For someone in search of a new amp-speakers like me with intend of undistorted clear sound...& considering someone else who likes the 'extra bass'.
Now when we consider matching amps for the 2 scenarios...wouldn't that mean matching amp to the speakers in second case requires a more capable amp & should be done with more care as it is going to be demanding more from the amp?
What amplifier requirements there will be will depend upon the particular speakers in question. Some are an easy impedance to drive and are efficient, and their demands on an amplifier will be slight, whereas some others are a difficult impedance and inefficient, and they will require care and concern about the selection of the amplifier to drive them.
But yes, when asking an amplifier to reproduce more of the frequency range, one will be demanding more of it than when asking it to reproduce less of the frequency range with the same speaker. But whether that matters or not depends on the speakers and amplifiers we are talking about, as well as how loud we want it to be.
I was looking at this from the perspective of, although having a low bass capable fronts with as low as 30-40 Hz. Now when we consider that in smaller rooms with closer placement of subs to listener, i read earlier this tends to create localized sound effects which is not desirable. This can be countered with lowering the crossover.
Do you mean to say that, if the fronts can play as low as 25Hz then set it around 45 even if we can set it higher?
No, I don't mean that. I mean that the crossover should be set somewhere above the -3dB point of the speakers' bass response. It can be much higher, if desired. And in cases as you are describing, I would try different settings to see what I liked best, as it would give one some flexibility on where one can set the crossover point.
I presume you meant the following (Do correct me if am wrong),
If the main speakers are flat down to only 60Hz, the crossover setting should be above that so that there is no gap in the sound or dip in the frequency response.
In this case, isn't this kinda forced, as the choice of speakers are such? Maybe this could have been avoided by choosing better bass capable speakers in the first place, hence giving more options to set a more flexible & hopefully better crossover
. Although the intend of better bass capable speakers were not to use the speakers to play low bass, but to set this critical crossover & have it flexible such you have a 'smoother crossover' possible
Normally, I recommend that people do buy speakers that go to about that point or maybe a little lower, as they typically cost less and then one has more money for a better subwoofer. Or one can buy better bookshelf speakers and improve the upper frequencies.
Here you can read a thread about this sort of issue:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72775
In my case, I use high quality bookshelf speakers with a -3dB point of 50Hz for all channels (excluding subwoofer, obviously), and use a pair of high quality subwoofers to handle the bass. At that price point, if I had purchased main speakers that went down deeper, I would either have had to go with a lesser line of main speakers, thus sacrificing upper bass on up, or I would have had to go with lesser subwoofers (or just had one of them), thus sacrificing the deep bass. It would also mean that not all of my surround speakers would perfectly match if I went with front right and left speakers that went deeper, so I would no longer have perfect voice matching for the different channels. So, name a price point, and then we can discuss what is best for it. Of course, if money is literally no object, one can try to get truly full range speakers for all channels, and then one may not need a subwoofer at all. One will then most likely need to have a front projection TV with an acoustically transparent screen in order to have the center channel speaker not block the screen, but it would be ideal to actually have the sound come from the screen, not above or below it.
As for your concern about hearing where the subwoofer is, a common problem with cheap subwoofers is that people overdrive them and then the harmonic distortion, some of which is much higher frequencies than the signal input, becomes audible. Some also suffer from port noise when driven hard, and the noise one hears from that is also going to involve higher frequencies. They also may vibrate other things in the room, and the vibrations of those other things will typically involve higher frequencies than the input to the subwoofer. For those sorts of problems, the crossover setting is not terribly relevant.
Of course, the closer one sits to the subwoofer, the more likely one will hear such imperfections.
If you are having a problem with hearing where the subwoofer is, then if you cannot afford to buy a better subwoofer, it would probably be advisable to move it to the front of the room, as most of the time one is getting sound from the front anyway, and then it will be less noticeable.
In most cases, I doubt that setting it at lower than 80Hz will help much, but it could if one has the subwoofer very, very close to where one is sitting.
