3 Way speakers

[Good4it]

Forgive my lack of knowledge but do floor stander 3-ways need or benefit from a subwoofer?

Are the crossover duties handled by the speakers or by the AV amp like bookshelves?
What about when no sub is used?

Are floor standers always set to large?

 

[markw]

Virtually all speakers can benefit from a subwoofer. Unless you don't listen to any material with deep bass content. For movies, a sub is a must.

Assuming you're talking about subs, the receiver can handle the crossover duties but many subs allow them to be used with receivers with no dedicated LFE channel. If your receiver has bass management, you tell your receiver you don't have a sub. All bass will be routed to your front right and left speakers. This doesn't mean they will do a good job reproducing the material that was intended for a subwoofer though.

Floor standers are generally set to large.

 

[TLS Guy]

Forgive my lack of knowledge but do floor stander 3-ways need or benefit from a subwoofer?

Are the crossover duties handled by the speakers or by the AV amp like bookshelves?
What about when no sub is used?

Are floor standers always set to large?

There are very few speakers that will reach the last octave at power without a sub. The few commercial offerings that do pretty much require a mortgage.

Even then for HT use you need to be able to capture and blend in the LFE channel. This means the speakers need to be active and have their own amplifiers and more than one per speaker.

So unless you have an unusual exotic then you need a sub or two for optimal movie watching.

There are some floor standers that contain a powered subwoofer section. These are not usually well executed.

Not all floor standers have the power reserve to be used full range, but if they do, it is usually best to set them to large and gently supplement them with a sub.

The main advantage of a good tower speaker, and the advantage is considerable, is that you have the power above the 60 to 80 Hz range. Most of the power demands of music is in the 80 Hz to 2.5 KHz region.

Most speakers quickly become excursion limited in the 20 to 40 Hz range and many above that. Using a sub with the speakers set to small off loads the drivers in the main speakers, and that is one of the principal advantages of a sub.

 

[KenM10759]

Virtually all speakers can benefit from a subwoofer. Unless you don't listen to any material with deep bass content. For movies, a sub is a must.

Assuming you're talking about subs, the receiver can handle the crossover duties but many subs allow them to be used with receivers with no dedicated LFE channel. If your receiver has bass management, you tell your receiver you don't have a sub. All bass will be routed to your front right and left speakers. This doesn't mean they will do a good job reproducing the material that was intended for a subwoofer though.

Floor standers are generally set to large.

To be clear, did you mean by this something like "Floor standers are generally set to large when there is no subwoofer in use"?

Is that what you meant?

As far as I know, most times when a subwoofer is in use the equalization in the receiver is set to small to keep from sending frequencies below a set point (usually 60hz or 80hz) to those floor standing speakers and lets the sub handle the low frequencies.

 

[markw]

There's several schools of thought on this.

1) You set all speakers to "small". That assures that all lows will go to the subwoofer.

2) You set the mains to "large" and hope your EQ system will adjust them as needed to get the best performance.

3) Set the mains to "large" and get the lows out of both the mains and the subwoofer. As long as the mains don't "fart out", this does no harm and allows one to use the mains without having the subwoofer on. That's what I do. I find it gives a smoother transition between the mains and the subwoofer. But, then again, most of my time is spent listening to music and HT use is secondary.

 

[Good4it]

When you set the tower to "small" do you use the subs crossover? What frequency?

 

[KenM10759]

I set the L-C-R (and surrounds) all to small with my receiver. The L-R mains and center are at 60hz, the surrounds are at 80hz.

The subwoofer crossover is on the "LFE" setting, which the high end so it accepts everything the receiver sends its way. Sounds GREAT.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

I have set all my speakers to small. Crossover for speakers is set on 60Hz and for LFR channel up to 80Hz. This would really depend on the speakers and sub you have.