Crossover and general setup questions for 5.1

[F.M. Albana]

Hey guys, 

 

New to the community, I have some general setup questions: 

 

I have a 5.1 with:

 

Fronts: R-26F 

Center: R-25C 

Subwoofer: R-12SW

Surround: Generic Russound 6.5”  in ceiling 

Receiver: Sony STR-DH720H (105Wx7) (8ohm, 1kHZ, THD 1%) 

1. I have all front, center and surround speakers set on small in the manual setup on receiver; if speakers set to large, receiver won’t allow me to set crossover freq., should I keep them all on small? 

 

2. I have crossover frequency set on 80HZ for all speakers on the receiver. I have the low-pass set on 80HZ on the sub, should this be on LFE? 
 

3. If the above two correct, should I be auto-calibrating with mic? Certain changes are made after the auto calibrate (distance and d.B) and it seems like the speakers get set to large again after the auto calibrate. 

 

4. I have the phase set on 0 degrees instead of 180 degrees. 
 

5. Everything sounds decent. If one were to upgrade receiver, any recommendations with this setup? Is upgrade needed if I am happy with power? Would it make a significant difference with this setup? 
 

thanks, guys. 

 

 

 

 

5. I have Fronts 

[Travis In Austin]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

[HenrikTJ]

12 hours ago, F.M. Albana said:

Hey guys, 

 

New to the community, I have some general setup questions: 

 

I have a 5.1 with:

 

Fronts: R-26F 

Center: R-25C 

Subwoofer: R-12SW

Surround: Generic Russound 6.5”  in ceiling 

Receiver: Sony STR-DH720H (105Wx7) (8ohm, 1kHZ, THD 1%) 

1. I have all front, center and surround speakers set on small in the manual setup on receiver; if speakers set to large, receiver won’t allow me to set crossover freq., should I keep them all on small? 

 

2. I have crossover frequency set on 80HZ for all speakers on the receiver. I have the low-pass set on 80HZ on the sub, should this be on LFE? 
 

3. If the above two correct, should I be auto-calibrating with mic? Certain changes are made after the auto calibrate (distance and d.B) and it seems like the speakers get set to large again after the auto calibrate. 

 

4. I have the phase set on 0 degrees instead of 180 degrees. 
 

5. Everything sounds decent. If one were to upgrade receiver, any recommendations with this setup? Is upgrade needed if I am happy with power? Would it make a significant difference with this setup? 
 

thanks, guys. 

 

 

 

 

5. I have Fronts 

1. keep them on small. This setting wont make your speaker any limited or less in any regard.

 

2. Depends on what low frequencies you want your sub to emit. For reference, i have mine set to 120hz. This means that all frequencies ranging from 120hz to 0hz will be emitted from my sub. Setting sub to 80hz means that any frequencies at 81hz and above wont be emitted from your sub.  

 

3. As you know, you can set these settings and levels manually for yourself. I prefer not to use room correction software because theyre never good enough for my liking. Its all up to your own preferences. If you like what you hear with room correction software, then keep it. If you tweak the settings yourself and find your own settings better than the room correction software, then go with that.

 

4. Fair enough... 0 degrees is the default setting. However, depending on your room, 180 degrees might be better. I recommend playing a base heavy song. Be seated in your sweetspot and see if the base is more powerful at 0 degrees or 180 degrees. The degree you choose should be the one that gave you the more powerful base. If there is little to no difference, then your room is basically good for those two phases at your sweetspot.

 

5.  Power-wise, a new/better receiver would never make a difference with klipsch speakers purely based on the fact that klipsch speakers are among the most sensitive, meaning not much power is needed to drive the speakers. Most klipsch speakers have a sensitivity of 90 ish. That means the amp only needs to put out 1 watt to give you 90 db. Every 3 db you go up from that point requires double the wattage. So 93db=2watts, 96db=4watts and so on.

However, keep in mind that all AVRs and power amps will make the same speaker sound different. The speaker-amp compatibility thing is very touch and go, not only because different amps will make the same speaker sound different, but also because sound itself is subjective. What you might prefer, might not be what i prefer. There are several combinations audio enthusiasts swear by, but in the end it needs to be something you yourself like. For the more dedicated consumer, this means endless demos at stores or endless buy-test-return/keep cycles.

 

EDIT: For the less dedicated consumer: Onkyo, marantz, denon or yamaha.

 

[F.M. Albana]

HenrikTJ,

 

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Really helpful. 
 

 

[wuzzzer]

11 hours ago, HenrikTJ said:

 

2. Depends on what low frequencies you want your sub to emit. For reference, i have mine set to 120hz. This means that all frequencies ranging from 120hz to 0hz will be emitted from my sub. Setting sub to 80hz means that any frequencies at 81hz and above wont be emitted from your sub. 

 

Crossovers and their frequencies aren't a brick wall.  Depending on the type of crossover used there are reductions per octave in certain decibel amounts.  An 80Hz crossover for a sub doesn't mean that nothing above that point is reproduced by it.  It just means that's the point the signal starts to roll off.

[inMotionGraphics]

7 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

Crossovers and their frequencies aren't a brick wall.  Depending on the type of crossover used there are reductions per octave in certain decibel amounts.  An 80Hz crossover for a sub doesn't mean that nothing above that point is reproduced by it.  It just means that's the point the signal starts to roll off.

 

I agree with this, and would add that you need to be careful setting your crossover too high because at some point the bass starts  becoming directional and you may  be able to tell where it is coming from. 80Hz is a very good starting point in my opinion and is also the chosen frequency for the THX standard. For what it's worth, I have all my speakers set to 80Hz except my center, because my center (same one as yours) doesn't dig as low as my other speakers, so I think I set it at 90Hz. A good rule of thumb is to set your crossover at least 10Hz above the lower frequency range, but if you can tell the difference in performance between the different crossover settings, then go with the one that you like best. 

 

Regarding your first question, you need to set your speakers to small to be able to set the crossover frequencies. If a speaker is set to large, then it will receive the full frequency bandwidth (full range) and won't need a crossover frequency set. So what you're seeing in your receiver settings is correct and to be expected. Also, auto correct often mistakenly sets some speakers to large, especially if they are close to a boundary like a wall, which could be "boundary loading" them. Whatever the cause, there's absolutely no harm in changing them all to small (and you should do this) and then setting the crossover frequencies. All other settings from auto correct will still be valid.