Bass Management

rlam01

I have an Integra 5.4 and was wondering what bass management was? I inquired with the manufacturer as to the differences between the 5.4 and 6.4 models and got this response:

Thank You for contacting Onkyo USA Product Support.

In a satellite / subwoofer loudspeaker system, the higher frequencies go to each "satellite" speaker around the room, such as LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT, LEFT SURROUND, and RIGHT SURROUND. The lower, or Bass frequencies for EACH of the channels gets "steered" through a BASS MANAGEMENT circuit where it winds up going to the subwoofer only.

The speaker crossover for the DTR-5.4 pertains to the set up in the Digital and the Analog surround modes. The DTR-6.4 allow bass management in the "Multi-Channel" mode.

As a nubie, I have no idea what this means.

Thanks for any help.

Dr. Spec

In newbie terms, your 5.4 AVR has the capability to send mid range signals to the 5 speaker channels, and bass to the subwoofer.

In a DVD, each channel "could" have deep strong bass. And there is also a separate channel - the ".1" in 5.1 that is dedicated to only bass (LFE channel, or low frequency effects channel).

Sending small speakers strong bass is a bad idea, because it can damage them and also requires a lot of amplifier power from the AVR.

So the 5.4 AVR will take any bass in the 5 speaker channels, and will also take the bass in the LFE ".1" channel, and send them all to the powered subwoofer, which is designed to handle all this deep, strong bass.

That leaves your smaller speakers and your AVR to handle just the midrange and highs! Set-up properly, the transition from speaker to subwoofer should be pretty seamless and transparent and bass will "seem" to be coming from the speakers, but the subwoofer is really producing almost all of it.

rlam01

From their description then, what would be the difference between the digital and analog surround mode vs "multi-channel" mode?

Are they saying that the 5.4 only has bass management for dolby digital, dts, etc but not for SACD?

Also, if I don't have a subwoofer yet, what should the crossover be for my Polk R30 speakers. To get them to play more of the low frequency do I make the crossover higher? Is that a bad idea?

Currently I only have R30's in the front. Soon R50's will be in front and the R30's in the back with a CSI3 in the center.

Sub: Not known yet.

jefft1314

My best guess, is that the advanced option probably allows you to set the crossover for all of your speakers individually. Let's say you're running two front tower speakers that will get down to about 60 hrz but then you have bookshelves for your rears so they get down to about 120. Obviously on the setup you have you want the crossover at 120, however this is going to put more pressure on the subwoofer than is needed because your front speakers which are capable of producing a deeper bass than your rears will be giving that work to the sub. Somebody correct me if I'm way off hear. I know you could set the crossover to 120 then leave the fronts on large, however, I believe then that any bass sent to the fronts that can't be handled by the fronts will simply not be played back at all.