Speaker / Receiver Setup

tsc

Hey everyone, back with another newbie thread. So I finally finished my 5.1 setup (all polk). My sub comes tomorrow, everything else is hooked up, banana plugs and all.

Here is my system:

Front: 2 TSi300s

Center: CS10

Rear: 2 RM6750

Subwoofer: PSW10 (I know, I know)

I'm pretty happy as I put this all together for just over $400 with all but the RM6750s being new, and those only slightly used. I am running them on a Sony STR-DH540 5.2 receiver.

My questions are basically geared toward what settings I need to use with these speakers. The receiver comes with an auto-setup mic, and I have found the distances to be accurate. I have the angles of the speakers appropriate. It sounds amazing to me as is even without the sub here (I'm so ecstatic with this setup, I can't even imagine some of your systems) but I know there is always room for improvement. I see people talking about the different 80 or 120 to set speakers at, and large/small settings, etc.

I have not done anything other than made the rear speakers set to "small" and the sub once I get it I understand how to make it LFE by turning the freq all the way up (and volume maybe 1/3 - 1/2 at most). Other than that, I am lost.

Anyone with similar setups that have recommendations for fine tuning? One set of speakers or all, I am open to suggestions. I am still doing my own research as well throughout these forums but I am interested to hear what other members do as far as settings.

Edit to add: I know it can be dependent on room. Right now they are in a large unfinished basement, but the basement will be finished in the next few months. General settings that will work in most circumstances is what I am looking for.

rpf65

Well, the first thing to do is write down your current settings. If it sounds good, you'll have a base line.

Figure out where you want your sub to go. Best to do the sub crawl to find the best place. Next rerun the auto-cal program. Don't worry about the sub distance for this one, but look at the gain setting. You want that as close to 0 as possible, or at least between +/-5 dB. Use the volume knob on the sub if it is off to get it closer to 0.

Look at the cross over settings for all your speakers. Whichever has the highest setting, use that for your base line. Set all your speakers to that value, or higher. Some people recommend using different crossover settings for different speakers, so you may read different advise on this. Now, this is important, sit back and listen. Listen to see if you can hear the general direction of the sub. If you happen to have it in the left front corner, and think you can hear it towards the left, raise the crossover a little. Normally this will work.

I would start with setting all speakers to small. Problem with your set-up is that the 300's will go as low or probably lower than your sub. You may actually get better results setting your mains to large/full. The other 3 I would probably leave at small. If the set-up sounds really close to the same in either configuration, I would go with small. Let the sub power as much of the low freqs as possible and save powers for the others.

Hope this helps.