Rated Bass Extension for Heresy III/Rolloff frequency for my Sub

[musgrove]

Hello- I've got. pair of Heresy IIIs that I bought around 2017 and I have an SVS PB-2000 subwoofer I'm trying to pair them up with. The SVS manual suggests using the loudspeaker's rated bass extension as a good starting off point to set the low pas filter. There aren't many settings so I don't have a lot to go wrong, but I've adjusted and played around with the settings and I'm not finding a good jumping off point. Unfortunately, I'm just one person with 2 ears attached to my one head and I don't have a lot of equipment for setting up and adjusting placements and levels, so it's a lot of setting, going to my listening point, trying again, resetting, trying again, and so on. Which could go on forever. So I'm just trying to zero in on wher thr rolloff is for the Klipsch's to hand things over to the SVS sub, and fine tune it from there. The sub, being analog before bluetooth apps and fun interlinks were available, makes it a bit more esoteric, but in the end I know it comes down to my preference. I'm just looking for a good starting point of Hz, and possibly volume setting to work with.

 

Thanks for your help. 

[Peter P.]

I have an SVS SB-1000 with a pair of Heresy II's which are 5 dB less efficient than your Heresy III's. The sub's volume setting is about 11 o'clock.
My amp doesn't have speaker crossover settings and I wanted the Heresy's to run (full range) with a high pass of 50Hz, mostly to protect them from over excursion of the lower frequencies which would be handled by the subwoofer, but the lowest aftermarket pre-built crossover I could find was 80Hz, so I have one in-line with each Heresy and the sub's crossover set to about 90Hz on the dial.

 

Really, I used the numbers as a guideline, but in the end I turned DOWN the crossover until that fat, boomy bass went away and I turned UP the volume until the sub's presence just became known, then turned it down a tad.

[musgrove]

That helps immensely. Thank you for your help and insight. My amp, which is integrated, surprisingly doesn't have crossover settings either. It's a Cambridge Audio CXA80, which at this point is pretty much legacy, as is my PB-2000. SVS's Merlin feature of course matches my Heresy III's with either a PB or SB-Ultra16, as if I have an extra $2500 laying around to spend on a subwoofer. As with anything that's a goal I could make reality but I'd rather divert my resources towards my daughter than the ultimate bass setup 🙂 One day, perhaps. And then even dual. At 5 years old even she appreciates the difference a high quality audio setup makes and enjoys dancing around to the "Frozen" soundtrack cranked to live production settings. But I have the ear of the CEO of Cambridge Audio, so I'm going to ask him about what the deal is with not putting crossover settings on their gear because that would be a very attractive feature I think. I know in my pitiful little case it would be. I'll be interested to see what his response is about that.

 

Thanks again for the helpful information. 

[Peter P.]

Crossover features are rare, especially in mid-grade integrated amps.

 

But any A/V receiver, even low end models, will have speaker crossover settings.

[DirtyErnie]

My thought with crossing over from ported speakers to a sub is to have the crossover happen at least a half-octave above the main speakers lowest rated frequency. I'm my mind, this avoids the time/phase delay of ported bass, and keeps more drivers in "direct radiator" mode.

 

Now, did they rate your speakers at the port tuning frequency, or -10dB?