Crossover settings - Large or small?

Igo

Greetings. A question posed to those who are regularly threatening to replace their SO's with audio equipment...or who's SO's regularly threaten to replace them because of same.
I have a set of RT800i towers; 2-6.5 drivers and a tweeter. I also have RT7s. Recently, I've read on a couple of occasions that I should set my reciever crossovers to recognize my speakers as being "small" so the receiver will split the audio path in two upon my direction. I always thought that since my speakers are capable of producing 40hz pretty well that I should set my amp to recognize my speakers as being "large" or full frequency. What say yea folks? I have a very nice sub. Would I be cheating my towers by lopping off their low end supply?

pearsall001

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/128214.html

Great article & dead on. Not too many "full range" speakers out there. A lot of guys think they have them but are really misled.

McLoki

For home theater uses, I would always set all speakers to small unless they were as capable in Depth, clarity and output as my subwoofer(s).

If, following that rule, I set them to large - a better sub would be my next purchase.

Given that - I would adjust the crossover up or down as needed based on my speaker and room requirements...

Michael

Igo

This IS an great article and I already knew the answer. I don't know why I questioned 30 years of experience. Thanks for setting me back on the right track.

Igo

BTW, my interest are 95% music and 5% home theatre.

Kex

Igo, welcome to Club Polk! I have a pair of RT800 and two pairs of RT55, as well as a CS400, so I can say from experience that congratulations are due on your excellent setup!

EzSet/EQ on my harman/kardon actually did recognize the RT55 (a bookshelf form of the RT800, with identical drivers and tweeter, and a very BIG cabinet) as LARGE, not SMALL, after the automated setup test. I have not read that article yet (but I will) and I had a hard time deciding how I wanted to set my speakers on my AVR: large or small, what crossover etc. In any case, when set to small, I found 60Hz was best on the h/k, but since getting a new NAD that seems to push them much much harder, getting a lot of extra detail, vocals, and much tighter bass, 40Hz has been better.

You may need to experiment a little, but I still think 60Hz makes more sense, so I'm currently trying a new, sealed subwoofer. The requirements are quite different for music and HT though, IMO. For music, I want to hear those deep piano notes, deep string bass, and deep organ notes without any boom ... I want to be able to recognize the instrument that is playing. For HT, I want the LFE to thunder and rumble.

McLoki

Igo wrote: »

BTW, my interest are 95% music and 5% home theatre.

That would be enough to drop my recommendation down to this. Is your room interaction with the Bass in music ok, where your main speakers are located or better where the sub is located? If ok at your listening position based on where your front speakers are (and if you are in general ok with the bass they put out) I would run them as large or put your reciever in a pure/direct mode that bypasses all crossover settings. (often times the 5.1 or 7.1 input does this as well. If you just hook your CD player up to that input - you can have the best of both worlds, Small for theater and large for music.)

Just a thought.

Michael

Igo

I understand your your reference Mr Kex. It's a good thing I appreciate music more than movies because I live in an upstairs apartment. : ) Anyway, what started me questioning myself was when I installed this new reciever and realived I had the receiver setting the speakers as large and somehow I had, in moving all my stuff around, spun the crossover frequency up to 160Hz. I was listening to some 3 AM jazz and couldn't beleive how much nicer this new amp sounded. Looking around in the interface on the new toys I found the speakers set to large and the crossover on my sub set at 160Hz. These are settings I would never start on with my thinking. Yet, it was almost like I've never heard the string section before. After I read the article supplied to me above, I immediately set up this new receiver like I've set up receivers for years; high-passed the Polks at 100Hz from the receiver and low passed the sub from the sub at about 90Hz hoping, without referencing the manuals, that both crossover had a relatively jentle slope. I made a discovery this afternoon. Of coarse I will do many experiments in this arean in the next week or so but I really think I prefer the full range of my Polks and a very attinuated 160Hz sub woofer over a dedicated LFE channel. I never thought I'd see the day. Excuse me for seemingly riding the fence here folks but as of today and at 50 years old I may just change a 30 year old listening (set-up) habit. Hmmmmm....

Igo

Mr McLoki, funny you asked. I was listening to some Diana Krall today for test audio. There are only a few instruments that accompany her on most tracks and there is a lot or bass and upper bass string pay that moves widely and regularly between about 50 and 200/250 hz. I was laying on top of my sub with the crossover set at about 100 hz and swinging the gain up and down. I could actually feel the standing waves shift between the towers. I immediately instered a 100Hx square wave signal with my sub set at 100Hz and played with the gain knob again. It was one of the most interesting audio experiments I've ever done. I could move standing waves to wherever I wanted them to move. Because of this, I will have to re-think my room accoustic treatments all over again. This time by deciding low frequency settings then treating the room. (I know, I was putting the cart before the horse). Anyway, I will probably have to renig on my first or second post and go with the full range signal to the Polks and back down to a very minimal sub-woofer setting. And to directly answer your question, yes, I think I will be able to either flatten the audio plane in my living room or move the most fortified wave forms in out out of my sweet spot.

Thanks for the chat everybody. I've been a sound nut since my dad bought that Telefunken in 1967 but I've never once ever talked to another audio person. This could be very fun.