Are you missing part of your LFE track?

Lancito

Sorry, I just do not know how to send a PM at the moment.

I appreciate your help kuntasensei.

1. I'm using Monitor Audio BR2 for my fronts, Monitor Audio BRLCR for the center, and Wharfedale 9.DFS for my rears. SVS 25-31PCI tuned to 20Hz for my subwoofer. My system is pretty much very simple especially with the room size limitation that I have.

Could you be kind enough to let me know at which crossover points you would set my system if you were in my shoes?

2. I have done a full 8 position run through Audyssey using a tripod. It detected my fronts and center as full range but I set it to small with 80Hz XO. The rears were detected small and were set to 60Hz which I manually adjusted to 80Hz as well. I only have a choice of 60Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 100Hz, etc. No 70Hz.

My subs is tucked in a corner...literally tucked in. It is only about an inch or 1 1/2 inches from the adjoining walls made of concrete. No space to move the sub around. The Xover disabled from sub amp and set to 80Hz which used to be 120Hz but too boomy.

I hope to receive your inputs and I will run Audyssey again while waiting for your reply.

Thanks buddy.

Eric W

This was part of the rationale behind the original "polk" wiring method using the speaker level outputs to feed the powered subwoofer and disabling the LFE output (subwoofer = no) and main front speakers to large. When the subwoofer was set to "no" the LFE channel was summed into the main channels, so you won't miss any of the LFE track.

On my personal system I do bass management in an unconventional manner. I use an external crossover set at 62 Hz, 24 dB/octave high and low pass Linkwitz Riley configuration between the preamp's front L and R out and the main amps to feed the subwoofer. The subwoofer output is disabled on the preamp to redirect the LFE channel to the front L and R, then the external crossover does the filtering. IMO when setting the preamp processor's "small" setting on the main speakers, I didn't like the rather shallow 12 dB/octave high pass filter.

kuntasensei

Lancito, I have a general rule'o'thumb when setting system crossovers. Because of the gradual transition (the slope that Eric is talking about above), I like to start with a crossover setting about a half octave above the speaker's lower -3dB point and see how it sounds. Basically, take the -3dB point in the speaker's specs and multiply by 1.5. I've had good luck with that rule thus far because speakers usually extend slightly lower than their anechoic specs when they're actually in your room. The exception to this rule is that regardless of what you get with that formula, you want to avoid setting any speaker over 100Hz crossover if you can help it. You don't want to sacrifice directionality.

With your BR2s, you get extension down into the 40s. Accordingly, 60Hz would be a good crossover point for that speaker. The center channel, however, hits -3dB at 60Hz, making a 90Hz crossover seem ideal by the above rule. However, you definitely want to keep mid-bass in the center for deep voices, so I'd stick with 80Hz for center. The Wharfedales are small driver speakers, and the specs use a -6dB point of 70Hz, which makes things interesting. For a good transition, I'd normally say go 100Hz with those because bass directionality is slightly less important in the surrounds, but I think 90Hz might work better for those speakers. You might even get away with 80Hz since Audyssey's detecting 60Hz for the in-room response.

If you can set each channel separately, I'd go 60Hz mains, 80Hz center, and 90Hz surrounds to make sure you don't lose any bass to any speaker's natural rolloff. The important thing is that you never set a crossover LOWER than what Audyssey detected, because Audyssey only EQs down to its detected -3dB point.

As far as your subwoofer placement, putting it that close to the wall presents its own acoustic problems. You normally want to give a sub at least 2-3" space from the wall, even when corner loading. The normal issue for people with drywall is that placing the subwoofer too close to a wall can make the wall surface effectively act as a passive radiator (especially with rear-ported subs - not the case with your downfiring SVS). With concrete walls, you have a whole other issue - slap reflections off the wall surfaces. If you could get away with it aesthetically, you might consider some sort of acoustic treatment behind the subwoofer to tame the harshness of reflections off of the concrete. If you can't, Audyssey should help mitigate the effects, though it's not ideal.

Make sure you have the crossover on the SVS turned to its maximum or bypassed if possible. Active crossovers can induce delay that will throw off Audyssey's distance detection.

When running Audyssey, make sure that none of the 8 positions fall too far outside of the front soundstage. For instance, don't place the mic past the left or right main when doing your mic placements. Envision about a 45 degree cone of sound coming from each speaker and make your mic placements so that the mic is within the cone of each of the front three speakers at all times. If your left and right listening positions don't fall within that general visual guideline, consider angling your mains inward slightly so the entire listening position falls within those imaginary cones.

Position 1 should always be the main listening position, centered up with the center channel. Raise the tripod up so the capsule on the end of the mic clears the headrest of your seating by about an inch to prevent the absorption of your seating from affecting the equalization. Position 2 should be several feet to right of center while facing forward. Position 3 should be several feet to left of center while facing forward. For positions 4-6, mirror positions 1-3 about 2 feet further into the room, IN FRONT OF YOUR COUCH.

The idea with Audyssey is to not only give it a reading of the acoustics at the seats, but also to give it a reading further into the room away from room boundaries so it can assess how the room affects low frequencies. For positions 7 and 8, place the mic somewhere in the middle of the rectangle formed by positions 1-6. I use this pattern:

6-4-5 <-- 2 ft. in front of 1-3.
-7-8- <-- Tripod placed against front edge of couch.
3-1-2 <-- On couch.

Lancito

I appreciate your help, kuntasensei. I will run Audyssey again per the mic positions you recommended above. Also, I will set the XO 1.5 times its rated +/-3db points. As for the LFE, iL try setting it to 100Hz and see if it blends well with my mains.

I definitely learned a lot from a very helpful Polk member probably from the other side
of the globe.

Best regards.

joe.inom

Actually you see , i have never dealt with these stuffs cause long before my big brother had his settings done , and what i did was changed it to my style and finally burned teh tweeters , thus you see it is better to keep the stuffs in default.