Receivers, bass management, and the RC-62

[TheKillerTomato]

I'll preface everything with the fact that I know very little about home theater audio.

I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-81TXV, 110 watts/channel, with two RF-82 fronts, the RC-62 center, a JBL 150 watt 10" sub, with POS, small surrounds and backs.

Like most receivers, mine has the option to set the speakers as small or large, which tells the receiver which channels to apply your crossover setting to, so you don't get puny bookshelf speakers trying to produce a lot of bass.

My auto calibration set the RF-82's as "large," as it should, and set the RC-62 as "small." The crossover settings are 50, 80, 100, 150, and 200. Could I safely set the RC-62 as "large"? Would it have an effect on the clarity of the dialogue through the center?

[mas]

Critical vocal frequencies are are in the 800-2500 Hz range. Thus the LF cutoff is unlikely to effect the vocal reproduction that much. Besides, if you isolate the center channel feed you may be surprised to find that it often carries little other than vocals in many movie scenes.

Not being intimate with the particular speakers I will defer to those more intimate with them.

But generally speaking, if you have a subwoofer, I would tend to defer to off-loading the responsibility of reproducing the lowest one or two octaves to the subwoofer rather than pushing the limits of the 'satellites'.

[crazyhorse_aba]

i prefer to have my center set to small.

[colterphoto1]

MAS sez "But generally speaking, if you have a subwoofer, I would tend to defer to off-loading the responsibility of reproducing the lowest one or two octaves to the subwoofer rather than pushing the limits of the 'satellites'. "

EXACTLY!

[TheKillerTomato]

muchas gracias.

I'll leave the RC-62 set to "small." Now, which crossover setting would you guys advise I use? 50, 80, 100, 150, or 200? It would be really nice if the receiver allowed you to make individual setting on each channel, instead of the same setting for all "small" speakers.

I can't wait to pick up my RS-52's.

[crazyhorse_aba]

i would start with 80 and see how you like it.

[JetJockey]

All speakers should be set to small, crossover at 80 is a good place to start, try 60 and 90 as well, room accoustics and sub placement have alot to do with this. For more info see

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/audiovideosetup.php

[TheKillerTomato]

Thanks for the link. I read the info, but I can't understand why I wouldn't want my RF-82's set as large, handling some of the bass. I've read elsewhere that this allows the sub to handle the ultra-low frequencies primarily, and increases the bass effect. Even the auto calibration set the RF-82's to "large."

[JetJockey]

Hey Killer, when you set your speakers to small, they still produce bass but only from where the crossover is set. e.g.....xover at 60HZ...speakers handle all bass untill this point where it is then handled by the sub. this is called rolloff, ideally it is where your speakers are no longer able to go any lower. RF82 is 33HZ. Ideally you would set your xover at 40HZ for the perfect rolloff but most likely it will be higher, 50,60,80, etc. The key is to play around with your settings and use an spl meter to set your line levels, this makes a huge difference in sound as the auto calibration is no where near good enough for this. The RC62 goes down to 57HZ so again, a xover of 60 would be much better. I have the 83's and a RC62 and all my speakers are set to small and xover at 80HZ(works in my room). For music if you have multiple setup save options you may wish to have your speakers set to large butits a big nono for movie soundtracks.

You do NOT want huge LFE effects going through your speakers at any time, this will damage them in a real hurry.

Let us know what you find and enjoy!