Polk S50 with Onkyo 676 setup

mftohfa

So I just got the S30 with two S50s which are connected to Onkyo 676. During calibration I have a few options that I am confused about.

#1 - Crossover Full Band or small with frequency? when calibrating as full band, post calibration receiver sets crossover to 200 hz. Which is very low since the speakers can handle up to 30hz - 40khz. When calibrating as small, receiver calibrates them correctly at 40hz cross over.

#2 - Should I set Dual Bass? Only available when front are select as full band. I assume this causes low frequencies to be sent to the front as well as the sub.

#3 - AccuEQ All speakers or All except front L / R? Dont hear any difference, but not sure which one I should use

Thanks,
Ken

Geoff4rfc

mftohfa wrote: »

So I just got the S30 with two S50s which are connected to Onkyo 676. During calibration I have a few options that I am confused about.

#1 - Crossover Full Band or small with frequency? when calibrating as full band, post calibration receiver sets crossover to 200 hz. Which is very low since the speakers can handle up to 30hz - 40khz. When calibrating as small, receiver calibrates them correctly at 40hz cross over.

#2 - Should I set Dual Bass? Only available when front are select as full band. I assume this causes low frequencies to be sent to the front as well as the sub.

#3 - AccuEQ All speakers or All except front L / R? Dont hear any difference, but not sure which one I should use

Thanks,
Ken

So all you have is the onk, right? No amps? I'd set everything to small, let the sub take care of the LFE, this will use less power to the speakers from you Onk. Hope that helps.

cfrizz

Set the speakers to small and crossover at 80. Congrats on your purchase.

mftohfa

Geoff4rfc wrote: »

So all you have is the onk, right? No amps? I'd set everything to small, let the sub take care of the LFE, this will use less power to the speakers from you Onk. Hope that helps.

Yes thats correct only Onkyo to power my speakers. No Amp. Ok I did do that and also tried full band. For some reason full band sounds a little better to me. Is there is cons to running full band on the front L/R?

mftohfa

One other thing. I am planning on using BI-wiring to see if I feel any difference. I assume it will be negligible but probably worth trying. I also can bi-amp by disconnection my atmos speakers that are in the front top ceiling and using those to power the front L / R as bi-amps. Is that worth it? Or should I keep the atmos setup?

motorhead43026

You can't bi-amp with an AVR.

mftohfa

motorhead43026 wrote: »

You can't bi-amp with an AVR.

I can. Onkyo has 7.1 channels. The Atmos channels can used to bi-amp the front L/R and then change the configuration in the settings to 5.1 channels. Zone 2 off and bi-amp on. I confirmed i can do it 100%.

rpf65

Your AVE has only one power supply. Each time you add speakers, the available opener to speakers drops.

For example:
2 channels may put out 100 watts to each speaker.
5 channels may put out 60 watts to each speaker.

Very few people claim to hear a difference using two outputs to one speaker using an AVR.

Calibrate all speakers.

mftohfa

rpf65 wrote: »

Your AVE has only one power supply. Each time you add speakers, the available opener to speakers drops.

For example:
2 channels may put out 100 watts to each speaker.
5 channels may put out 60 watts to each speaker.

Very few people claim to hear a difference using two outputs to one speaker using an AVR.

Calibrate all speakers.

You are correct. So if you have 7 channels that need to be powered by the AVR that will be 200 / 7 = ~28 Watts per channel. Now if you plug in 2 channels to the Front L and Front R. Those two speakers will get ~56 Watts per channel while the rest will get ~26 Watts. Yes? No? Maybe so?

mrloren

Yes, No or Maybe...No. When you bi-amp with an AVR you are just using the same power supply which can only produce so much power. best thing to do is replace the brass jumpers on the speakers with speaker wire. I've tried bi-amping, friends have tried it, none of us noticed any difference. Some even said it sounded worse.

As for speaker setup. set all speakers to small and C/O @ 80hz.

rpf65

Not quite. The maximum output potential would be 28 Watts, using your example. Actual usable power available is closer to around half that number, maybe a little more. Turn your volume up very much more than half way, and distortion starts, because of all sorts of things going on between your speakers and power source of your AVR. You hear distortion, and you’re already in the danger zone.

Although, in theory, you have the 28 watts available to those woofers and 28 watts available to the mid/tweeter, or however the crossovers are configured, just look at the speakers. Those speakers need to move air to make sound. Your woofers are way bigger that the tweeter, so they move more are. Moving more air requires more power.

The crossovers in your speakers basically send current where it’s necessary to create the sound you hear. You send 30 watts to your speakers, using a single pair of cables, and the woofers may use 18 watts, or more of that power. The rest will be used by the mids/tweeters. They simply don’t need as much current to do the job.

There are people who say they hear an improvement using the bi-wire method using an AVR, and i won’t say that they don’t, but most say they hear no difference. If you hear no difference, it makes more sense to have the available reserve power to prevent clipping, by not using two sets of out put terminals from your AVR for one speaker.

Try it both ways, and use the method that sounds better, or you’re more comfortable with.

Geoff4rfc

mftohfa wrote: »

Yes thats correct only Onkyo to power my speakers. No Amp. Ok I did do that and also tried full band. For some reason full band sounds a little better to me. Is there is cons to running full band on the front L/R?

Full band is okay, you get lots of bass. The only drawback so to speak, depending on the woofers on the tower, they can draw tons of power from the power source during heavy LFE movie scenes. While your AVR is driving the entire set up...and supplying tons of power to full band towers, you run the risk of clipping.

And for what it's worth, bi-amping would imply two separate power sources. A single AVR that claims to have bi-amp capabilities is pretty much, and excuse me for saying so, marketing hype. Almost all here have tried it, I did about 18 years ago and I can honestly tell you, I can say I did it. I've never done it since.


If you want to treat your set up to extra power, add a power amplifier, that is the only way you'll get extra power outside of your AVR. Your AVR has enough to do already and is limited on power. "usually" the power rating on AVR's are with 2 channels driven, the more channels you add, the less power you have to drive with. Get an amp.