Large or Small?!

ScottyDugs

Im sure this has been talked about hundreds of times but I cant seem to understand the speakers large or small setting...If its large will it play louder and vice versa...Does it matter how big your actual speakers are and if so does it hurt if they are small sized and you set large...or also, does it mess with crossovers or phasing or other technical crap I know nothing about ha :redface:

my setup

avr: Denon 1913
center: polk cs350ls
sub: polk psw300
main l/r: polk ls90
rear surrounds: ls/fx

rpf65

Large simply means the speaker receive low freq info, all of it. Low freq needs more power to drive those speakers. Also, in general, a smaller speaker has problems producing lower freq sounds than a larger speaker. So the powered sub was invented. Save money on full range speakers, and uses less power than if an AVR powered it

Hope this helps

ScottyDugs

so best to keep mains large and center and surrounds small to let my sub do the work?

goofyGAguy

No. Set them all to small and let your sub do what it was born to do.

rpf65

goofyGAguy wrote: »

No. Set them all to small and let your sub do what it was born to do.

This

tonyb

Gonna have to disagree with you gents. The PSW 300 sub and the LS90's....I dunno man, the speakers can do some good bass on their own, maybe even better musically than that sub.

If your receiver allows you to set them to large + the sub, I would try it that way and crossover set fairly low around 40-50 ish so that the sub only hits the lowest of notes. I know standard fair is set to small and 80 for the crossover, but thats not written in stone and you have to play around a bit with the settings to see what works for your ears in your room.

ken brydson

tonyb wrote: »

Gonna have to disagree with you gents. The PSW 300 sub and the LS90's....I dunno man, the speakers can do some good bass on their own, maybe even better musically than that sub.

If your receiver allows you to set them to large + the sub, I would try it that way and crossover set fairly low around 40-50 ish so that the sub only hits the lowest of notes. I know standard fair is set to small and 80 for the crossover, but thats not written in stone and you have to play around a bit with the settings to see what works for your ears in your room.

^This^

ScottyDugs

Thanks I will try that later today...I will test both suggestions

ScottyDugs

tonyb wrote: »

...If your receiver allows you to set them to large + the sub, I would try it that way and crossover set fairly low around 40-50 ish so that the sub only hits the lowest of notes.

My avr subwoofer mode setting says either LFE or LFE+Main...is this what you mean?...for setting LFE it says it plays low range and lfe signals of small channels and for LFE+Main it says it plays low range and lfe signals of all channels...which do I do for what you said, Tonyb? (I have my fronts set large and everything else small)

Thorton

tonyb wrote: »

Gonna have to disagree with you gents. The PSW 300 sub and the LS90's....I dunno man, the speakers can do some good bass on their own, maybe even better musically than that sub.

If your receiver allows you to set them to large + the sub, I would try it that way and crossover set fairly low around 40-50 ish so that the sub only hits the lowest of notes. I know standard fair is set to small and 80 for the crossover, but thats not written in stone and you have to play around a bit with the settings to see what works for your ears in your room.

+1. The easy way is to set it to small with crossover at 80. I would get used to the sound at this setting and then try Tony's suggestion for fine tuning and your preference in SQ.

ScottyDugs

+1?...is that your way of saying LPE+Main?...

Thorton

ScottyDugs wrote: »

+1?...is that your way of saying LPE+Main?...

Yes. But only your ears and room will tell you which setting you prefer. Pick a few songs and a couple of movie scenes (if your set-up is for HT and music) and listen to it both ways. Then decide which sounds better to you. If you like it, keep the setting. If it sounds good but you'd still like it a little better, keep tweaking the settings, speaker placement, etc.

ScottyDugs

ok yea im 100% movies

Thorton

ScottyDugs wrote: »

ok yea im 100% movies

I believe that will make it easier then if your only focusing on movies and not both. Good luck. Remeber these are only suggestions. Everyones systems, rooms, ears and preferences are different. You'll have to decide what setting you prefer.

ScottyDugs

Ok...it seems to be good like this...lfe+main, sub crossover at 80hz(lowest it will go), main large@60hz, center small@80hz, surrounds small@120hz...i know its personal preference but if you see a definite no-no with this setup let me know...thanks