Woofer 101

[Doozer]

Hello all,

First would like to say I am relatively new to HT, but have learned alot from all of you here on the Forum.

Ive been bitten buy the HT bug (to my wifes dismay) over the past several months have been putting together a Klipsch system.

I finally brought home the Sub the other day, so now my 5.1 is complete. I have a few questions regarding operation and settings if some one doesnt mind giving some basic advice.

I have the new RW-12 sub, (sounds great by the way) but am unsure about the controls. Can anyone tell me about the phase control and exactly what the purpose of it is?

Also it has an Auto on feature that is suppose to power off when there is no signal for a while and power on again when there is a signal, but it seems to power off when im watching a movie or listening to music after about 20 min or so. I have the LFE from the back of the Amp connected to the single LFE on the sub. It does have another input for 2 plugs, (which my cable does have).

whats the opinion on speaker settings? Do people favor all set to small or a combination? Also crossover freq on the amp I can set it a couple of diff ways.

Last thing, I did notice that listening to a DTS soundtrack and a DD track, I get much more bass from the sub on DD. Is this common on DTS tracks to have much lower Bass? (when I say lower I mean very little bass on DTS compared to DD)

Please forgive my lack of knowledge about the Subs ,this is the first one I have had.

Thanks again for all the help.

[TheEAR]

Welcome Klipscher

The phase control is to enable you to dial in your sub so it works with your speakers and not against.Say your mains are set to full range and your sub phase is reversed,you will have bass cancellation.

To find the proper position you set your mains to FULL RANGE and play bass heavy meterial,then power your sub.Leave the knob in the position you have the most bass.

After you adjust the gain on the sub(or receiver menu)to have a good balance.

I set all my speakers to SMALL and then adjust the crossover on the sub to 40Hz.This way the stats dont have to work as hard.And the amp also.

My front and rear are RF7's.Even then its better to cut the deep bass from the mains.

I find DTS audio to be of better overall quality when compared to DD.Less overblown boom and more nuanced.Make no mistake DTS audio can be explosive too.

In movies where I can make a choice I always prefer DTS to DD.

[dougdrake]

The reason your sub may be turning off may be that you have your receiver configured to route only the .1 (LFE) channel to the sub. Often, movies have little content in the .1 channel, putting a lot of bass in the main channels. Thus, your sub falls asleep out of boredom/nothing to do.

If you set your speakers to small, or your receiver to route all bass to the sub and the mains, that won't happen.

Remember that the DD and DTS audio mixes may be done by different groups, and the DTS group may not jack the bass up as much, or may put more of it in the main channels which you may not be hearing for the reason stated above.

? for Ear re "I set all my speakers to SMALL and then adjust the crossover on the sub to 40Hz."

What do you have your crossover set at in your pre-amp?

DD

[fabulousfrankie]

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On 9/23/2003 9:55:29 PM Doozer wrote:

Hello all,

First would like to say I am relatively new to HT, but have learned alot from all of you here on the Forum.

Ive been bitten buy the HT bug (to my wifes dismay) over the past several months have been putting together a Klipsch system.

I finally brought home the Sub the other day, so now my 5.1 is complete. I have a few questions regarding operation and settings if some one doesnt mind giving some basic advice.

I have the new RW-12 sub, (sounds great by the way) but am unsure about the controls. Can anyone tell me about the phase control and exactly what the purpose of it is?

Also it has an Auto on feature that is suppose to power off when there is no signal for a while and power on again when there is a signal, but it seems to power off when im watching a movie or listening to music after about 20 min or so. I have the LFE from the back of the Amp connected to the single LFE on the sub. It does have another input for 2 plugs, (which my cable does have).

whats the opinion on speaker settings? Do people favor all set to small or a combination? Also crossover freq on the amp I can set it a couple of diff ways.

Last thing, I did notice that listening to a DTS soundtrack and a DD track, I get much more bass from the sub on DD. Is this common on DTS tracks to have much lower Bass? (when I say lower I mean very little bass on DTS compared to DD)

Please forgive my lack of knowledge about the Subs ,this is the first one I have had.

Thanks again for all the help.

----------------

For the phase, I use a sine or warble tone at the crossover frequency of my receiver. I set my SPL meter at the listening the listening position and adjust the phase until the meter is at the highest level. If you do this by ear, it's best to sit in the listening position and have someone else adjust it.

To help stop the sub from powering off, increase the sub output from the receiver and decrease the volume on the subwoofer. Just don't go to the max on either end.

On speakers settings, I favor setting all speakers to small and turning the subwoofer crossover off or all the way up so it doesn't interfere with the crossover in the receiver. It's much easier to get a smooth bass response when only one speaker that's able to be placed in different locations handles all low frequency information. This also alleviates all other speakers from straining with bass heavy material allowing them to play cleaner. Lastly, by setting them to small, you're making it easier on your amp to drive your 5 main speakers. I've found this works best for me, some disagree but that's ok.

If I have a DVD with a DD and DTS track on it I usually choose the DTS track because in the little experimenting I've done I like it better. I use a HK 325 as a pre/pro in my HT, it allows me to adjust separate levels for each surround mode. When calibrating DD and DTS signals to 75dB with my Radio Shack SPL meter, the sub level needs to be set 6dB lower than the DD tone. So what you're hearing seems to make sense.