Center speaker, large or small?

wjbertrand

I have a center channel speaker that's rated at about 60 watts. It has two 5.25" woofers, a midrange and tweeter. Would this be considered a small or a large speaker with respect to my receiver (Technics SA-DX1000) settings? I've tried both and setting my center to "large" sounds better to me. I'm concered about over driving it though. Any real concern or should I go with the "if it sounds better do it" philosophy? Thanks,

-Jeff

juice21

setting your speakers to large or small is basically an issue of personal preference. if you have a subwoofer, setting it to small will send <80hrz singals to the subwoofer. if you are worried about over-driving your speaker, don't crank it up! setting to either large or small isn't going to determine if you blow your speaker or not, pushing it past it's limit with limited power will. if you've trie both, and you like it set to large, keep it set there...

pdebaum

juice21 is correct, whatever bass management principles you choose, setting any speaker to SMALL will filter the signal of the corresponding speaker level output on your receiver, by trimming all frequencies under the bass crossover point of your receiver (typically 60Hz to 100Hz depending on your receiver). This does NOT affect the line-levels ouputs, they should always pass on at least the full range signal from their corresponding channel.

However, under bass management rules, the fate of those trimmed frequencies (or routing to be more accurate) depends solely on the SUBWOOFER setting of your receiver (ON or OFF), regardless of if you have a physical subwoofer or not. Here follows those rules, which should apply to most receivers (check with your manual or the manufacturer to make sure they follow those rules) :

- If you SUBWOOFER setting is set to OFF, then the receiver's sub-out jack is turned off and the filtered bass from any channel whose corresponding speaker is set to SMALL plus the signal from any present LFE channel will be routed and added to the FRONT RIGHT and FRONT LEFT speaker level outputs and FRONT LEFT and FRONT RIGHT line-levels outputs (if any).

- If you set you SUBWOOFER setting to ON, then the sub-out jack is active and receives any signal from the LFE channel plus the filtered bass from any channel whose corresponding speaker is set to SMALL.

Your case to the point, it all boils down to what type of speakers and subwoofers you have. If your center speaker is full range, as it appears to be, then it might be best to leave the CENTER SPEAKER set to LARGE, regardless of what subwoofers you have in your system. If however you have a much better subwoofer somewhere else in your system, be it subs in full range front towers or a separate powered subwoofer, and if you're feeling adventurous, then it might be best to set the CENTER SPEAKER to SMALL and let your receiver route the center bass (to sub-out if SUBWOOFER is ON, to FRONT LEFT and FRONT RIGHT if SUBWOOFER is OFF).
It's really a question of taste. Try both settings and pick the one you prefer. Based on my personal experience and other users' comments, full range center speakers are usually best set at LARGE, because very much like front full range towers (a la Polk RT1000 and up), their internal crossover network is optimized for full range, and it might take you a while to tweak the crossovers on both receiver and any separate subwoofer to match and enhance that.
Hope it helps

wjbertrand

Wow, a lot of information, thanks. Let me better decribe my system. There is a powered subwoofer (PSW350) connected between the sub-out jack on the receiver and the LFE jack on the back of the sub. The subwoofer function in my receiver is set to "on" or "yes". I also have two large (set as such) front speakers and two small (set as such) surround speaker as well as the aformentioned center speaker.

If I understand your reply, setting my center speaker to "large" will re-route some the base that would have gone to the sub to the center instead?

I guess what matters is the overall sound impression but it's nice to understand what's happening.

pdebaum

Err, no, the center speaker set at LARGE will only get the full range signal from its dedicated channel. No other bass will come to it. I think I see why you ask, since I explained that the LARGE FRONT RIGHT and FRONT LEFT speakers could get some routed bass in the case where SUBWOOFER = OFF. Again this only applies to fronts, since it's common to have front tower speakers with built-in subs. This rule eases the bass managemnent for such a setup.

But regardless, you have SUBWOOFER = ON, which is exactly how it should be because of your dedicated PSW350.
Now I'm assuming you fronts don't have built-in subs. Normally with a good powerful subwoofer, it could be best to set all your speakers to SMALL, fronts included, so all the bass can be routed to the sub only (along with the LFE channel); you basically let the sub handles all the bass from all channels. This is especially preferable when you're listening to music in stereo; if you left your fronts to LARGE, then you would miss some bass that should have been diverted to the subwoofer. The only time you want to leave fronts set at LARGE with a SUBWOOFER = ON setting, is if they have built-in subs.
This is actually the general rule of thumb when you have a powered subwoofer hooked up to your receiver sub-out (SUBWOOFER = ON) : set all speakers to SMALL except the ones that have already built-in subs, or at least very good bass drivers. But sometimes, the blending of filtering between the receiver and the crossover networks of speakers may not be optimal, and in that case you might found best to set some speakers as LARGE even though you have a good sub. This has been especially true with center speakers. Some people with systems with a dedicated subwoofer prefer to left it at SMALL, some swear it's best at LARGE. It's up to you and your particular setup. Try both and pick the one you feel is best. I personally prefer my Polk CS400i set at LARGE, but I'm hard pressed to really point a difference.
And you're right, all that matters is how it sounds to YOU But be sure to try all different setups first. You might try only one setup, find it already great, and be contented, and could miss an even greater sounding one with further experimentation (-- looks at self and remembers --). Hehe.

Happy listening!