R50's "large" or "small"?

Florida_Gator

Howdy Polks,

I'm putting together a HT setup with the following:

- Harmon Kardon AVR100 5.1 receiver
- Polk 8" sub (not sure what model -- no model number on it -- about 8 yrs. old)
- Pair of R50's for front
- Pair of R150's for rear
- CSR for center

Question: should I set the R50 fronts to "large" or "small"?

This wasn't a problem before, since all my speakers (other than the sub) were dinky sats from an old HTiB system. Now, I'm not sure what to tell the receiver regarding the fronts. I want the most/best sound possible, but of course I don't want to damage the R50's with too much low-frequency stuff either...

Here are the specs on the R50's:

Driver Complement
Mid/Woofer 2 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm)
Dynamic Balance Polymer/mineral composite cones, shielded
Tweeter 1 - 3/4" Diameter (1.91cm)
Dynamic Balance silk/polymer composite dome, shielded

Electrical
Overall Frequency Response 40Hz - 24kHz
Lower -3dB Limit 50Hz
Upper -3dB Limit 20kHz
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms
Recommended Amplifier Power 20 - 150 w/channel
Efficiency 90 dB
Inputs 5-way binding posts


Thanks!

Ron Temple

Florida_Gator wrote: »

Howdy Polks,

I'm putting together a HT setup with the following:

- Harmon Kardon AVR100 5.1 receiver
- Polk 8" sub (not sure what model -- no model number on it -- about 8 yrs. old)
- Pair of R50's for front
- Pair of R150's for rear
- CSR for center

Question: should I set the R50 fronts to "large" or "small"?

This wasn't a problem before, since all my speakers (other than the sub) were dinky sats from an old HTiB system. Now, I'm not sure what to tell the receiver regarding the fronts. I want the most/best sound possible, but of course I don't want to damage the R50's with too much low-frequency stuff either...

Here are the specs on the R50's:

Driver Complement
Mid/Woofer 2 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm)
Dynamic Balance Polymer/mineral composite cones, shielded
Tweeter 1 - 3/4" Diameter (1.91cm)
Dynamic Balance silk/polymer composite dome, shielded

Electrical
Overall Frequency Response 40Hz - 24kHz
Lower -3dB Limit 50Hz
Upper -3dB Limit 20kHz
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms
Recommended Amplifier Power 20 - 150 w/channel
Efficiency 90 dB
Inputs 5-way binding posts


Thanks!

Small, cut them no lower than 60...the rolloff will still get you output down to 50 their 3db notch.

engtaz

Small, this will let the sub do what it does best.

Drumingman

I would leave my mains set to large. The R 50 is a good speaker and the dual lower drivers reproduce a very musical sound when equalized properly. I would say 2 R 50's lows will sound a lot better than one 8 inch sub. I would use the sub and try to get it to play the lowest notes possible but it may not be up to the task when the mains are set up properly. I personally would go for a much larger sub for the low end, still running the mains in the large settings and get a blend of the 3 working together. As for damaging the R50's with low end music, that is not going to happen unless you drive them to Clipping from the amp and by that time the whole speaker system will fry. I have thousands of hours on my 50's and they take anything my H-K throws at them, and sometimes I play them rather loud.

fredv

Why not just try both and pick the one sounds the best to you :-)

Florida_Gator

Thanks all... but I don't think my Harmon Kardon AVR100 will let me determine where the "cutoff" is. I'll try it both ways (my main concern about trying it both ways was damage).

Thanks!

Shizelbs

Try each and see what you like. Best route would be to upgrade the sub to something bigger and probably not Polk. I can't say for sure not knowing exactly which sub you have, but it probably wouldn't take too much money to get a much better subwoofer and overall movie experience.

I used to run my R40s as large with a sub and I liked the results very much.

Florida_Gator

Thanks everyone!

Looks like I may need a new receiver though -- my front left and front right (brand-new R50s) are popping just like the old crappy sats did. And I can barely hear anything from them, no matter what the source or config on the receiver.

What's a good receiver to go with my R-series speakers?