Speaker settings, small vs. large

markopolo

Hey all, just got my Polk rt7's and hooked them up. They sound really nice. Was wondering tho. I have the rt7's set to large. I'm assuming that this means that more bass will be sent to them. My question is....are there any advantages or disadvantages to setting my center and surrounds to large as well, even tho they techincally should be set to small. Center has 4" woofers (if you can call them that) and the surrounds have 5". Will there be sound advantages/disadvantages. Could I damage them by sending more bass to them?

krabby5

Do you have a sub?

markopolo

Yes I have a sub and have the receiver set to "double bass" so that bass is going to the sub and the speakers.

wingnut4772

If you have a sub, it's better to set your speakers to 'Small' and let your sub handle that load. The crossover would depend upon your speakers and your room acoustics. Some new movies have wicked bass and could possibly damage any speaker depending on the equipment used and decibel level if you send it a full range signal during really explosive scenes with inadequate amplification.

reeltrouble1

Let your sub handle the bass for HT, that is what it is designed to do. This will help your receiver and your other speakers as they will work with higher easier to handle and reproduce frequencies.

RT1

adam2434

Agree with above.

For HT, set them to small and choose a crossover setting that works with your most bass limited-speaker(s), your center or surrounds in your case. I'd try 80 or 100 Hz.

I have played around, running my speakers large and small, trying different crossover points etc., and have found that the overall bass impact for HT is the highest when all speakers are set to small with a 80 Hz crossover. I have fairly large speakers, but still feel that the my sub does a better job than my speakers for HT bass.

For stereo listening (if that's a concern), you may want to try a lower crossover, say around 60 HZ, as you may feel that it blends better with your RT7s than the higher 80-100 Hz crossover points.

Personally, I don't use my sub for stereo listening because my front speakers are full range enough for 99% of music. To me, this sounds better and more coherent, but that's a subjective preference.

Mike Sedai

I have wondered the same thing, but I don;t have my sub yet, so i have my fronts set to large. I have floors for fronts, and they are full range enough to cover most of the HT duties until I get a proper sub. I plan on going to all "small" when the sub gets hooked up.

Skynut

I tend to like the sound with the speakers set to large. I feel like they put out a better sound this way.
My sub just isn't quite enough to cever the difference when they are set to small.
If I know the movie will have lots of explosive bass effects I will set them to small.