to sub or not to sub

newpolkman · November 2003

I am ready to hook everything up. I just received my shot gun biwire speaker cable --- signal cable. HK 520 receiver-- lsi9s front -- lsic center---- rti28s rear-- panamax 5100 line conditioner-- toshiba 36 HFX71 TV -- toshiba 4800 dvd-- sony hi fi vcr

After reading many comments on this forum--- I know that an amp will be purchasedin the future. Until then sould I purchase a sub woffer and set the lsi9s to small ? If I set them to large without a sub-woffer will this use more power while watching movies ? rex

Fireman99 · November 2003

Before we get too excited just a quick question.
By H/K 520 I'm assuming that is the harman kardon 520. If so your LSI speakers are 4ohm speakers and your RTI's are 8 ohm I beleve the H/K is rated at 8ohm but makes no mention of 4ohm. I would make sure your recever is ok with the 4ohm speaker load on it.
Dan
Just a thought maybe save your h/k from a meltdown

newpolkman · November 2003

I contacted hk and polk. They both said that as long as I didn't turn volume up which I don't. It would work fine.

I still would like to know about subwofer---- without it and lsi9s set to large ---would it take same or more power as opposed to lsi9s set to small and using a subwofer? REX

danger boy · November 2003

Rex, a seperate sub will always be better than relying on the sub/mids in any tower or bookshelf speaker. a sub is designed to only provide low end sounds.. i would say for best restults. you should look into a true subwoofer.

congrats on all your new equipment. once it's all hooked up. i know it's going to sound fantastic.

pjdami · November 2003

Rex,

In general, setting all your speakers to small with a receiver crossover setting of say 80 hz and using a seperate powered sub will free up the load on the receiver because the LSi 9s will not be trying to reproduce the lower bass. This LFE signal will be routed to the subwoofer which has its own amp.

You have two options. Like you said run the LSi 9 at large and all other speakers on small; or you can set LSI 9 at small with a crossover at 50 - 60 hz and even though you don't have a sub, that might help to lighten the load on your H/K receiver.

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the forum as well.

Paul

thehalo8 · December 2003

I spoke to Polk about hooking up the LSI speakers with an 8ohm receiver. They said you "could" do it but not to turn it up to loud. After speaking to him that it would be used for movies often and not just TV he encouraged me NOT to use the LSI speakers with an 8ohm receiver. I also spoke to Onkyo about the same question, and they told me not to do it at all. I asked if it could be done at low volumes and they told me not to even run 4ohm speakers at low volume with their receiver set in 8ohm or 6ohm mode.

RVJII · December 2003

That is very strange with the Onkyo since mine is rated down to 3 Ohms.

From the online manual:

Caution:
Connect only speakers with an impedance between 4 and 16 Ohms to the TX-NR900/900E. If the impedance of even one speaker is between 4 and 6 Ohms, be sure to set the speaker impedance setting accordingly (see page 46).

Which model were they talking about?

thehalo8 · December 2003

I asked about my current receiver (TX-DS696) and about the one I was looking to get (TX-NR801). Its strange that you tell me your manual says it can go to 4ohm, because I asked if they carry any receiver that pushes 4 ohm; he said no. If yours works, that great and I am sorry for giving misguided information. I was just going off what I was told by the said companies.

HBombToo · December 2003

I have beat the living DOG SNOT out of my h/k 520 and it never burped. The power amps in that thing can take some serious punishment. I have ran 800i's, RTA8T's and 55i's in parallel on the fron left and right and cranked it up. If anything the 520 is a good little amp and can take some SHITE!

I will only fault the h/k in is low frequencey preamp response. I have huge attenuation(on order of 12 dB) via the LFE from the multi in jacks connected to my Denon 2900. I verified this connecting my VU meter across the LFE out of my Denon 2900 and the LFE out of the h/k. I figure WTF... The h/k is a good box but will be in the bedroom sooner than later.

1/4Twin

RVJII · December 2003

Originally posted by thehalo8
I asked about my current receiver (TX-DS696) and about the one I was looking to get (TX-NR801). Its strange that you tell me your manual says it can go to 4ohm, because I asked if they carry any receiver that pushes 4 ohm; he said no. If yours works, that great and I am sorry for giving misguided information. I was just going off what I was told by the said companies.

Very strange indeed...maybe the person that you talked to was new or something. I can't believe that the manual would be aggressive in the specs...

I just went into my hardware setup menu on the receiver. There were 2 settings for speaker impedance: 6 ohms and 4 ohms. If the speakers are between 6 and 16 ohms you select 6 ohms. If there are any speakers between 4 and 6 ohms you select 4 ohms.

Based on the fact that the actual setup menu has a 4 ohm setting I'd have to guess that the person that you talked to was clueless.

Anyway, not your fault that you were given faulty information. Hope this helps out.

to sub or not to sub

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