Speaker size settings

setzer808

Good morning all,

After a long and fine run, my RX-V496 has finally lost function in the right channel and been replaced by a RX-V681. On top of a host of other new features I'm experiencing, I've ran the YPAO microphone configuration for my room and while everything seems fine, I do have a question.

My room is fairly small and I'm currently in an apartment and am trying to be considerate so I'm not running my PSW-350 and instead have been using my mains for bass, which they do very well at. The question is, the YPAO decided that my CS245i center and RT-25i surrounds were best set as full range as well. In the past I've always thought they were more suited to the "small" setting, but thought I would get the group's opinion.

Thanks in advance.
-Shaun

papatom

I would set those to small. I was always under the impression that you would only set a speaker to large if it had it's own LFE woofer in it.

msg

Hey Shaun,

I'm not a huge HT person, but I'll kick in a few thoughts here.
That's a pretty capable looking HT setup you have there.

You may already know this, but I think one of the main concerns with surrounds and center at full range powering everything from an AVR is that it could be taking away from the power delivery to the mains, not allowing them to perform at their best, especially if you're not using the sub at the moment. You'll be counting on something to deliver the lows and whatever you have set to L has to do that. As I understand it, surrounds don't get much meat anyway; mostly background/surround effect signal? so they may not be drawing too much either way.

Do you find your mains, or overall presence lacking at all when it's set up with your center and surrounds set large?

If your center is enclosed in a cabinet, I'd probably consider testing it both large and small and see if it's too boomy large. Again, not a huge theater person, mostly music biased, but in research for my modest use in HT with LSiM, I understand that the center is generally considered to be the most important speaker for HT signal, not including LFE. I'm only running 3.1, and I sometimes run my system without the sub and set everything large. My center is in a cabinet, and it does gets boomy, so I just set my mains large, and center small, crossed at 70Hz, and find it sounds best here. I'd probably do the same with surrounds if I had them - set small.

For your configuration, without the sub, I'd find a film track you're familiar with and try to do some experimentation with:

• Mains - L
• Center - L (then S)
• Surrounds - L (then S)

I think you may find it best suited to keep your mains L, and surrounds S. The center I'd be curious to hear what you find you prefer, be it L or S. I definitely noticed greater presence from my center when I had the front three set to L, but again, it was a bit bloated, and sounded cleaner with just mains L and center S.

rpf65

I really wouldn't set surrounds to large. Surrounds are designed for ambient sound, even though there could be low freq information there, the sub could better handle it.

As far as the center being set to large, I would set it to small also. Lower db is 55 Hz, @ 3db is just not enough bass response for a large setting.

Willow

FWIW, when I was running my Rti8, csi5 and rti6 they were all set to small even with an external amp. I crossed them over at 60. For a bit I was using the csi5 with my 703 my yammie set them all to large again but I changed them to small and xover at 60 again.

setzer808

Great responses. I plan on setting the surrounds and center back to small tonight. I was just making sure that in the few years since I've been active in the HT community opinions hadn't greatly changed. I know my 55i's can shake the walls, but I wasn't really onboard with new surround formats or processing giving me a reason to send such signals to my smaller speakers.

Thanks all!

Willow

Basically your are alleviating the power demand from your receiver by setting to small and having the sub do its work. But I just reread that you won't be using the sub so as mentioned yes large to mains.

rpf65

The same rule applies to almost every endeavor. If you don't learn the basics, you'll only mess up the more advanced stuff.