I'm Confused

Agent

I have RTi A7 fronts, CSi5 center, crappy surrounds (for now) and a PC12-NSD. The fronts and center are hooked to an XPA-3 and a Pioneer VSX-9040TXH. Now I have been playing with the setups all day, running MCACC, etc. I am still not sure whether or not to go with large or small fronts. The pioneer has a SW+ setting that allows the speakers to be set to large and also integrate the LFE, but there is also an X-Over setting at the bottom. Now this is where I get confused and the manual doesn't explain it. If I set them to large, utilize the SW+ setting, and set the crossover to 60 or 80hz, what is actually going on here? I am setting the speakers to full range but also crossing them over to the sub at 80hz? The million dollar question for me is, what is the difference between doing this and just setting the speakers to small and crossing over at 80hz? It would seem that there wouldn't be a X-Over option when set to large but there is. I am just lost on this. It seems, to my ears, that the fronts sound fuller when set to large but if they're still being crossed over at 80hz, than in theory, it should sound no different than small crossed over. Thoughts please.

mufsoman

Agent, when the front speakers are set to large with a specific crossover for the LFE, this means the front speakers are providing the full frequency bandwidth with no trimming at the crossover point, but the sub is also supplying the frequency at the crossover point and below. So both the fronts and sub are both providing the bass at the crossover point and below.

When the fronts are set to small, they only supply the frequency from the crossover and up, while the sub provides the frequency from the crossover point down.

Double dipping on the base with the fronts set to large is fine, you just need to make sure the doubled base is not getting muddied up. More fine tuning of the sub phase may be necessary. Hope this has helped

Agent

Actually that made complete sense, thanks. I just seem to get better sound setting them to large. I'm sure the xpa-3 makes a huge difference because if I was just using my avr to power them, it would not be able to handle them on large. They sound damn good actually. I have tried messing with phase, both 0 and 180 and had a hard time telling any difference but 0 seemed to provide a little more pop.

mdaudioguy

Hey, really glad you're digging the amp!! I knew you would! Are you using the ICs I sent along with it? If so, use it like that for a while, then when you're ready, search for some "better" ICs and throw those Radio Shack specials in the garbage!! I figured they'd get you up and running, but I noticed an overall improvement upon pulling them from my rig and replacing with some AudioQuest ICs.