Best Settings for Oversized speakers

xandra

I just purchased Polk RTi10s - most folks have said these speakers really should have a very powerful amp, and be Bi-Amped. I'd like to get as much clarity/quality as possible out of these speakers...
BUT:
• My Reciever (Onkyo TX SR705) is only 100watts.,
• The Onkyo manual says to bi-amp to use the surround back speaker terminals to Bi-Amp.(thus reducing to 5.1 system)
(I'll do this if all else fails), BUT...
I'd like to keep 7.1 sound option open (not cuz anything really has 7.1, but because some of my favorite listening modes require 6/7 speakers. and because I really like sound coming from the back.

I'm considering playing around with the Recievers' crossover settings:
• Would RTi10's sound (mid & upper levels) benefit from sending more to subwoofer
• Is it conceivable to set crossover to 100 when my subwoofer only goes up to 90? Or would frequencies between 90-100Hz get lost.

ANY OTHER IDEAS, Reccomendations?
Thanks in Advance, Alixandra
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Current Setup
Front: RTi10s, Surround: RTi6, Center: CSi3, SurrBack: RTi4. Subwoofer: HSU STF-1 (specs below)
ODDLY the Audyssey System (an auto setup system on my Onkyo) set all speakers as Large.! from experience I'll probably set the RTi6's & center crossover to 80, and RTi4's to 70.
*The big question is how to handle the RTi10's given that they ARE large, but I'd like to get better mid's & uppers out of them

SUBWOOFER SPECS:
Subwoofer Model HSU STF-1
Type Downfiring
Woofer Size: 8
Amplifier Power Rating 150w (RMS)
Crossover Frequency 30-90 (bypassable)
Crossover Slope 24dB Oct
Crossover Type low pass only
Phase 0/180 switch
Power Requirement 180w

Subwoofer settings at time of AutoSetup:
Phase:0, Volume 70%, Crossover: 90, IN/OUT:OUT (receiver controls)

McLoki

Welcome to club polk.

When you hook up your subwoofer to the sub out on your AVR you should really bypass the crossover on the sub, so make sure that is done. (dual crossovers = bad)

Play with your crossover settings and see what sounds best to you. As you start setting the crossover to higher than 80hz, start listening for where the sub is located. If you can localize the sub in your room (can tell where the bass is coming from), you have the crossover set to high.

Your sub will play over 90hz - don't worry about that.

I have LSi15's and for my room - 80hz is the crossover setting that works best for me, both music and movies. - your room and speakers may be different, try them and see.

Michael

carpenter

Hi and welcome.

Onkyo:
IMHO, if you'll have your Onkyo firing with all 7 channels (4 of them at the 10s),
you might be disappointed as you'll get less power then you think, and as a result you won't enjoy the clarity you're after (your AVR has only one Power Supply).
What you wanna do is pick up a decent stereo amp just for the 10s, connected to the pre outs on the Onkyo.
Xover:
I think that 100 is to high for the 10s, they can handle, and handle well, much more bass. I'd go with 80.

danger boy

forget about bi amping, and get yourself a separate 2 channel amp and hook it up to your Onkyo to power those RTi10's. that power will make them sound better than a receiver can.
that's what I did many years ago. (be sure your receiver has pre amp outputs though first before buying an amp.)

xandra

Michael asked:

When you hook up your subwoofer to the sub out on your AVR you should really bypass the crossover on the sub, so make sure that is done. (dual crossovers = bad)

Yes, that's done (If I understand my Subwoofer manual correctly) Setting it to "OUT" transfers control to the AMP.
I assumed I needed to set the sub's crossover dial to 90 so that the Amp could utilitize what ever it needed.

Thanks for explaining that my sub CAN go over 90 -- this crossover stuff confuses me to no end.
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Carpenters Reply:

you might be disappointed as you'll get less power then you think, and as a result you won't enjoy the clarity you're after (your AVR has only one Power Supply...I think that 100 is to high for the 10s, they can handle, and handle well, much more bass. I'd go with 80.

OK... you've gottten to root of my confusion: I THOUGHT you set speakers with greater capacity to handle base to a HIGHER crossover (ie Bass Capable Speakers - large woofer to say 90 or above, and speakers weak on base (with tiny woofers to about 70)
have I got this backward?

More importantly, my GOAL is to get more clarity out of the 10's, I've no desire for booming base -- someone told that by having the sub do some of the work for the 10's they'd be able to devote more energy to the mid's and hi's-- IS this nutso?
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pick up a decent stereo amp just for the 10s, connected to the pre outs on the Onkyo

If I had space to locate anything else, I'd probably go that route.

---

Lastly:
Lasereth... It seems you've got far more sense then the rest of us.

Thanks to all.

carpenter

Indeed, You got it backward .

If your speaker's capacity to handle lows is good, you want to set the Xover at a lower point. by doing that you send more of the low frequency music to the speaker.
If you set the Xover @100, then anything below 100, will go to the SW, and the speaker will only get sound in the above 100 range.
If you set it @80, anything below 80 will go to the SW, and your speakers will also get the the 80 - 100 range (and of course everything above that)
the Lower you set the Xover, the more bass goes to your Fronts (10s).

John K.

Alixandra, welcome. Disregard the type of "biamping" which the manual discusses. It doesn't meet the requirements of a separate external crossover and a separate amplifier for true biamping and can't increase power available by any amount.

As for the RTi10s, they don't require any more power than other speakers of similar sensitivity. For a comfortably loud average level they use about 1 watt; brief peaks use much more, of course, depending on the dynamic range of the material being played, but for the vast majority of situations your 705 has more than enough maximum output capacity.

Manually set the 705 for an 80Hz crossover on the RTi10s, which is a good compromise, being high enough to relieve the mains of some of the lowest bass burden and allowing them to be little cleaner higher up in frequency, yet not so high as to make the sub easily localizable. Your STF-1 can play higher than 90Hz, that's only the upper limit of its internal low-pass filter. Since you're using the 705 to set the crossover, you should bypass the internal STF-1 filter so that it won't interfere(the setting on the sub control is then of no effect, of course). Enjoy your music.

xandra

Carpenter & John...
Thanks SO much - I believe this answers my question. I'll give it a try.
At some point (if I can figure out physical logistics), I might go the bi-amping to another device route - for the time, I'll try resetting Onkyo's crossover for the fronts.

There's just so much to learn when you're a newbie at this. I really appreciate the input.