noobie question regarding crossover

[bernernj]

Ok I am a noob when it comes to speakers and I am trying to understand the concepts to get the best sound out of my system. I recently picked up or will be picking up the following

Fronts: RTi8
Center: CSi5
Surounds: RTi A3
Sub: ED A2 300

I also have an Onkyo 605 receiver

Now if I understand the concept correctly my fronts and center can handle low base if I want them to but I would be better off letting the sub handle anything below a certain frequency in order to not distort the sound? If this is correct how do I know exactly what these limits are and how do I set them up? Does my room size and dimension matter?

 

[AVRat]

The limits are based on the speakers' freq. response and the power unit's capability. In your case, using the 605, you could set different x-over points for the speakers. But with that setup of speakers, an 80 hz x-over point will work for all.

 

[Midcow2]

Experiment

Ok I am a noob when it comes to speakers and I am trying to understand the concepts to get the best sound out of my system. I recently picked up or will be picking up the following

Fronts: RTi8
Center: CSi5
Surounds: RTi A3
Sub: ED A2 300

I also have an Onkyo 605 receiver

Now if I understand the concept correctly my fronts and center can handle low base if I want them to but I would be better off letting the sub handle anything below a certain frequency in order to not distort the sound? If this is correct how do I know exactly what these limits are and how do I set them up? Does my room size and dimension matter?

Normally is you set you front speakers to "small" ( really doesn't mean size), then you can specify a cross-over frequency. The cross-over frequency is usually adjustable between 50 Hz nd 200Hz. You can try different cross over frequencies and seen which sounds best with your system.

 

[MDS]

Normally is you set you front speakers to "small" ( really doesn't mean size), then you can specify a cross-over frequency.

Yep, a better way to think about it is 'send the bass to the speakers or not'. Small means do not send the bass below the xover to those speakers (send it to the sub instead) and Large means do send the bass below the xover to those speakers (actually the entire frequency range).

Small vs Large is more a configuration and routing option rather than a physical size description although one can argue that a woofer of 'substantial size' (terminology used by Onkyo) may be capable of adequately producing low frequencies. But regardless of the physical size of the woofer(s), the best configuration is to send those frequencies to the sub which is the speaker designed to deal with low frequencies and nothing but low frequencies.