Anyway to get yamaha 1065 to play in stereo w/sub?

[egerzon]

Hello all,

I new to the forum and am stuck. I like listening to music just as much as I like watching movies/tv. Just got the Yamaha 1065 and cannot figure out how to get the sub to work with just fronts? The only options that even come close are "stereo" (no Sub) and 7 channel (too much noise coming from the center channel). Is there anyway I can set it up so that the center channel doesn't play?

Currently I only have the 2 fronts, 1 center and a sub ...

I can get it to work if I go into the menu and disable the center channel ..
However, when I want to watch movies ... I have to go back and enable it.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks again!

 

[jostenmeat]

While I haven't read the manual, or am even familiar with your receiver, I am presuming you are using the same source to do both your stereo and HT. I am presuming you have a single connection like SPDIF.

Off the cuff idea is to use another set of connections from source to receiver, namely RCA red/white analogs. Then when you assign/choose that source, set it to stereo, and hopefully that setting will stick with that particular input, while still leaving your HT (optical/coax) at the mch setting.

mmm just an idea . . .

EDIT: ah, I read more carefully. The reason you have no sub when on stereo is most likely because your mains are set to full range. You will have to apply crossover to mains in the receiver setup if you want the sub to play along.

Now, you might ask, how can you get the sub and mains as full range together? Complicated. One way is if your sub has high level I/O, and use the sub's low pass, (never having done that myself), HOWEVER you will have to turn sub as OFF in the receiver to ever get LFE from your movie tracks, and even when you do, it will be GREATLY reduced in signal.

So, moral of the story is to apply xover in receiver for least headaches.

 

[Adam]

Wow, Meat - you even have me confused.

I think the short answer is - set the front (and center, for that matter) speakers to "Small". What speakers and sub are you using? A general rule of thumb for a crossover frequency is 80Hz to start with. Also, either disable the crossover on the sub itself and/or set the dial to the highest possible number (this is because you don't want the crossover in the sub to do anything because the receiver will be handling all of that).

BTW, welcome to the forum!

 

[egerzon]

Meat & Adam,

Thank you for the reply. The two front speakers are 15 year old advent tower speakers and the sub is a onkyo from a ht-sr800 HTIB system ...

Adam -

Setting the two front speakers to small did the trick. Just out of curiousity, will that cause any issues / cut out some range from the fronts?

Also, will this hold true once I add the 2 speakers to the rear?

Thanks again for your quick responses!

 

[Adam]

Setting the two front speakers to small did the trick.

To be fair, John mentioned doing that first - I was just summarizing.

Just out of curiousity, will that cause any issues / cut out some range from the fronts?

Also, will this hold true once I add the 2 speakers to the rear?

That's a good question. In general - if the speakers can play frequencies all the way down to the crossover frequency (e.g. 80 Hz), and the sub can play all the way up to the crossover frequency (again, 80 Hz in this example), then you won't be missing anything. I'd say play around with the crossover frequency, as well as playing around with having the fronts as "Large" or "Small." If you had bookshelf speakers and a powerful sub, it would be a no-brainer to say run the speakers as small. With tower speakers and a sub that came from a HTIB, it's not quite as easy to say.

The way that I would do it, simply because I have the stuff to do it, is play a set of test tones ranging from low frequencies (say, around 20 Hz) up to a frequency past the crossover (say, around 100 Hz) and measure the response using a sound pressure level (SPL) meter. That way, you could measure which set-up gives you the flattest response. However, just listening and deciding which you like better is an easy approach that, honestly, will give you what you want - a system that you like to listen to.

 

[jostenmeat]

Wow, Meat - you even have me confused.

Yeah, I was all over the place, huh! Feel free to ask anything that you might want. (Though I'm pretty sure you know most of what I know already regarding this stuff). In case you didn't (highly doubtful), regarding the second half of my post: Some people don't even have a sub, but capable mains. You can actually still get LFE w/o a sub. To do so, the mains obviously have to be set to full range, and the sub as OFF in the receiver, which then is rerouted to the mains. However, to protect both the receiver's amp and the speakers themselves, the LFE signal is tremendously reduced (and the figure I've seen thrown out is 1/20th). But, at least you get some of it.

I threw that out there just in case the OP was one of those persons who demanded running fullrange for the towers, everything else be damned.

I did however vote for the "easy button". Apply xover/ select "small".

Meat & Adam,

Thank you for the reply.

You're welcome!

The two front speakers are 15 year old advent tower speakers and the sub is a onkyo from a ht-sr800 HTIB system ...

HTIB sub = no high level (speaker level) I/O (inputs/output). Therefore, you can completely ignore the greater part of my posts. Of course, outside of the small setting, heh.

Adam -

Setting the two front speakers to small did the trick. Just out of curiousity, will that cause any issues / cut out some range from the fronts?

Yes. However, whatever WAS cut out is now routed to your subwoofer. It's called "rerouted bass", or "summed bass". The reason for "summed" is that low bass from your other channels get sent to the sub too. All together, it is summed bass. Therefore, your sub plays both LFE (discrete track for sub on movies) plus summed bass.

Also, will this hold true once I add the 2 speakers to the rear?

Yes.

 

[egerzon]

Thank you both for the info! I do have one more question though, would you guys know where I could get any good information or reviews on paradigm 5 tower speakers?

I have looked all over the web and cannot figure out if these speakers are any good. I am going to take a look at them tomorrow, but from the pictures, they look about 5-7 years old. I am just looking to see how much I should spend on them and whether or not I should replace/add to the advent towers I have now.

 

[Adam]

Sorry to say, I can't help you with the Paradigms. I don't know much about those, but there are other members here who know quite a bit about that brand. Hopefully they'll see this and chime in.

The place that you are going to see them - is it someplace that will let you audition them at home and return them if you don't like them?

 

[egerzon]

Yeah ... I have already heard them once .... they don't have as "full" a range as my advent's, but they sound very nice with the subwoofer I am getting from him as well. All in all, he is giving them to me both with the 10" yamaha sub for $130.00. Can't really complain .. but I was just curious ...

 

[gene]

If you want bass from your fronts and the sub then do the following:
Mains: Large
Sub: Both

This will give you sub for all modes but pure direct. Just don't use pure direct and you will be fine.

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks for catching that Gene. First time I've heard of a "both" setting.

 

[gene]

Thanks for catching that Gene. First time I've heard of a "both" setting.

Yea its a bit misleading since "both" really means it sends bass from the Mains plus bass from all channels set small to the sub and the Mains still play full range but do NOT receive summed bass for the LFE channel or other channels set small.

 

[jostenmeat]

Ah, yes, the equivalent of "double bass" with Onkyo. Ok, now I am doubly embarrassed, thanks a lot Gene.