Why receiver volume negative

There are several types of decibel, including dBm, dbV, dBu and dBFS, but they're out of scope for this quick tutorial. Blog Categories. Recently Viewed. Most Popular. Popular Blog Tags. Reset Account Password To reset and recover a forgotten account password, simply enter your your email address below to have a Password Reset Link emailed to you in an instant!

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If you have difficulties resetting your password or no longer have access to your email account, please call Cable Chick during business hours on 07 to request a password reset. Please note that you will be asked some security questions before a new password can be issued. Secure payments by. Think of 0 dB as maximum volume. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Policy Accessibility. BY Kim Haman December 15, Is This Normal?

It's realy difficult to explain without understanding speakers, speaker efficiency, and the relationship of decibels to watts power to perceived volume. They say that 3dB is what a human can "perceive" as a change in volume. For a human to actually hear a "doubling" of the volume -- although 6dB would be mathematically accurate -- it takes 10dB for the human to perceive a doubling of the sound.

Distance from the speaker also plays a role in this because for every doubling of the distance from the speaker Add all this up, and you see why you need more than just 1W to listen to your system at 10ft 3M at 90dB.

As I wrote earlier, most home theater systems with pretty efficient speakers, can deal with most needs with 40 - 50 watts. But, when you need to increase the dB levels from say dB to dB ouch, my ears on the same system, you'd have to multiply the power requirements by 10! Your system now needs to produce - watts!

I know, that doesn't help much, but may help you. It would probably had just been better if I answered: yes. Posted on Monday, January 19, - GMT does that means setting the volume as '0 db' at my Marantz receiver is its reference db level? Each manufacturer does it differently. I think that on Yamaha, the highest is 0dB. Alan K Unregistered guest. As it increases into the positives the distortion also increases along with the power. HK advised me that "As far as the negative dB, also very logical design feature.

This info isn't on the HK web site. Am I alone or are there others without understanding of relative volume control scales? The use of the VU meter in broadcasting and recording was to ensure a strong enough audio signal that was well above any noise, yet prevent a too-loud signal that might distort or overload any recording equipment or the input circuits of the control consoles in the other radio stations.

You received your new speakers and you want to get them playing, stat! But if you don't take time to make sure they're set up right you might end up underwhelmed. In analog tape recording, the 0 VU setting was viewed as the level beyond which the recorded signal might distort or overload the magnetic tape.

Digital recorders have peak-reading LEDs or LCD bar-graph displays that actually register the peak voltage of the incoming audio signals, thus recording levels can be adjusted to never exceed the maximum of 0 dB. In practice, with sloppy operators, they sometimes do, which accounts for some of the grungy sound quality of some modern digital recordings. On your AV receiver, the dB indications are still relative and you should hear them that way.

Your listening distance and preferences also come into play. You can use your ears and the display readings on your AV receiver to experiment with small or large changes in loudness. With music, are you able to detect a 1-dB increase or decrease in loudness? Once you precisely adjust the playback levels with pink noise and a Sound Pressure Meter, many alleged differences you thought you were hearing disappear.

You then get the best speaker db levels for your surround sound.