Speakers set to large or small ?

[TheFactor]

I get plenty of bass from the RF63's so i don't plan on getting a sub.

As long as your happy thats what counts imo .

[TheFactor]

I set my 7's to small and crossover around 65Hz. They sound great.

Thanks im going to try a ,lower crossover point from 80 to 60 .

Thats what I would do. I actually just resetup my parent's system last night bc a HDMI cable had a short in it and somehow all of the receiver settings were set wrong so I redid everything. Reran Audyseey and repositioned the speakers etc. They have a RF-62 system with a RW-10d sub and setting the crossover at 60hz sounded best. When I set them to large with the extra bass feature the 62s actually sounded weak. (i know you wouldn't have that problem with the 7s but the bass was also overpowering) and since the bass was overpowering the overall sound didn't sound too good. Dialog was too low and everything shook the walls. So i set the speakers to small with the crossover at 80 and it sounded way better.....then I set the crossover to 60 and that sounded best. Bass improved but not too much and the 62s sounded better....fuller. So I have their 62s set at 60hz and the center and surrounds set at 80hz. The LFE is set at 80hz. And with those settings the system sounded the best. Even better than when I did it the first time. Of course I got a call 10 min ago saying that there was no picture because apparently someone changed a setting so all of that work last night might have been for nothing. I think imma get them a Harmony remote for christmas. That way they just push one button to watch tv and won't have to worry about numerous remotes. But if you can set the crossover on each channel then I would try that. 60 for the L/R channels and 80 for all other channels.

Yes I have a Harmony one and it was one of my best upgrades !! Im going to watch a movie later tonight and try a crossover of 60Hz and see if sounds better then 80Hz and speakers small . 80 and small seems to be the best so far but will see .

[TheFactor]

So if im understanding this correctly if I set my crossover to 60 then any LFE below 60Hz goes to my subs and above 60Hz goes to my 7's ?

YES.

When set to small only the crossover point and above goes to your 7's, which helps your receivers amp because the 7's do not have to try to reproduce anything below 60Hz, the sub's amp does.

Cool thanks man !

[Youthman]

I get plenty of bass from the RF63's so i don't plan on getting a sub.

You don't know what you are missing. My RF-83's do provide plenty of bass but the sub adds some great bottom end fill and provides a more full sound than the RF-83's by themselves.

[BE36]

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS? (LARGE AND SMALL)

When I had Forte IIs and hooked up a sub the sound, Bass below 80 Hertz, did not sound that much better actually a little less bass below 80 hertz.

The Sub and Forte II were acting like a giant pair of noice canceling Head Sets.

When I went to small there was an improvement, Sub was not being canceled out.

When I went to Large and changed the location off the Sub, finally got the improvement I was looking for in the low end.

I still crossed the Forte IIs at 60 to make there job easier, but still got so extra bass versus crossing at 80 or 100.

Small and Crossing at 60 helped in two ways

1) Lifted some of the demand made them sound better above 60. (less vibrtions in cabinet? Less movement of woofer gave more punch to freqs it hade to make? Less distortion? Less power draw more power availible?)

2) Filled the room with more bass, smoothed out some of the room nodes.

So find the optimum, best of both worlds, balance between Large and Small:

Play with locations of the subs when set on large to get the smoothest room response and best location for the subs, then go to small play with cross over freq until optimized.

Thanks for the input and when I mentioned it sounded better on small it seemed to be more separated , like the higher frequencys and bass it seemed to sound cleaner. But I just tested different setting while watching Avatar and G.I Joe . It did sound good though on both settings but after a while of switching back and fourth everything started sounded the same lol .

Less Drag on the Amp can be a big help.

Lower Frequencies use alot more power than the highs.

Try a used amp for the Fronts and see another improvement and the madness continues.

[dtel]

I get plenty of bass from the RF63's so i don't plan on getting a sub.

You don't know what you are missing. My RF-83's do provide plenty of bass but the sub adds some great bottom end fill and provides a more full sound than the RF-83's by themselves.

YouthDude knows what he's talking about, if you " think " you have plenty of bass............

Plug in a sub and just set it to where your mains leave off and you will be SHOCKED at how much comes out of a good sub !

I have giant mains for 2 ch and still use a sub, because almost no main will go that low. And for movies it's required if you want to even come close to what you should be hearing.

[CHASLS2]

Only sub i have is a old Polk that i bought used for $50 a while back. Don't even think it's worth fooling with. I have no clue what sub would be best and they can sure cost some money.

[TheFactor]

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS? (LARGE AND SMALL)

When I had Forte IIs and hooked up a sub the sound, Bass below 80 Hertz, did not sound that much better actually a little less bass below 80 hertz.

The Sub and Forte II were acting like a giant pair of noice canceling Head Sets.

When I went to small there was an improvement, Sub was not being canceled out.

When I went to Large and changed the location off the Sub, finally got the improvement I was looking for in the low end.

I still crossed the Forte IIs at 60 to make there job easier, but still got so extra bass versus crossing at 80 or 100.

