400i and 800i settings - what works best?

ncstatesman
ncstatesman Posts: 145
edited February 2002 in Technical/Setup
Howdy,

I'm in the process of setting up my new RT800i's and CS400i - I noticed in the manual for the 400i that it 'generally' recommends that the spkr be set to LARGE on the rcvr.

Of course, I can experiment for myslf and see what sounds best, but I was curious how most people were setting there 800i's and 400i's.

Thanks!
Post edited by ncstatesman on
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Comments

  • lax01
    lax01 Posts: 496
    edited February 2002
    Well I have my 1000i's and 400i set both to LARGE. Just for my information and you should always try it.
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited February 2002
    i've always had my 400 set to small. i used to have my 800's set to large, but since the arrival of my HSU, i now have them set to small. like you said yourself though, play around with it and see what sounds better to YOU...
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  • OrangeToupee
    OrangeToupee Posts: 488
    edited February 2002
    I'll give it a shot too; I have a 12" powered sub and use the following settings...
    1. 800i's set to large
    2. CS400i set to small
    3. F/X500i's set to small
    4. Receiver crosses over 'small' speakers at 80Hz

    Juice, what makes you change your mind and go with a small setting for your 800i's? Do you find your new sub's bass so pleasing that you're only interested in what it produces? Does your system as a whole unit sound better with that configuration? I seem to have a difficulty differentiating between the two main speaker options, but tend to think that allowing my 800i's their full range would improve the overall fullness of my front soundstage.
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited February 2002
    orange, i am new to this sub, and am still playing around, but i've had the 800's set to small since this first initial set-up. after testing back and forth between small and large, the differences seems to be very noticible with this sub. the HSU produces good clean bass, and it seems to produce enough that i can let the 800's just take care of the midrange. maybe i just want to hear all that the HSU is producing...:D
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  • goingganzo
    goingganzo Posts: 2,793
    edited February 2002
    as long as you have seamless blending between your speakers and your sub it dont matter but i think that trying to put out bass the 800 dont do as good of a job as my velodyne. and if you turn up the volume you can push them louder. all it dues is send the bass to the mainns instead of the sub when you set the speaker to large. if the 800 had a bigger driver something with volume then i would set my mains to large
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  • johnnyamerika
    johnnyamerika Posts: 382
    edited February 2002
    Yeah, I have the my 400 set to small...it does kick up some pretty good lows, but my 1000 mains do it better. Let your sub handle the lows, the 400 can catch everything else. And having all that vibration of the lows come out of the 400, which is on top of my entertainment system that houses all my a/v equipment, (correct me if I'm wrong, vibration=bad fo video, right?) isn't what I want.
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  • hamzahsh
    hamzahsh Posts: 439
    edited February 2002
    My system is set to large setting.

    CS 400i - large
    RT 800i's large
    F/X 1000's - large

    The speakers are large and the setting should large too. Right!:p
    Panasonic TH-50PX80U Plasma HDTV
    Polk Audio RT800i (fronts)
    Polk Audio CS400i (center)
    Polk Audio F/X1000 (side surrounds)
    Polk Audio RTi6 (back surrrounds)
    Velodyne CHT-15 (subwoofer)
    Yamaha RX-V1400 (Pre/Pro)
    NAD C272 (2-ch Amp)
    Adcom GFA-7605 (5-ch Amp)
    Toshiba SD-3109 (DVD/CD player)
    Malata DVP-580 (Multi-region DVD player)
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  • TrappedUnder Ice
    TrappedUnder Ice Posts: 975
    edited February 2002
    I played around with my system quite a bit..and this seems to work for me... however... may not work for anyone else.. since to many factors involved:

    RT2000i's/55i's- large
    cs400i- small
    RT800i's- large
    I have a velodyne ct150 cut at 50hz for bottom end..

    have fun..and experiment.
    :cool:
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  • avelanchefan
    avelanchefan Posts: 2,401
    edited February 2002
    OK I am a little confused and was afriad to ask, but now is as good as time as any.

    I have changed my settings from lrg to small, but why do you have that option? Is it for room size? Or the amount of sound that is produced. (Such as a bit softer sound with the smaller setting?) I have all my speakers set to large. I just get confused on why you would want to change it.

    Im a rookie here so go easy on me.:)
    Sean
    XboxLive--->avelanchefan
    PSN---->Floppa
    http://card.mygamercard.net/avelanchefan.png
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  • goingganzo
    goingganzo Posts: 2,793
    edited February 2002
    larg or small is the ability of the speaker to produce the lower notes like bass if you have no sub or you have speakers that can put out bass then seting them to large is ok but when you do it takes some sigonal away from your sub
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  • avelanchefan
    avelanchefan Posts: 2,401
    edited February 2002
    ok so if I set my rears to and center to sml more bass will be produced via my sub right?

    Hmm going to have to try that out with "Heat" or mayby "Gladiator".

    Thanks goingganzo
    Sean
    XboxLive--->avelanchefan
    PSN---->Floppa
    http://card.mygamercard.net/avelanchefan.png
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  • goingganzo
    goingganzo Posts: 2,793
    edited February 2002
    no prob just try different things and play the same trach when you change things so you can get a true comparson
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  • ncstatesman
    ncstatesman Posts: 145
    edited February 2002
    isnt this just fun, seriosuly, I have plenty of bass (650 sub & SVS 16-46), so I'll probably start with SMALL for now - haven't had a chance yet as I'm still playing around with my setup
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