Question regarding speaker settings : Large vs Small

Canedog

I am currently setting my RTi10s to Large, my CSi5 to small and my rear speakers FXi5 to large. My receiver is a Denon 1905. I have no AMP and I have two Subs... a Velodyne 10 for front and Polk PSW 10 for rears.

Because I have no AMP, would I see any improvement in sound quality by switching everything to small? I am not able to buy an AMP at this point due to financial reasons. (specifically wife reasons)

Will switching my speaker settings to small decrease the power to all speakers, thus providing better 'quality' sound?

I am confused.

thehaens@cox.net

Canedog

Some camps, (sony for one), recommend you put all speakers on large, I have experimented with all the settings, and this is what I have come up with.

Fronts - Large 1.2's
Center - Small CS-350
Rear - Small LS/FX

My front speakers really do a good job with the low frequencies being routed to them on movies. But I would recommend, if you can, loop a dynamic scene in a movie and change the settings and listen to your system.

Let your ears decide....

Scott

mldennison

switching the settings to "SMALL" means that the receiver filters out the low frequencies from the signal and only sends them to the sub. this means that the receiver has more power to dedicate to the higher frequencies and therefore should sound "better". it also means that your rti10's will not be producing as much low bass as before.

since you are not getting an external amp, you should just try both ways for a while and see which sounds better, it is kind of a tradeoff so you need to decide which you like.

EDIT: okay, got beat to it, but same advice...listen and decide...

Canedog

What I am trying to do is conserve power to all channels by off-loading power the low frequencies to the sub-woofer. Would setting everything to small achieve this or am I mis-interpreting speaker settings.

Canedog

mldennison wrote:

switching the settings to "SMALL" means that the receiver filters out the low frequencies from the signal and only sends them to the sub. this means that the receiver has more power to dedicate to the higher frequencies and therefore should sound "better". it also means that your rti10's will not be producing as much low bass as before.

since you are not getting an external amp, you should just try both ways for a while and see which sounds better, it is kind of a tradeoff so you need to decide which you like.

I've been using Large for fronts and Surround speakers and small for center channel. However, music playback is horrible. These are pretty good speakers and I don't think music was intended to sound like this on these speakers.

thehaens@cox.net

Yep you hit it, if you put all on small, then your receiver will route all LF to the sub, and will attenuate them freq's to the speakers...thus conserving power consumption from your receiver.

I would still recommend you listen....

Canedog

Any idea what I should set my crossover frequency to in my receiver and sub? I currently have it set to 60. Should I raise or lower my crossover frequency?

Willow

Canedog wrote:

What I am trying to do is conserve power to all channels by off-loading power the low frequencies to the sub-woofer. Would setting everything to small achieve this or am I mis-interpreting speaker settings.

BINGO

thehaens@cox.net

Canedog wrote:

Any idea what I should set my crossover frequency to in my receiver and sub? I currently have it set to 60. Should I raise or lower my crossover frequency?

Again, this is subjective, you want it to be set at the point where it rolls off of your L/R channels to the sub.

I don't use an analyzer, I just use my ears and use a sweeping tone, like one from a THX disc or one you can download.

I don't have a link, but there is many on the web..

Just do a search for sweeping tones

Scott

Canedog

I'm assuming I will need to change my crossover frequency if I'm setting all my speakers to small... I'd guess to something around 100 or so but I really have no idea.

mldennison

the higher the crossover the more you are offloading to the sub. either 80 or 100 would be good settings.

one thing to make sure of is that you set the crossover knob on your subwoofer higher than the crossover setting on your receiver. otherwise you are losing part of the signal.

Canedog

I read somewhere on the net that if I set my speakers to small, I should set my sub to MAX crossover. Sounds right but I have no idea...

thehaens@cox.net

That is a good place to start, maybe start at 80Hz, and adjust from there....

kingsqueak

It also depends on the speakers and sub what sounds the best.

I found that even though my RM3000 L/R are technically small, with the HK receiver I'm better off with them at large and center as small. This sends L/R/C + LFE to my sub this way based on how the HK system works.

When the mains are on small, crossed at 80 and the sub is in 'sub' mode, also crossed at 80, the sub becomes much more localized and apparent. As you get above 63Hz it will become more obvious where the sound is coming from. I suspect the HK crossover points aren't quite accurate or attenuated sharply enough as their 80 seems to pass an awful lot of near 115Hz range signal.

Best combo has been large L/R, small center and sub in L/R+LFE mode , mains and center crossed at 80Hz and sub then upped to 100Hz to pick up more of the LFE channel itself.

Just spend some time twiddling around and note your settings as you go. Your speakers and your room will determine a lot of how the interaction goes.

PolkThug

If you want to improve clarity and articulation in the midrange, set them all to "small".