Small and Crossing at 60 helped in two ways

1) Lifted some of the demand made them sound better above 60. (less vibrtions in cabinet? Less movement of woofer gave more punch to freqs it hade to make? Less distortion? Less power draw more power availible?)

2) Filled the room with more bass, smoothed out some of the room nodes.

So find the optimum, best of both worlds, balance between Large and Small:

Play with locations of the subs when set on large to get the smoothest room response and best location for the subs, then go to small play with cross over freq until optimized.

Thanks for the input and when I mentioned it sounded better on small it seemed to be more separated , like the higher frequencys and bass it seemed to sound cleaner. But I just tested different setting while watching Avatar and G.I Joe . It did sound good though on both settings but after a while of switching back and fourth everything started sounded the same lol .

Less Drag on the Amp can be a big help.

Lower Frequencies use alot more power than the highs.

Try a used amp for the Fronts and see another improvement and the madness continues.

No doubt it never ends lol

[TheFactor]

Only sub i have is a old Polk that i bought used for $50 a while back. Don't even think it's worth fooling with. I have no clue what sub would be best and they can sure cost some money.

The guys are right a sub will bring your HT to a whole new level but as far as a good starter sub I'd go with SVS Pb 10nsd or 12 nsd but there are many options out there and im sure some will chime in but this much I do know you dont want to go with a poor low budget sub or you'll wish you didnt have one . You can get a nice sub that should satisfy you for around 300 bucks and up if you choose wisely .

[dtel]

Only sub i have is a old Polk that i bought used for $50 a while back. Don't even think it's worth fooling with. I have no clue what sub would be best and they can sure cost some money.

Your probably right about the Polk but try it and see, you don't need a bunch of output for music, movies are a different story.

Yes they can get expensive, I went DIY to save money, they are alot of DIY plans out there. Mine cost about $250 not counting the amp for it, BUT it's huge. about 12'' x 35" x 48" just guessing.

[TheFactor]

Only sub i have is a old Polk that i bought used for $50 a while back. Don't even think it's worth fooling with. I have no clue what sub would be best and they can sure cost some money.

Your probably right about the Polk but try it and see, you don't need a bunch of output for music, movies are a different story.

Yes they can get expensive, I went DIY to save money, they are alot of DIY plans out there. Mine cost about $250 not counting the amp for it, BUT it's huge. about 12'' x 35" x 48" just guessing.

DIY is another great option there are some pretty basic kits as far as needing very little know how .

[jjennings2510]

Yes there are a lot of choices out there for subs. SVS and Velodyne are two popular brands but then again the Klipsch Sub 12 is a great bang for the buck sub as well. Also Dayton has some good subs as well. It just depends on what features you want/need and the size. Some people hate big subs. Some love them. You really can't go wrong with any of those brands. But as dtel said go ahead and hook up that Polk. You may be surprised and it may actually sound pretty good....good enough to hold you over while you do your research on subs. I really don't think it'll do any harm imho

[psg]

The BIC H100 is cheap (like $239).

Otherwise, for just a bit more and some time and a few tools, build one! I'm building the Tuba HT and can't wait to try it.

[CHASLS2]

This is for a bedroom so the Sub would have to be around 14"X 14" max as i am tight on space and the RF63's do eat up some floor room.

I would think a used sub in the $250 to $450 range would be fine. Just picking the right brand of sub is the kicker. I hear the Klipsch subs are ok at best. I will have to research some subs.

[psg]

That's on the small side. Maybe a sealed unit? The Elemental Design A3S-250 fits your criteria:

http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_138&products_id=892

[CHASLS2]

Never heard of that brand. I could go bigger but it would have to placed forward of my right tower.

[CECAA850]

I ran my 7's full range with no sub one time when I was inbetween subs. You really miss a lot on the bottom end of movies. Another thing to consider is some receivers will not reroute the .1 channel to your mains so you miss out on a whole channel of information. Even if it actually can be rerouted, you're losing out on at least an octave or two (or more) of sound your speakers are physically unable to reproduce.

[CHASLS2]

Guess i will find me a sub. Then i will have to figure the best way to hook it to my Pioneer 1120k AVR. This hobby never ends, always gotta have more.

[TheFactor]

I Decided to hold off on the rs62II and just wait a few weeks longer and get the matching rs64II "Note to self must be patient " and i'd thought it would be appropriate to test out The Haunting in Connecticut with my crossover at 60hz instead of 80hz and still keep the speakers set at small as usual. If I remember correctly it has some sub sonic LFE my place was shaking pretty good the last viewing . EDIT: Well it looks like on my Pio Elite 94 the next crossover point down is 50hz from 80hz not sure if thats going to work but i'll give it a try .

[Youthman]

I do know you dont want to go with a poor low budget sub or you'll wish you didnt have one .

Sound advice there.

You don't have to have a $1000 sub to have a great sub. My sub was over $2000 new. I picked it up for $200 on craigslist. Awesome sub. There are other great deals out there, you just gotta be looking constantly cause deals like that don't last long.