So some of you are starting to find, that picking a pair of speakers or more and then picking a sub on specks is a very imperfect system. As I have been telling you for years it is a highly questionable system. In my opinion it is not fit for purpose.
The crossover in a pre/pro or receiver is an off the shelf generic crossover. It is fundamentally not far removed to picking some raw drivers and a generic crossover from Parts Express. You know what we all think about that. For optimal reproduction the crossover must account for the acoustic responses of the drivers. This bass management system does not. So as far as I'm concerned it is a fudge pressed into service by Hollywood, so their crude sound effects could be reproduced and not blow up speakers. For critical music reproduction it is useless.
As you know I have repeatedly harped on the shortcomings of this approach.
So it is essential for all speakers to be designed as an integrated whole. There is just no getting around that. The problem is that in order to properly implement current bass management practice, ALL speakers have to be designed to specifically work with the constraints and specifications of the current system. Practically no systems do. Yet, this is what was envisaged by the original developers at THX. Loudspeaker manufacturers have pretty much universally ignored this fact, and rendered truly accurate reproduction impossible using this system.
As I think you know, I'm one of the very few who designs and builds for total system integration. This is carried to an extreme degree in my theater.
But even in my 3.1 in wall system this is designed as a totally integrated system.
The next issue is time. Separating subs and main speakers is less then ideal. Time shifts matter.
The wisdom that speakers and subs should be crossed over and set to small is wrong basically. In many systems it is a necessity to protect drivers.
If your speakers are capable, they should be set to large. They should be gently supplemented by subs using the LFE + main setting, Where possible place a couple of subs next to the main speakers. In general this will give you the most accurate reproduction.
In my main system all speakers are set to large except the ceiling speakers.
This whole system when designed by THX was predicated on the bass roll off of the speakers being second order 12 db per octave. However the vast majority of speakers roll off fourth order 24 db per octave. This puts a monkey wrench in the whole system right out of the starting gate.
