[Mike99]

I just took delivery of an H100 am ready to hook it up, after I move some furniture around. I know there are an infinite number of possible volume & crossover frequency adjustments, and that everyone's system & room is different. But I'm trying to narrow down the range of possibilities so I minimize driving my wife nuts while I experiment & tweak settings. I'm using Polk R15 spkrs for front L&R. I do have a Radio Shack sound level meter. Is this going to be useful at all when adjusting the sub?


Any suggestions for initial settings would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[tdamocles]

Start at 80hz as a crossover point. The crossover point kinda depends on the ability of the to front speakers. It would be nice to have a RS meter. I would just set the sub volume to ear and see if you like it.

 

[craig john]

What Bass Management options do you have in your receiver/pre/pro?


Assuming you have a full compliment of BM options, here's what you should do:


1. Disable the crossover in the sub, (or turn it to the highest frequency allowed). You will be using the crossover in the receiver, and redundant crossovers are not beneficial.


2. Set all the speakers to "Small" and the receiver crossover to 80 Hz. This will redirect all the bass in the main channels below 80 Hz to the sub. Your speakers only have bass output to 60 Hz, so any signal below that would be lost. Re-directing it to the sub re-captures it.


3. Use the test tones in your reciever and your RS meter to "calibrate" your system. Set the meter at 75 dB, "C" weighted, "Slow" Response. Play the test tones and set the receiver's speaker levels so all the speakers read 75 dB on the meter.


4. Enjoy your system.


Have fun!


Craig

 

[Mike99]



Quote:
Originally Posted by craig john /forum/post/0


What Bass Management options do you have in your receiver/pre/pro?


Assuming you have a full compliment of BM options, here's what you should do:


1. Disable the crossover in the sub, (or turn it to the highest frequency allowed). You will be using the crossover in the receiver, and redundant crossovers are not beneficial.


2. Set all the speakers to "Small" and the receiver crossover to 80 Hz. This will redirect all the bass in the main channels below 80 Hz to the sub. Your speakers only have bass output to 60 Hz, so any signal below that would be lost. Re-directing it to the sub re-captures it.


3. Use the test tones in your reciever and your RS meter to "calibrate" your system. Set the meter at 75 dB, "C" weighted, "Slow" Response. Play the test tones and set the receiver's speaker levels so all the speakers read 75 dB on the meter.


4. Enjoy your system.


Have fun!


Craig

I do have a pretty good selection of BM options. I can disable the crossover in the sub and set spkr size to "Small" and set the receiver crossover to 80Hz. Right now I have the spkrs set to "Large" since they are used for everything, even thou of course they have only limited bass.


But as I think about this, two thoughts come to mind.

1) Setting to "Small" limits what goes to the L&R spkrs. And setting the receiver crossover also limits what goes to the spkrs. Are these functions being somewhat duplicated since either way we are restricting the amount of bass going to the L&R spkrs? I'm presuming that the response curves would be different. But again, sort of accomplishing the same thing by limiting the bass to the main spkrs?

2) What drawback is there in selecting "Large" for my L&R front spkrs? I realize they are not going to go down to 24Hz or anything close to that. But why not let them go as low as they can? What is the harm in this? If they were big spkrs I would set the receiver to "Large". What am I missing here?


Curious Mike

 

[Jakeman02]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 /forum/post/0


I do have a pretty good selection of BM options. I can disable the crossover in the sub and set spkr size to "Small" and set the receiver crossover to 80Hz. Right now I have the spkrs set to "Large" since they are used for everything, even thou of course they have only limited bass.


But as I think about this, two thoughts come to mind.

1) Setting to "Small" limits what goes to the L&R spkrs. And setting the receiver crossover also limits what goes to the spkrs. Are these functions being somewhat duplicated since either way we are restricting the amount of bass going to the L&R spkrs? I'm presuming that the response curves would be different. But again, sort of accomplishing the same thing by limiting the bass to the main spkrs?

2) What drawback is there in selecting "Large" for my L&R front spkrs? I realize they are not going to go down to 24Hz or anything close to that. But why not let them go as low as they can? What is the harm in this? If they were big spkrs I would set the receiver to "Large". What am I missing here?


Curious Mike

1) Setting the speakers to small and the crossover in the receiver at say 80 for example, all the information sent from the receiver over 80 will go to your speakers all the information sent from the receiver below 80 will go to the sub. Keep in mind this isn't a brick wall, it's a slope that's why you want to set the crossover just above the lowest rating of your speakers.


