Help me with basic Bass Management?

TSAdmiral

Hi everyone. I've been using this same equipment for the last year or so and to tell you the truth, even though it sounds decent to me, I've not achieved that "inner peace" of knowing my equipment is performing up to par. I wanted to turn to you audiophiles to get the low down on finally setting this stuff up correctly.

Receiver: Pioneer VSX-D509S
Speakers: 5 KLH SS-02 satellites and ASW10-120 subwoofer

As far as I know, I'm sure that the subwoofer doesn't have a LFE input, at least not one I can locate that says "LFE". All I see are high level and low level inputs.

I've read the following articles on tweaking bass management:

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/reviews/20031021/S-3cZw5m9V5bS/home_bass.html?page=1

http://www.polkaudio.com/home/faqad/advice.php?article=bassmanage

Even after this, I still have some nagging questions. If anyone would kindly answer these, I would appreciate it very much.

1. I am aware that my receiver has a crossover feature with the options of 100 hz, 150 hz, and 200 hz. This is the same thing that the Polk article refers to as the "sub out filter" or are they two entirely different things?

2. I currently have the subwoofer connected via the sub out jack. I have the receiver crossover set to 150 hz and set the crossover on the subwoofer to the max it will go. Is this the best method of connection?

3. Assuming that I bypass the sub out jack by connecting my wubwoofer and front satellites through speaker wires, wouldn't the "double filter" effect still apply? The receiver crossover is always set to 150 hz because I set all my satellites to "small". With the addition of the variable crossover on my subwoofer, doesn't this mean that the "double filter" still is in effect?

4. Or does the speaker wires connection bypass the subwoofer crossover?

5. If it does, what should my subwoofer crossover be set to? Does it even matter? The maximum? Neither of the two online articles mention what the subwoofer crossover should be set to using the speaker wire connection method. The Polk one mentions that it should be set to the max. But why should it be set to the max if the only filter in this situation is the one on the subwoofer? Shouldn't it be set appropriately to the satellite speakers?

6. Given my equipment, what would be my optimal settings to connect and set to?

I am not exaggerating when I say this thing has been bugging me since I bought this stuff last year. I am satisfied with the current performance and have no intentions of upgrading anything. However, I would like the peace of mind of knowing everything is operating optimally.

The more research and articles I read, the more confused I am. Can someone please help me out? Thanks in advance.

kvm

Hi tsadmiral,

#1
Yes the same thing

#2
Is kind of a matter of taste. The way you have it now is a standard setup. I have mine connected that way right now because there are less wires crossing the room, but I kind of like the speaker wire connection better because you can fine adjust the crossover instead of just the 3 choices.

#3
The crossover setting on the sub would determine what goes to the mains and what it is going to reproduce. You would set your front speakers as "large" and no sub. the setting on the receiver will send everthing below your crossover setting on the receiver for all the speakers set as "small" to the mains because it doesn't think you have a sub. So you would not be double filtering.

#4
see above

#5 start with the crossover at it's lowest setting and work your way up till you think it sounds the best. It's what sounds good to you.

The only way to know if it's optimal now is to try the speaker wire setup and play with the subs crossover and gain. If you can't get it to sound better to you then you can put it back to your current setup with less wires and simple setup and fell the "inner peace". There are plenty of people here that will give you help. Hope I cleared things up a little for you.

Dr. Spec

Great questions - bass management is certainly confusiing.

I recommend the sub-out connection, and your AVR xo can go high enough to use the sats, which is nice.

Look at the frequency response of the sats and post it here and we'll decide on the best xo for you, but it will probably be 150 Hz (good choice).