waltermac

Hi! I'm a very lucky guy. My wife bought me a full Reference series 7 setup for Xmas, and I've been trying to get it set-up right since then. I've had lots of fun. I ditched all my old stuff, but kept the Onkyo 575x and the Polk PSW650. At first, I set everything large and the air pressure in the room at volume was wierd adn the dynamics scary. I finally got the manuals out and in one snowy day got the thing under control. Setting up the RC-7 was easy, and is set to Small. The RS-7's were something else. My listening area is 15' wide and 35' long and open to the left side, with a huge open space and a staircase, preventing me from using the surrounds on the side. I have them set about 4 feet high (ear level while sitting), mounted on a brick wall below a long fileplace mantle. I'd have to set them at 7 feet other wise. I'm wondering if i'm losing imaging, but they sound terrific. They're set small too. Now, the big question. The RF-7's crank out bass beautifully down to around 60DB, as far as I can tell. I tried the Onkyo with the LFE output to the sub, but this gave too much bass to the Polk sub and cut off the mains at the knees. I got out the Polk manual and they said to set the amp to "No Sub" and pass the speaker wires for the RF-7's through the sub and to use the Polk controls for bass control. Well, many feet of monster wire and a day later I had BASS! Now I'm having trouble getting the Polk set right. It only goes down to 25 Hz. It allows me to pass all bass through or cut off the RF-7's at 80 Hz, and so far I've left passing through to the RF-7's set large and set the variable Polk frequency range to 25 to 60 Hz. This still gets a little boomy, for music, but is strong on movies. I've wondered if I need stronger Amp with better Bass Management, or if a setup with the RF-7 set small and altered Polk setup would be an improvement. I've also wondered if I need a better sub or if I need a sub at all. Any advice. The Onyo is a little bright, strong on the low end, and seems to struggle with complex midrange mixes. Of course, before the Klispch's I never notices anything.