Sony BDP s550 crossover settings. Does anyone know?

[lexiholic]

I have a BDP s550 and am using its analog inputs to acquire the new formats via my receiver. My receiver is a high end receiver and gives me 2 main options to listen to the lossless formats put out by the player. One is 7.1 bypass direct which bypasses all processing and gives me just the volume to control. The other option is 7.1 7 channel which converts the analog signal to digital, thus adding full bass management to the listening mode.
Now here's the problem. I personally prefer the pure bypass as a cleaner and more dynamic sounding option, but that means that I have to rely on the BDP 550's internal bass management (which isn't the greatest) to set speaker distances and size. When i select the "large" setting for speakers however, i don't know what Sony's preset crossovers are and am not sure if it is at a level that my speakers can handle. My speakers have a low frequency response that rolls over at about 55Hz so I would require that the setting be at least at 60Hz. I have called Sony and honestly they are a bunch of morons over there. I ask them one question and they answer another, totally unrelated to the issue. They keep saying that I have to adjust the crossover in the receiver, even though i keep trying to explain that in bypass mode, it is the player that sets the crossover! Honestly it's like they aren't even listening. Can anyone please, please, pretty please "with a subwoofer on top" help me with this. What are the preset crossover settings on the Sony BDP 550 when speakers are set to large. Someone has to know!

 

[oppman99]

If your speakers settings are set to large, your mains will recieve the full frequency range of the audio signal. Most will recommend you set even full size floor standers to small if you are using a sub. Start at 80 Hz and adjust from there. If you are using bypass mode on the reciever, I think you will need to connect your sub to the player. I don't really use the bypass mode. Maybe someone who has been in the same situation will be able to give you more advice.

 

[rnatalli]

If your speakers settings are set to large, your mains will recieve the full frequency range of the audio signal. Most will recommend you set even full size floor standers to small if you are using a sub. Start at 80 Hz and adjust from there. If you are using bypass mode on the reciever, I think you will need to connect your sub to the player. I don't really use the bypass mode. Maybe someone who has been in the same situation will be able to give you more advice.

The S-550 doesn't allow you to adjust the crossover. It's at a fixed position.

I recall seeing somewhere that Sony uses 120Hz as the crossover point. It wouldn't be any lower than 80Hz so you shouldn't worry about your speakers. However, if the crossover is indeed 120Hz, you may get some localization of the sub and some boominess.

 

[j_garcia]

I have a BDP s550 and am using its analog inputs to acquire the new formats via my receiver. My receiver is a high end receiver and gives me 2 main options to listen to the lossless formats put out by the player. One is 7.1 bypass direct which bypasses all processing and gives me just the volume to control. The other option is 7.1 7 channel which converts the analog signal to digital, thus adding full bass management to the listening mode.
Now here's the problem. I personally prefer the pure bypass as a cleaner and more dynamic sounding option, but that means that I have to rely on the BDP 550's internal bass management (which isn't the greatest) to set speaker distances and size. When i select the "large" setting for speakers however, i don't know what Sony's preset crossovers are and am not sure if it is at a level that my speakers can handle. My speakers have a low frequency response that rolls over at about 55Hz so I would require that the setting be at least at 60Hz. I have called Sony and honestly they are a bunch of morons over there. I ask them one question and they answer another, totally unrelated to the issue. They keep saying that I have to adjust the crossover in the receiver, even though i keep trying to explain that in bypass mode, it is the player that sets the crossover! Honestly it's like they aren't even listening. Can anyone please, please, pretty please "with a subwoofer on top" help me with this. What are the preset crossover settings on the Sony BDP 550 when speakers are set to large. Someone has to know!

Your crossover should be set roughly 1 octave above the -3dB point of your speakers, so if they are at 55Hz like mine are, then you would want to start with a x-over of 80Hz which will combine with the natural roll off of the speaker and give you a good blend to the sub. 60Hz is way too low for a speaker with a -3dB of 55Hz. You would be sending information to it that would be below its capabilities as well as create a gap between the speakers and the sub.

I have not seen a player with internal decoding that allows you to set the x-over frequency, so whatever it is, you are stuck with it if you are using analog. If using HDMI, your receiver is taking care of it. My guess is that it will be either 80Hz or 100Hz.

Could someone explain what "bypass mode" means on this player?

 

[lexiholic]

Thanks guys for the heads up regarding the player's crossover settings. Maybe you guys should replace the monotone mannequins at Sony

I tend to agree that setting the crossover at 80Hz rather than 60Hz if the speaker rolls off at about 55Hz is good strategy. I can see the logic in creating that gap. I tried setting the speakers to small on the player and felt that it lost some dynamics. I found the sound to be weaker, not by much, but there was a definite difference. I have the option of letting my Lex do the bass management by using the 7 channel (non-bypass) mode as it has far more tweakability options for the sound, but I'm weary about the whole converting analog to digital for processing, and then digital back to analog for playback. I can't help but to feel that somewhere along that web the signal undergoes a bit of degradation. I spent quite some time listening carefully between bypass mode and non-bypass mode and honestly felt the bypass mode was cleaner, as it didn't undergo the unwanted conversions.

The bypass mode I was referring to was not on the player, it was on the receiver. Sorry if I miscommunicated that. I just find that it wouldn't have taken much to give consumers the option of tweaking the crossovers on the player. 100Hz, even 100 is quite a considerable difference from 60Hz or 80Hz, so people with better, or bigger speakers are stuck with the presets if they want to set them as large. My Lex is HDMI, however Lexicon only gave it a 1.1 and not 1.3 version. Their logic was that the 1.3 version which allows playback of the new formats still has a lot of glitches and felt that the analog inputs were a better option. I'm not sure I disagree. I've heard some prepros that decode the new formats directly via HDMI and heard some digital noise and even slight distortion at points.

So anyone have an opinion as to whether bass management (digitizing the analog signal for processing and then converting back to analog) degrades the quality of the signal as opposed to straight bypass playback? I'm very interested in hearing feedback on this. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[lexiholic]

Also, does anyone know whether the higher end players such as the Pioneer BDP-09 has a better, more advanced internal bass management mode with reconfigurable crossovers? My Lex is capable of handling all bass management modes but I might stay with the bypass mode if I can find a player that will let me have my cake and eat it too.

 

[j_garcia]

Like I said, I haven't seen a player that will do this internally yet. Bass management has not been the strongest point for most players. Even my Oppo is fixed, but at least it is 80Hz

I see, bypass sounds like Source Direct on my Marantz.

 

[lexiholic]

How did you figure out the crossover setting on your Oppo? Is it in the manual? The least Sony could've done was to at least list it in the manual.

So you don't like the Direct setting on your Marantz? You'd rather go the digital bass management route? You don't find the signal loses a bit of integrity as opposed to running the signal unaltered?

 

[j_garcia]

I've gone back and forth on bass management, and even tried SACD (2ch) with bass management by the receiver and any degredation isn't noticeable to the point where it concerned me. It still sounds good with the added benefit of letting the receiver take care of it, but that was only for testing purposes when I had 3 players that were capable of SACD. For multichannel SACD, I only use the multichannel analog inputs.

Someone sent an email to Oppo support and that was how we found out that the x-over was 80Hz. Not sure if it is in the manual or not, because I only briefly read through it. The setup screen is pretty self explanatory.

With the multichannel analog inptus on my receiver there is no bass management, so it is essentuially already "Source Direct". I DO like source direct, but I don't always use it anymore because the Oppo is the only analog source I have now and it is running through the M/C analog inputs so no processing (no bass management, no tone controls), only speaker levels and distance adjustments.