Question regarding set-up (kinda newbieish.....)

[charles04245]

Hello,

So I’ve been a HUGE Klipsch fan/Owner for 5 years now and I
can never see myself owning any other speakers. Keep in mind I’m still young
lol. Anyways What I’m trying to do here is set-up my system the best possible
way for the best possible sound. Here’s my 5.1 set-up:

RF-82’s (fronts)

RC-62 (center)

RS-42’s (surrounds)

Two Sub-10’s (subwoofers)

Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH Receiver

Sony KDL52XBR4 television

Anyways where I’m getting confused with everything is in my
sub settings. For about a year now I’ve been listening to my system with my
speakers set to LARGE in my receiver and the knobs on the back of my Sub’s
evened out at about or around the half way mark. Now from what I’ve been
reading and hearing lately is I can get even better sound if I set my speakers
to “SMALL” in my receiver and turn the Lowpass Frequency on my subs all the way
up (120hz)…..? And set the crossover in my receiver to 80hz. So is this
correct?

So then what should I do with my Gain control if I set my
LPF to 120hz? I’m not a real bass heavy person but I do want it to sound right,
if that makes any sense. I am strictly movies with my system and ONCE IN A
WHILE I’ll throw in Dave Matthews on Blu-ray. But I hardly listen to music.
What I want to do here is get my sound sounding as close as possible to the
cinema. I mean isn’t this what we all wanna do?

Anyways thanks for the help everyone. Sorry for the long
read.

[InVeNtOr]

Welcome to the forums!

since this is mainly a sub question, you should have posted it in that section. how ever you are here now and i will try and help.

yes, set the front speakers to small. then on the receiver you can set the main speakers to 80hz if you like, i liked mine at 70hz. there is no magic number, it really depends on your room, and the placement of the speakers. a few inches can make a difference. some people have set it as low at 40hz-50hz. the difference is that puts a little bit more strain on your receiver. from your sig the pioneer 94 is a great receiver so it should have no problems. it all depends on your taste and ears.

as your sub goes i would set the crossover (on the sub) to what you actually want it at. (again mine was at 70hz). in the end you don't want to be able to hear where your subs are at. try messing around with the placement of the subs, if you can. in my house i only had 2 places it could go, and i tried one in one area that then moved it. i found out after the move it sounded better. from what i understand 2 subs is 5 times harder to set up instead of one because of a bunch of terms i just don't undersstand. you have to mess with the phase switch, take placement into consideration, placement of the moon, what you at that morning....it just goes on and on.....lol

it's a lot of trial and error. what are your two subs at? quite a few people will put them on the inside of their main speakers, looks good that way. another good way is one dead center in front of you and then one behind you. if you have cable issues, like you don't have enough length to play with, try www.monoprice.com that is a great place to go, best prices on the net.

good luck and happy tweaking......

[colterphoto1]

Let's start with room placement before we start twiddling knobs.

[Guest srobak]

I'd disagree with the "small" setting, and the crossover. I have my RF-35's set to large and the difference in full sound is night and day. You would be missing a lot of you limited what was going to the 82's by so much, imho. Also - Klipsch's subs have a 24db rolloff above the xover point. This is double the sharpness of almost any receiver available. It's not a curve - it's a slope As such - I would set the receiver for 120Hz and the subs for about 80 to 90 and half gain.

Now - that being said - the Sub10 is a good pounder, and even the 82's are all on their own... so if you find your bass is lacking with TWO sub10's - then you have phasing problems. As Colter said - you need to look at room layout and speaker placement to fix any phasing issues, and then go back to tweaking.

[charles04245]

Sorry to put this in this thread. I didn't even realize there was a subwoofer thread.

Anyways I'm not in a huge room at all. I have one sub on the right side near the right speaker and another on the left side near the left speaker. They both do sound very good but I feel that maybe they could sound better. Unfortunetly I don't have the liberty to put them wherever I want because space is a huge issue, and these are huge subs. The thing I just always felt was my speakers sounded to bright in a way. I felt I wasnt really getting the punding bass in movies that everyone talks about. In fact I always felt my speakers would push out more bass then my subs. Now the thing is if I turn the gain in my subs up they start to get really annoying and dont sound right at all.

I couldn't do any tweaking last night becuase after all it was 3am lol. I'lll try some more things out now and see where I get. But I keep hearing mixed reactions as far as setting my speakers to small or large....?

Oh and to be honest I never messed with the phase control on these subs. I've always just left them at 0. Now the reason I said this might be a newbish question is cause I have no idea what phase is or even does in terms of my subs. lol I've had these subs for what seems like forever and I have no idea what they do.

Thanks again everyone.

[wuzzzer]

The phase control blends the woofer's output with your other sub and speakers. Try setting one to 0 and the other to 180 and see what happens. More than likely you'll hear quite a bit more bass from both subs.

[bigdaddy]

The phase control blends the woofer's output with your other sub and speakers. Try setting one to 0 and the other to 180 and see what happens. More than likely you'll hear quite a bit more bass from both subs.

That may be true and may not. position also affects this. You will have to experiment assuming you do not have measuring equip. I would start with different positions first and then adjust phase. Once you have that figured out then I would set the speakers to small and the receiver to 80 hz. Turn the subs crossover to it's highest point. Then you must calibrate the whole sytem. All speakers should be putting out 75 hz or 80 hz using the receiver test tones on each channel individually. Once that is done then just try different crossover points up and down until you find the correct blend for you. You should not be able to pick out the sub from the speakers by sound. If you can hear where the sub is it is not blended well with your system.

[TheEAR]

" If you can hear where the sub is it is not blended well with your system." Correct

A properly set up sub should not be heard as a distinct speaker.It must blend and disapear so to speak.

First placement(in relation to sitting spot(s)) is key, Second once the good spots are found (and there will be a few good spots.) you set the phase,the crossover point and last level match.

As to should the mains run full range. The answer is NOT if you have a true sub that can take care of the bottom information properly.This in no way tells the mains must be cut off at 80Hz,it may be lower,even as low as 40Hz. You cut the mains where they start to roll off gently...(slightly) above.

Take for example the RF7's I cut them at 50Hz,even if they can do justice at 30hz. The 50Hz and below zone should be reserved for subwoofers as below 50Hz the sound is not very directional.And the mains still reproduce a good portion of the bass content.

With smaller speakers or speakers rolling off at say 60-70Hz,the 80Hz crossover point is a great starting point.

No speakers I know of are capable of reproducing extreme LF and doing so with no added stress. So limiting the LF is a must. Also any HT and serious muisc system that claims full range must have a sub and..should have at least two subs(not for output,for sound quality..taking care of standing waves at listening position. Smoother resonse at sitting).

[bigdaddy]

The Ear, I'm glad you posted on this. Some of the info given was a little questionable and your name has a little more weight to it. I've done a lot of research over the last 20 months. I'm glad it wasn't all wasted time.

[TheEAR]

bigdaddy,

No wasted time. Just helping fellow Klipschers. []