2) Setting your speakers to large would send information to the speakers lower than they are able to handle ususally resulting in less speaker clarity because they are trying to do things they weren't made to do. Also this puts and extra load on your receivers amps which results in less speaker clarity. Low frequency information takes more of a load from the amps to properly reproduce. By setting the speakers to small your letting your subwoofers amp provide the power for the low frequency information (which it was designed to do) and freeing up the receivers amplifiers to power the speakers.

 

[craig john]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 /forum/post/0


I do have a pretty good selection of BM options. I can disable the crossover in the sub and set spkr size to "Small" and set the receiver crossover to 80Hz. Right now I have the spkrs set to "Large" since they are used for everything, even thou of course they have only limited bass.


But as I think about this, two thoughts come to mind.

1) Setting to "Small" limits what goes to the L&R spkrs. And setting the receiver crossover also limits what goes to the spkrs. Are these functions being somewhat duplicated since either way we are restricting the amount of bass going to the L&R spkrs? I'm presuming that the response curves would be different. But again, sort of accomplishing the same thing by limiting the bass to the main spkrs?

The "Small" setting and the crossover are not redundant, they are inter-dependant. If you set the speakers to "Small", you invoke the crossover. (If you set the speakers to "large", you essentially bypass the crossover.) The whole point of setting the speakers to "Small" is to limit the bass that goes to them. If the speakers are not capable of reproducing the bass, why send it to them? Re-direct it to the speaker you bought to reproduce it... your subwoofer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 /forum/post/0


2) What drawback is there in selecting "Large" for my L&R front spkrs? I realize they are not going to go down to 24Hz or anything close to that. But why not let them go as low as they can? What is the harm in this? If they were big spkrs I would set the receiver to "Large". What am I missing here?


Curious Mike

Setting the speakers to "Large" essentially bypasses the receiver's crossover. Thus, those channels will be sent a full-range signal. If your speakers are not capable of reproducing a full-range (20 to 20 kHz) signal, anything below their capabilities is lost. If you "re-direct" it to the sub, you can re-capture this potentially lost signal.


More importantly, if you remove the lowest bass from the signal to the mains and re-direct it to the sub, you reduce the burden of the amps to try to push the speakers into reproducing sounds they are not capable of reproducing. Since deep bass is the most power-hungry portion of the signal, removing it from the mains increases the main amplifier's headroom and allows the entire system to play louder and with less distortion.


Try it both ways and see what you like best. My prediction is that you will like the overall sound of the "Small" setting and an 80 Hz crossover the best.


Craig

 

[Mike99]

Jakeman02 and Craig,


Thanks for the replies. I understand what you are saying. My thought about setting the L&R spkrs to "Large" was that is where they have been & everything sounded OK. I'll play with the size setting over the weekend. My center spkr also has Large & Small settings. This evening I hooked up everything and tried various sub volume settings and also 100Hz and 80Hz crossover freqs. At this point 80Hz sounded better (100Hz was the default so I thought may as well try). I used the RS sound level meter & ended up with the sub volume knob at about number 3. I was surprised the meter registered the low freqs from the sub, but it did.


I played several DVD selections from the newest King Kong movie and have to say this sub seems to put out. While I have nothing to compare this sub to, so far am satisfied. Usually I have auditioned spkrs quite extensively before purchasing. And sometimes after hearing them at home I had to exchange them. This time I listened to the favorable comments about the H100 on this forum and am glad I did. A lot of good advice here.


Thanks again.

Mike

 

[Jakeman02]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 /forum/post/0


Jakeman02 and Craig,


Thanks for the replies. I understand what you are saying. My thought about setting the L&R spkrs to "Large" was that is where they have been & everything sounded OK. I'll play with the size setting over the weekend. My center spkr also has Large & Small settings. This evening I hooked up everything and tried various sub volume settings and also 100Hz and 80Hz crossover freqs. At this point 80Hz sounded better (100Hz was the default so I thought may as well try). I used the RS sound level meter & ended up with the sub volume knob at about number 3. I was surprised the meter registered the low freqs from the sub, but it did.


I played several DVD selections from the newest King Kong movie and have to say this sub seems to put out. While I have nothing to compare this sub to, so far am satisfied. Usually I have auditioned spkrs quite extensively before purchasing. And sometimes after hearing them at home I had to exchange them. This time I listened to the favorable comments about the H100 on this forum and am glad I did. A lot of good advice here.


