cross over and large vs small settings?

higgins79

I could use a little help. I have messed with the cross overs at both 60 and 80 and tried both small and large settings my fronts and center. Each time i mess with it it does sound different but i cant tell which sounds better. I know its up to each individual as what sounds "good" but i was hoping for some help onthe ideal settings here. I use my system mostly for movies and gaming (first person shooters) i feel like for the sheer size of my speakers they are being "underused" if thats the correct term with how i currently have them set up. any thoughts would be appreciated :eek:

polkstuff

I use small, even though I have rti12's and an external amp.

crd2002

the 12's have subs so I set it to large and all the other ones to 80hz and it sound great I also have a sub

a5ehren

Set them all to Large - put the crossover for the 12s at 30 Hz if you really want to set one. Setting it at 60 or 80 Hz is robbing you of the bottom of the speakers' frequency response, wasting those expensive woofers that you paid for. If you want to set one for the center, put it at 50 or 60 Hz.

The "Small" setting on most receivers is designed for micro sats or other speakers with small main drivers - it essentially drops all the bass for those speakers!

higgins79

i think i am confused why there is a small and large setting and a crossover setting. dont they do the same things then?

jakelm

higgins79 wrote: »

i think i am confused why there is a small and large setting and a crossover setting. dont they do the same things then?

That question just confused me.

Large setting = all frequencies (0hz - ~>20khz) sent to speaker

Small setting = frequencies over a crossover point sent to that speaker. Crossover point can be adjusted (40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 150) to fit the speaker and/or room enviroment.

ryanjoachim

I've heard people here posting about their RTi10's and such saying that it's actually a BAD thing to set your towers to Large.

I can't remember why they said that...but they did!

jakelm

Setting your speakers to large or small, depends intirely on room acoustics, phase and handling ability. You can have huge towers, if you use a sub, there is a high chance you will set those towers to small, because of phase and frequency blend.

Do not look at the size of the speaker to determine weather you set them to large or small.

devani

jakelm wrote: »

Do not look at the size of the speaker to determine weather you set them to large or small.

O rly? that's how i see boob..:rolleyes:

manofmars

I have a Denon AVR-S720W 7.2 Surround Sound with Polk's all the way. It took about 3 days of sitting in my recliner playing with it before I was happy. There are so many combinations it's insane. There is no right way. There's what you like so change it until you're happy. I don't consider myself an audiophile but I have been building systems 45 years and have found out it takes a lot of time to get it the way you want it. Peace and Blessings. Brother Boles

Snarl

If it help's I'm running RTi A9's that have a similar spec to the 12's driven with a clean 200 Watts per channel. Currently I have my Processor set to cross over at 40Hz for the mains and the Speakers set to small. That give me better sound than setting them to large. I am also playing with a 60Hz crossover but I'm still not sure what sounds best (it's pretty close). I have a Paradigm PW-2100 Sub (10") handling the LFE and crossed over Bass.

mrloren

Your room layout will have a lot to do with it. I have my RTi8's set @ 60. Doesn't matter which receiver I have used on them Sony, Onkyo or Marantz. 60 sounds best to me. My bedroom setup with smaller RTi4 sounds best @50. So I think the room has a lot more to do with it.

Play with it and see which sound best to you.