I am looking for some suggestions on setup for best all around audio performance with these components:

HK AVR-520
Direct TV HD DVR - hooked up with optical
Pioneer BDP-51 - hooked up with 6 channel direct analog
Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 5.1 from mid 90's with the 12" PSW1A sub

There are other components as well. Another Samsung DVD hooked up with optical, a CD player and VCR hooked up with 2 channel analog.

The vast majority of listening is involved with watching the DVR or the BD.

The old manual I got with the speakers said that they best way to hook up the sub was with the speaker level inputs connected to L/R from the amp and not through the analog input on the sub. But, this was many years ago and things change.

Would it be best to now hook it up to the SW output from the amp? What about LFE, set it to L/R + LFE or....? Will have have problems with the levels from different sources? Or should I leave it just the way the manual told me to!

Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

Just use the analog input on the sub.

Thanks for the vote! Doesn't really address my other questions... or does it?

the subwoofer pre-out will only feed the LFE channel. If you can set up the old speaker package to feed the subwoofer only from the LFE pre-out and feed each individual speaker from the proper L-C-R-LS-RS speaker level outputs on your a/v receiver, that would be the way to wire things up.

the subwoofer pre-out will only feed the LFE channel. If you can set up the old speaker package to feed the subwoofer only from the LFE pre-out and feed each individual speaker from the proper L-C-R-LS-RS speaker level outputs on your a/v receiver, that would be the way to wire things up.

I went back and checked the manual. With the L-C-R-LS-RS set to small, all information, regardless of source, below the chosen crossover frequency (80 or 100) will be sent to the sub output... from all channels. There is also a L/R + LFE option that send a full range to the L/R and the same information, this time below the chosen crossover frequency (40 or 60) to the sub output.

These are small satelites so I am hearing the small route to be better.

On to how LFE is recorded on different surround processes/transmission methods as I am still trying to get my hands around that one. From what I understand so far, the Dolby Digital/DTS over optical will require no adjustment of the LFE information in the AVR, but the 6 channel analog coming from the BDP-51 will?

I am going back and reading the LFE sticky again, but so far, the information has not clicked in!