Thanks again.

Mike

You should have previously had the speakers set to large, you had no sub to handle the lowes, I did this to for a while before I got my sub, I think you will definatly notice a difference in clarity with the speakers set to small, not having to try and reproduce sounds they weren't ment to though

.


3 sounds about right for the sub. I have mine on 3.5 of course that will varry with each setup. After you use it a while and get use to the performance/sound, you might want to experment with running the center and sub a few db over the rest, some find that preferable but flat is optimal if that's were it sounds best to you.

 

[Mike99]

Jakeman02,


As you mentioned, I did have the L&R (and center) spkrs set to Large. I just ran out of time last night to play around further. But will do so tonight or tomorrow.

 

[HOPTOAD]

I have a question regarding the crossover, from the manual it shows that the crossover on the back of the sub will only work if the switch on the back of the sub is selected to pro logic. If the switch is set to digital the crossover wont work. I have a Onkyo 605 w Audyssey ran and I currently have the switch on the back of the sub set to Pro Logic and the crossover on the back of the sub set to 80. The Onkyo shows the crossover for the sub at 80hz. My question is ahould I move the switch on the back of the sub to digital since the crossover is already set in the reciever and bypass the subs crossover altogether by selecting the digital reciever option instead of Pro Logic with the toggle switch on the back of the sub?


Thanks

HOPTOAD

 

[ajstan99]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HOPTOAD /forum/post/12907330


My question is ahould I move the switch on the back of the sub to digital since the crossover is already set in the reciever and bypass the subs crossover altogether by selecting the digital reciever option instead of Pro Logic with the toggle switch on the back of the sub?

Yes, set to digital.

 

[ajstan99]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 /forum/post/9503252


I just took delivery of an H100 am ready to hook it up, after I move some furniture around. I know there are an infinite number of possible volume & crossover frequency adjustments, and that everyone's system & room is different. But I'm trying to narrow down the range of possibilities so I minimize driving my wife nuts while I experiment & tweak settings. I'm using Polk R15 spkrs for front L&R. I do have a Radio Shack sound level meter. Is this going to be useful at all when adjusting the sub?


Any suggestions for initial settings would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Mike - sounds like you've got some good info already, but FWIW, here's what I'm doing:


I'm running six R15s with a CS1 center. All are set to small, the crossover is set to 80Hz (used to run at 100Hz, but now prefer 80Hz), and the volume control on the back of the H100 is set to 4.


Using the SPL meter, (internal test tones first, then compare against Avia) I calibrate the speakers at the volume I plan on listening - about 70dB. The the H100 is then set 4dB higher than the speakers.

 

[Spencer1813]

Jakeman02 and Craig,


Thanks for the set-up advice, just got my H-100 last night. I can't belive the difference. I had a copy of America-Homecoming DVD-A handy, so it was the first disc I tried, and WOW! Can't belive I almost listed that on Amazon. I thought I might lose a little SQ when I switched my speakers from large to small, But that brought my surround system alive like I've never heard before. Next I put on Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer DVD-A... Thanks again guys.

 

[quakerroatmeal]

I'm looking in the setup menu, how and where do you change your speakers from large to small? All I see is Full Band which is what audyessey seemed to set for me on all my speakers.

 

[Spencer1813]

quakerroatmeal,


My receiver is a Onkyo TX-SR603.

 

[ack_bk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by quakerroatmeal /forum/post/12931098


I'm looking in the setup menu, how and where do you change your speakers from large to small? All I see is Full Band which is what audyessey seemed to set for me on all my speakers.

What receiver do you have? I suggest referring to the owners manual as well. Sometimes these options are buried in the menus.

 

[quakerroatmeal]

I have a Onkyo 605

 

[judge_dredd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by quakerroatmeal /forum/post/12931098


I'm looking in the setup menu, how and where do you change your speakers from large to small? All I see is Full Band which is what audyessey seemed to set for me on all my speakers.

quakerr,


I have the Onkyo TX-SR604 which is pretty similar to your 605. These Onkyo's don't designate the speakers as large and small. How they work is, if you set any speaker to full band, that is considered large and the receiver's crossover will not be used. If you set any speaker to a crossover setting (i.e. 40 Hz, 80 Hz, etc.) the speaker is considered to be small and the receivers crossover will be applied.


My 604's audyessy set's my front towers to full band as well, but I change them at the end of the setup to 60 Hz.


Hope this helps