Another sub setting question

[DU73]

I have read previous threads about settings but I find a few things unclear. Some say 80 htz, some say 50 and others say 120 – is this for the receiver or sub or both. My system set up is noted below. I am wanting to know the correct settings for my subwoofer and receiver. I am wanting to know what my settings on the receiver should be and the settings on the sub. Also, my fronts are approx 3 meters apart from each other with the sub close to the right speaker and my sitting position is about 5 meters from fronts. Any advice will be welcomed.

[CAS]

I believe your RXV has speaker sets for large and small. Set your speakers to small and use the LFE input on the RW12 bypassing the crossover (or set it as high as it goes) so your receiver handles the cut off. Happy listening.

[oldbuckster]

My Yamaha and sub are set at 90 .............. with speakers at small, when using Heresy's up front ........ On my Scott, the sub is still at 90 !!!!

[DU73]

CAS – your signature pic that is Chuck from the Goonies right – I grew up on that movie. Totally love it. ok, at the moment I have all my speakers set on small and receiver and sub both on 120.

Oldbuckster – I will try this re speakers on small and settings on receiver and sub at 90.

Thanks for the advice. I will let my ears be the judge.

[edwinr]

I have twin REL Strata subwoofers running in conjunction with my Belles. Both REL's are set at 27 Hz. The Belles are run full range. I tried the REL's on a higher frequency setting but the sound became somewhat 'muddy'. Many subwoofers still output sound at higher frequencies - well past the selected cutoff point. Conversely the Belles must have some output below the specified lower frequency cutoff point of 54Hz. So basically it's a suck and see procedure to merge the respective roll-off frequencies of both the subwoofer and the main speakers...

[DU73]

Ok – I set my crossover on my receiver to 90 and I set the sub crossover all the way to 120 (this disables the sub crossover right?) my sub connection is Y rca going in into the subs L & R inputs and into the sub out on the receiver. There is a LFE input on the sub but I do not have any rca lead connected to this. Is this right?

Anyway – I did this and the sound is much better – The sub is definitely picking up more of the low’s in the soundtrack, I have my volume on the sub at about 10 to 12 o’clock and normally listen to -40db to -10db at the loudest.

[Submarine]

This may help. I have a REL Storm III and two HSU MBM-12's with the full RF-7 home theater/music set minus the RSW-15 (nice but not available when I purchased).

Tuning is really a science and an art. I have a 10K SF listening room. My mains are set to full. The center and surrounds are set to small. My REL is connected to the leads off the mains and set to full range, but at only approximately 1/3 volume. The MBM 12's are connected to the LFE and set to full range at approximately 2/3 volume.

When I ran my Yamaha recievers' "room calibration" feature using the recievers' microphone (this compensates for various room dimensions by adjusting output to each speakers frequencies and volumes separately to produce a flat responce all around), I had the REL and MBM's turned off. I tuned them by ear after I was happy with the reciever's calibration of the Klipsches. This balance has worked best to my ears for both music and cinema.

Often, the recommendation is having the sub blend with the specs on your mains. If they play down to 34 Hz, set your sub up to play at 34 +/- Hz and below.

Many like setting mains to "small" in the reciever/processor, and setting the mains crossover in the reciever to a higher crossover point than their natural 34 Hz such as the THX 80 Hz, and adjusting the sub to cover the entire range from 80 Hz and below.

For my ears, all three techniques can sound very good because I tried each. My way is just my personal preference. I like the fuller range at lower volumes, and when adjusting the volume up, it simply gets better. The room calibrator in the reciever gets honorable mention.

The listening area is much larger than the calibration microphone. Moving the smaller mike just 1-3 feet around (up, down, side-to-side) within the larger listening area (money seats) can make a significant calibration change.

It took 3-4 runs to get the Klipshes calibrated correctly. Then, I tuned in the MBM's and REL by ear. Subwoofer waves seem to be very mysterious - seemingly more so than mid-bass modules. Placement can be huge. The REL is next to my RF-7's, and the MBM's are flanking my couch. They sound good flanking thecenter speaker, too. The MBM ports can be aimed directly into the key seating area for home theater. Hope something here helps.

[DrWho]

Dial in a Subwoofer by Ear

[bigdaddy]

Awesome link. Good reading

[DU73]

Submarine – thanks for your input – I will make the adjustments and check it out, if it does not suite me I can always reverse what I have done.

DrWho – I tried to open the link but I keep on getting an error message, anyone else experiencing the same thing.

[DrWho]

It looks like the entire articles section of the website has gone down...I've notified the webmaster.

EDIT, it's been fixed (wow that was fast)

[DU73]

DrWho – you are a legend. I have just printed it out in case it goes down again. This makes fantastic reading. I’m looking forward to going over it all and doing some testing.

Submarine – “The second configuration involves setting some of your speakers to large (specifically the LR mains).” This is exactly what you were talking about… J

I watched Exorcism of Emily Rose last night, great movie and awesome sound and this is with my Yamaha (preamp) on night mode as people were sleeping and it still sounded amazing.

[DrWho]

I just compiled the article after seeing this question get answered over and over various ways...so it's kinda a culmination of a lot of posts from this forum. I've been meaning to go back and rewrite some parts and provide some measurements to illustrate some of the concepts too. There are some things about how receivers do their bass management that I'm not 100% certain about, but the measurements should make that apparent.

There also should be more about proper positioning of the subwoofer too...finding the right spot for the sub can actually have more of an impact than getting the xover settings nailed perfectly.

[edwinr]

... There also should be more about proper positioning of the subwoofer too...finding the right spot for the sub can actually have more of an impact than getting the xover settings nailed perfectly.

You're so right about subwoofer positioning, Mike. I started off with my subs next to my speakers. Then I placed each sub right in the corner on the same plane as the Belles. Doing one sub at a time, I gradually moved the subs out from the corner an inch at a time whle playing music with very low bass. All of a sudden each sub seemed to mesh in with the room somehow and punched out bass depth I never heard before. The only tricky part was integrating the absolute phase of each sub. Initially when I switched on both subs I lost some bass compared with just one sub working. I figured out that both subs were set on '0' phase and one was cancelling out some of the bass of the other. When I switched one of the subs to '180' degree phase, I got the bass back, and then some! Wow! Subwoofer postioning is so important - just a little finetuning can make a big difference...

[Submarine]

"Doing one sub at a time, I gradually moved the subs out from the corner an inch at a time whle playing music with very low bass. All of a sudden each sub seemed to mesh in with the room somehow and punched out bass depth I never heard before. The only tricky part was integrating the absolute phase of each sub. Initially when I switched on both subs I lost some bass compared with just one sub working. I figured out that both subs were set on '0' phase and one was cancelling out some of the bass of the other. When I switched one of the subs to '180' degree phase, I got the bass back, and then some! Wow! Subwoofer postioning is so important - just a little finetuning can make a big difference..."

Perfect follow-up post ...Moving them one inch at a time away from the corners...and reversing the phase on one sub to minimize cancellations...

Future technology may make it possible to visualize sound waves in the listening area during set-up and placement. It can remind me of Thomas Edison. After thousands of tests to discover the best filament materials, I read that his first truely successful light bulb still works today after a hundred years! I believe it has been continually "turned on" and displayed at the Smithsonian.

Thanks for the successful update.