Large setting for music and movies at lower volumes?
Mon40CSMM10
Posts: 161
I decided to reconfigure my main/living room system (again, because I wasn't satisifed with the mismatched front and center speakers for movies) and so I went back to all small speakers. However, seems that I get the best music and home theater sound if I ignore the Polk recommended settings of Small and set the Front and Center speakers to Large.
I should also mention that the VSX-517K receiver has a master volume range of -94 bB to -8 dB in 8 ohm speaker mode (and a -10 dB maximum in 6 ohm speaker mode). Given that, I'm not setting the master volume past -57 dB for music listening and video games, and I don't go past -45 dB for movies.
Here's what I ended up with... I first calibrated all the speakers with them set to Small and then changed the Front and Center to Large, and with this setting the subwoofer will only be used for movie LFE tracks. I'm not at all worried about blowing a speaker given the following settings below along with the maximum volume settings previously mentioned:
Music and Home Theater Settings, Pioneer VSX-517K Receiver
(Polk Audio M10 Front Speakers, Polk Audio CSM Center Channel Speaker, KLH TW-09B Surround Speakers, Polk Audio PSW110 Subwoofer)
Receiver settings:
Quick Setup selections:
* Is Subwoofer used? Yes.
* Number of Speakers: 5.1 Channel.
* Room Size: Small.
* Listening Position: Back.
(Room size measurements are approximately 16 feet wide by 9.5 feet deep by 7.5 feet high.)
Speaker Settings (after using Quick Setup):
* Front: Large. (Overrides Polk Audio recommendation of Small.)
* Center: Large. (Overrides Polk Audio recommendation of Small.)
* Surround: Small.
* Subwoofer: Yes.
Speaker Distance settings:
* Front Left: 9.5 feet.
* Center: 8.0 feet.
* Front Right: 10.0 feet.
* Right Surround: 3.5 feet.
* Left Surround: 2.5 feet.
* Subwoofer: 5.0 feet.
Channel levels: Calibrated to approximately 75dB peak per channel at -18 dB calibration master volume setting.
* Front Left: -4.0 dB.
* Center: -4.0 dB; however, was increased to -2.5 dB for better dialog presence.
* Front Right: -4.5 dB.
* Right Surround: -8.0 dB.
* Left Surround: -8.5 dB.
* Subwoofer: +6.5 dB (Connected to receiver using Sub/LFE Out to R/LFE input, Amplifier dial knob pointer at 9 o'clock position, Phase switch at 180.)
Crossover Setting:
* X.Over: 80 Hz.
Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode Settings:
* Center Width: 6.
* Dimension: +3.
* Panorama: Off.
Other Settings:
* Phase Control: Off.
* Dynamic Range Control: DRC Off.
* Low Frequency Effects Channel Attenuation (LFE ATT): 0 (No attenuation.)
I should also mention that the VSX-517K receiver has a master volume range of -94 bB to -8 dB in 8 ohm speaker mode (and a -10 dB maximum in 6 ohm speaker mode). Given that, I'm not setting the master volume past -57 dB for music listening and video games, and I don't go past -45 dB for movies.
Here's what I ended up with... I first calibrated all the speakers with them set to Small and then changed the Front and Center to Large, and with this setting the subwoofer will only be used for movie LFE tracks. I'm not at all worried about blowing a speaker given the following settings below along with the maximum volume settings previously mentioned:
Music and Home Theater Settings, Pioneer VSX-517K Receiver
(Polk Audio M10 Front Speakers, Polk Audio CSM Center Channel Speaker, KLH TW-09B Surround Speakers, Polk Audio PSW110 Subwoofer)
Receiver settings:
Quick Setup selections:
* Is Subwoofer used? Yes.
* Number of Speakers: 5.1 Channel.
* Room Size: Small.
* Listening Position: Back.
(Room size measurements are approximately 16 feet wide by 9.5 feet deep by 7.5 feet high.)
Speaker Settings (after using Quick Setup):
* Front: Large. (Overrides Polk Audio recommendation of Small.)
* Center: Large. (Overrides Polk Audio recommendation of Small.)
* Surround: Small.
* Subwoofer: Yes.
Speaker Distance settings:
* Front Left: 9.5 feet.
* Center: 8.0 feet.
* Front Right: 10.0 feet.
* Right Surround: 3.5 feet.
* Left Surround: 2.5 feet.
* Subwoofer: 5.0 feet.
Channel levels: Calibrated to approximately 75dB peak per channel at -18 dB calibration master volume setting.
* Front Left: -4.0 dB.
* Center: -4.0 dB; however, was increased to -2.5 dB for better dialog presence.
* Front Right: -4.5 dB.
* Right Surround: -8.0 dB.
* Left Surround: -8.5 dB.
* Subwoofer: +6.5 dB (Connected to receiver using Sub/LFE Out to R/LFE input, Amplifier dial knob pointer at 9 o'clock position, Phase switch at 180.)
Crossover Setting:
* X.Over: 80 Hz.
Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode Settings:
* Center Width: 6.
* Dimension: +3.
* Panorama: Off.
Other Settings:
* Phase Control: Off.
* Dynamic Range Control: DRC Off.
* Low Frequency Effects Channel Attenuation (LFE ATT): 0 (No attenuation.)
Post edited by Mon40CSMM10 on
Comments
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I have the same issues. Just bought an entry level Denon and they recommend setting to small, setting the xover to 80HZ and the LFE to 120HZ. Then on the next page they say if your speakers can produce low freqs then to set them to large. My mains go below 40hz and the center is close to that.
Honestly, for HT, I cant really tell the diff. For music, however, the large setting with the xover set to 40hz sounds much better. Especially on the ProLogicIIM setting.
