A B to our friend, the use of audyssey’s dynamic eq vs house curve in minidsp and let them hear it themselves and decide … Pete is one of the rare few who has excellent hearing ability from my observation when I was calibrating his room…
Fast forward to today, the tools available to us are so much more improved and accurate…
Oh yes and I’ve also come across other scenarios, whereby the person taking measurements, was using the wrong mic cal file, and causing the THD numbers to be overstated when in actual fact, nothing was wrong with the subwoofer…
Some using the wrong settings when taking measurements…
Some looking at the wrong information to make a decision…
Some know there is a 100hz problem, but don’t know where to place the bass trap to solve this
Some able to find the root cause of the problems, but don’t know what to do to solve …
Some know they have WAF and room limitations
This results in user “accepting “ things for what it is… there is no further desire to improve the system and he/she decides to be contented…
So ya, actually lotsa stuff can be optimised…the list goes on… these tiny tweaks here and there… adds up to the overall performance
