Speakers large or small?

[fastwahoo]

Here is my question. In my receivers input menu should i have my speakers set to large or small. My front mains are Polk RTI a7s so they are definitely large and my center is a Polk CS1 with a Energy sub and energy surrounds.I am currently set up in 5.1. My receiver is a Pioneer Elite VSX 92 TXH that rocks the house.

 

[bandphan]

small, if searched there have been a couple of posts on this. Instead of size, think in terms of where you want the LFE sent.

 

[mike c]

what he said ^
99.9999% of speakers out there are "small" in terms of bass management

if you don't feel lucky, your speaker is not part of the .0001%

 

[fastwahoo]

I see, gracias

 

[bandphan]

I see, gracias

yw ....and 1999 going 2k

edit-- ive caught a hoo doing 30kts

 

[tcarcio]

Make sure your sub is set to on in the reciever and the crossover at the reciever is set to 80hz.

 

[zumbo]

All SMALL.

 

[randy98ss]

This may seem like a relaly stupid question, and completely obvious to everyone, but if you have your main speakers set to small, and you have a large speaker, doesnt it defeat the purpose of having a large speaker? Could you not buy a smaller speaker and not waste the money on a large speaker?

 

[MidnightSensi]

This may seem like a relaly stupid question, and completely obvious to everyone, but if you have your main speakers set to small, and you have a large speaker, doesnt it defeat the purpose of having a large speaker? Could you not buy a smaller speaker and not waste the money on a large speaker?

It's how you handle the bass management on your system. They shouldn't call it small and large because everyone wants to call their speakers big. It's just a confusion in the terminology they use.

All you are telling your receiver is that you want bass to go to your subwoofer and mids and highs to go to your mains. This will allow your mains to do what they do best, and your sub to do what it does best.

Larger mains can allow you to crossover a bit lower typically, which makes subwoofer localization problems less of an issue if you only have one subwoofer. You'd still set your large mains to "small" though.

 

[bandphan]

+1^^^ unless your mains can output 20hz at 100db they are small Very few subsonic full range speakers(insert carzy speaker pics below)

 

[fastwahoo]

I have to, many on the Thetis.

 

[zumbo]

This may seem like a relaly stupid question, and completely obvious to everyone, but if you have your main speakers set to small, and you have a large speaker, doesnt it defeat the purpose of having a large speaker? Could you not buy a smaller speaker and not waste the money on a large speaker?

It's how you handle the bass management on your system. They shouldn't call it small and large because everyone wants to call their speakers big. It's just a confusion in the terminology they use.

All you are telling your receiver is that you want bass to go to your subwoofer and mids and highs to go to your mains. This will allow your mains to do what they do best, and your sub to do what it does best.

Larger mains can allow you to crossover a bit lower typically, which makes subwoofer localization problems less of an issue if you only have one subwoofer. You'd still set your large mains to "small" though.

What he said^^^^.

 

[ChrisSovari]

Here is a link that will explain this very well. I just finished reading it before I seen your thread, hope it helps.

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/get-good-bass/bass-management-basics-2013-settings-made-simple

 

[tom67]

See Randy98ss

Excellent question and unanswered here......especially when the choices are a good bookshelf vs a much larger floor model from the same maker which is much more expensive, where the chief benefit is lower bass.....of course 2 channel purists might want to waive a subwoofer, but for most, why pay for quality bass that is bypassed by the 80HZ cutoff going to a sub....

 

[zumbo]

Excellent question and unanswered here......especially when the choices are a good bookshelf vs a much larger floor model from the same maker which is much more expensive, where the chief benefit is lower bass.....of course 2 channel purists might want to waive a subwoofer, but for most, why pay for quality bass that is bypassed by the 80HZ cutoff going to a sub....

Why pay for a sub if you are going to use your mains?

Read the link provided above your reply. If that doesn't put things into perspective for you, then I can't help you.

 

[mike c]

because a tower (big speaker with more woofers) is still better at playing 80-120hz than a bookshelf.

 

[speakerman39]

Excellent question and unanswered here......especially when the choices are a good bookshelf vs a much larger floor model from the same maker which is much more expensive, where the chief benefit is lower bass.....of course 2 channel purists might want to waive a subwoofer, but for most, why pay for quality bass that is bypassed by the 80HZ cutoff going to a sub....

Tom, don't forget that a tower speaker in most cases, will be able to put out more sound dynamically speaking. In other words, a tower will play louder w/less stress when compared to a bookshelf of the same brand/series. As such, even crossing over at 80 Hz or so will still yield more sound from a tower speaker.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[randy98ss]

Here is a link that will explain this very well. I just finished reading it before I seen your thread, hope it helps.

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/get-good-bass/bass-management-basics-2013-settings-made-simple

I have read that article once before, but I must admit I probably just scimmed it and read it entirely to fast. I took the time to re-read the article and it makes more sense now.

I just naturally assumed that since my speakers have two 8" woofers in them that they could handle everything. I was afraid that buy crossing over the frequencies that I would lose information, but ironically not crossing over and setting the speakers to small is doing just that.

 

[Deezer]

Had this same problem,I put the receiver to the "large" speaker setting and did notice a differance in which I liked at moderate volumes.Didn't notice it on movies,but when I cranked up the stereo this saturday(no wife or kids)to listen to music,I noticed my three 6.5 woofers trying to jump out the box!
I have older psb 6t's for mains and at that volume I heard no distortion,but I didn't feel comfortable letting the lower Hrz run through my mains.These speakers are new to me and I was trying to get all my setting adjusted and turning the setting back to Small and crossing everything down to 80Hrz was the better choice for me and my speakers.
To make a long story short I was listening to my stereo system today at moderate volume, at those settings,and for some reason my sub wasn't on and I didn't even notice until I glanced at the sub and didn't see the power-light on.You will still get that bass sound.So I would suggest saving your speakers for years of enjoyment buy setting the rec. to the small setting and let the sub do its job.

 

[jostenmeat]

Excellent question and unanswered here......especially when the choices are a good bookshelf vs a much larger floor model from the same maker which is much more expensive, where the chief benefit is lower bass.....of course 2 channel purists might want to waive a subwoofer, but for most, why pay for quality bass that is bypassed by the 80HZ cutoff going to a sub....

Please remember, x-overs are not brick walls. I think I have the impression that most receivers have x-over at only 12/db per octave. Some fancier pre's might have 24db/8ve, and I suppose some other devices do 48db/8ve (or perhaps even steeper).

I believe I've even read that many receivers do 12db slope on the sub, and only 6db on the speaker outputs, as its assuming some natural roll-off already in the speaker.

IMO, the midbass might be the ONLY area where a decent HT suffers compared to the theater. That's my impression, even with my HT vs cinema. I use tower mains, xover'd 80hz. As for PQ, SQ, LFE, immersion, and comfort, my HT wins.

Also, even if you had speakers that were truly full-range, room acoustic issues may have the x-over as ideal anyways. I think this probably is the situation most of the time.

-jostenmeat