I'd like to achieve a studio reference level as accurately as possible. Is the ideal approach for this to completely disable anything to do with Audyssey/EQ/Dynamic Volume etc? I understand this can be a subjective topic, but I'd like to know what an audio engineer working in a studio would consider. I have setup my speaker configuration (see below) based on GoldenEar's recommendations. The next thing I'd like to try is calibrating each speaker to a specific volume using a SPL meter. What would be the ideal dB volume for the speakers? I've seen numbers range from 78dB to 85dB (living room dimension information below). Is there anything else I need to consider? When disabling Audyssey, do I need to consider manually configuring speaker distance, EQ, delay's? I find when I use the Audyssey auto calibration, I have to manually correct the frequency of some of the speakers to match GoldenEar's recommendations. For example, my center channel is detected as LARGE, but I have to manually correct this to SMALL, and it is my understanding that when you change a speaker setting after an auto calibration, that specific speaker will ignore any correction.

Thanks,

Front Mains:
Triton 2's set as Large (LFE+Main option disabled)
Subwoofers
10 o'clock level with both subwoofer cables hooked separately into receiver

Center:
SuperCenter XL set as SMALL (60Hz)

Surrounds:
SuperSat 3's set as SMALL (120Hz)

Living Room:
26ft x 13ft carpeted

Your setup as described and shown looks pretty good in all regards. Our general advice is to set up the system manually without Audyssey and with all audio processing (like Dolby volume, EQ, auto dynamics, etc.) turned off. Use our recommended placement and bass management settings (Sandy's Tips from our website) and manually set distances and levels. (Setting volumes manually involves the receiver playing a test tone at a set volume that you match for all speakers, generally it is not something you would set, and is usually somewhere between 75 and 80 dB.)

After listening and tweaking for a few days, if you feel something needs improvement, run the Audyssey calibration and see if you like that better. And don't hesitate to seek the local assistance of the dealer that sold you all this great GoldenEar stuff, their expertise and assitance is part of what you paid for when you bought it all.

Wanted to share a personal anecdote if you DO decide to try Audyssey.

My brother recently moved into a new house and upgraded his old speaker system with some GE speakers.

In his older Onkyo receiver, we turned off Audyseey (calibrated for his old home and old speakers) to manually set-up his new GE speakers. BUT, everything sounded very off and no amount of tweaking seemed to fix it. It was as if the Audyssey settings 'lingered' in the receiver. We decided to factory reset the Onkyo and, using the exact same manual settings, the system came to life.

I don't know if it was our own user error of not finding the correct settings to disable, but it seemed like parts of Audyssey's settings were stored on the device, tainting our manual settings.

TL;DR If you decide to run Audyssey and don't like it, you may need to factory reset your receiver to make damn sure it clears all the Audyssey setting changes.

ps. Love the set-up!

Excellent advice Dark, thanks! We have actually had this experience with other users. Not sure what brands or vintages are effected, but some receivers needed a complete factory reset to clear out Audyssey parameters.

I use REW (Room EQ) software, which is freely downloaded, and I purchased a Dayton microphone (UMIK-1) hooked to a laptop. I then read through the 80+ pages of a PDF that I found which describes how to do all the EQ stuff manually. Before I had all this, I used a cheap SPL meter and set level at 75dB and also checked those at 85dB and 95dB to make sure I was still on target across the spectrum. However, now that I have REW, I can run frequency sweeps for each speaker, easily determine room modes, move speaker angles, test and retest, to get the right curve that I wanted. I also am using some digital EQ to cut some bass peaks on my subwoofers. But otherwise, no Audyssey or room correction at all.

The other nice thing about REW is that you can use it to measure distortion, there's a real-time analyzer, a room simulator, SPL meter, impulse response, phase, decay, waterfall, spectrogram and scope. Yes, it's kind of a learning curve and daunting, but if you know how to follow a recipe, you will be up and running in an hour.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I did a full reset on my reciever and definitely noticed a difference. There must have been some hidden auto calibration settings even though I had set MultEQ XT, Dynamic Volume, and Audyssey off.

Now that my receiver is factory reset, I am manually setting the volume/distances for each speaker but ran into a couple issues:

1. When running a test tone through my receiver for SPL measurements, the lowest I can change a speaker channel value is -12dB. When I test my surrounds set at the minimum -12dB setting, my SPL meter reads above my target of 75db at 81dB. The fronts have no problem reaching 75dB. Is it better to adjust all my channels to 81dB as a workaround? Or is there an alternative way to solve this? (My surrounds are sofa width apart from the listening position and against the wall. Aimed directly at my ears instead of the front wall).

2. With the Triton Two built-in subs, do I set the sub distance from listening position the same as the towers? I remember when I ran the auto calibration, it assumed my subs were twice the distance away than reality.

3. When measuring the Triton Two subs with an SPL meter, should that also target 75dB to match the other speakers? My subs read 50-60dB, but sound extremely powerful unless I lower the sub channel volume (dial on sub set at 10:00). So either my distance value for the subs is wrong, and/or my channel volume for the subs is wrong.

4. On my receiver, there is a setting called LPF for LFE and it is set as 120Hz by default. Does this sound like a correct value for the Triton Two's?

Sorry for all the questions, I usually google for information like this, but want to be sure I am doing what is best for a GoldenEar setup. There is a lot of inconsistent information out there.