ParadigmDawg

ParadigmDawg

Audioholic Overlord
OK guys; I was able to borrow a sub for a while until I get the big dog. Question- Where do I set the crossover on the sub vs. the AVR? I thought I would be able to tune one all the way out but that is not the case. Should I turn the sub all the up or down (40hz-120hz) and then set the AVR at the appropriate level or what?

By the way; even though this is not a very good sub (Klipsch sub-12) I did enjoy the extra bass especially during movies. It seems better if I keep my fronts at large though.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
Generally, I suggest the xover on the sub be set to as high a number as possible and let the xover in the receiver (usually set around 80hz or so) to limit the signal sent to the sub. This, hopefully, minimizes any interactions between the two.
 
nav

nav

Audioholic
If you can't disable the subwoofer's crossover, set it as high as possible (120 Hz in your case, I suppose). Then set the receiver's crossover as appropriate for your speakers (80 Hz tends to be a good starting point).

I recommend that you set your fronts to small while using the subwoofer unless they're truly full range (meaning that they have a relatively flat response to as low a frequency as the subwoofer); if you enjoy hotter bass (especially for movies, many people do), just adjust the subwoofer's gain higher instead.

That is, unless some of your speakers only reproduce down to a relatively high frequency (say, 120 Hz) and your receiver doesn't provide any per-channel crossover settings, then setting a higher crossover frequency and the fronts to large at the receiver may help avoid audible localization of the subwoofer.
 
ParadigmDawg

ParadigmDawg

Audioholic Overlord
Ok...I will turn the crossover on sub all the way up; I have the sub and AVR both set to 80 right now.

Another probably stupid question is- which inputs do I use on the sub. I have it going from the Sub out on the Yamaha to the LFE on the sub. I just read something that says I should use a splitter and run into the left and right inputs on the sub. Which is correct?
 
N

Nick250

Audioholic Samurai
Greg Gable said:
Ok...I will turn the crossover on sub all the way up; I have the sub and AVR both set to 80 right now.

Another probably stupid question is- which inputs do I use on the sub. I have it going from the Sub out on the Yamaha to the LFE on the sub. I just read something that says I should use a splitter and run into the left and right inputs on the sub. Which is correct?
You want to use the "LFE" input on the sub. You say you have "both" the sub and receiver set to 80Hz. As mentioned previously, you want the sub dial as high as it will go.

Nick
 
Kolia

Kolia

Full Audioholic
Greg Gable said:
Ok...I will turn the crossover on sub all the way up; I have the sub and AVR both set to 80 right now.

Another probably stupid question is- which inputs do I use on the sub. I have it going from the Sub out on the Yamaha to the LFE on the sub. I just read something that says I should use a splitter and run into the left and right inputs on the sub. Which is correct?

Your setup is right.
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Y splitter

Regarding using a Y splitter: You don' need to use a Y adapter to feed both left and right inputs on a sub but if you do you get double the voltage to the sub and that makes it louder. The sub is mono, so the two inputs are summed.
 
Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
Kolia said:
Your setup is right.
Your response is incorrect.


Crossover on sub should be all the way up. Not 80, as Kolia states is correct.

80Hz starting point for receiver.

Speakers set to SMALL.

No Y splitter. Use the LFE input.

DONE.
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Subs that have a dedicated LFE input bypass the internal xover when connected via that input so the position of the xover dial on the sub is irrelevant. If the internal xover cannot be disabled then you want to turn the sub's xover as high as it will go.
 
Kolia

Kolia

Full Audioholic
zumbo said:
Your response is incorrect.


Crossover on sub should be all the way up. Not 80, as Kolia states is correct.

80Hz starting point for receiver.

Speakers set to SMALL.

No Y splitter. Use the LFE input.

DONE.
Lol. Let me rephrase...

The setup is right provided your set the crossover all the way up like the OP is planing to do.

Some subs have two line in. One goes through the crossover and the other bypasses it.
 
Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
MDS said:
Subs that have a dedicated LFE input bypass the internal xover when connected via that input so the position of the xover dial on the sub is irrelevant.
Kolia said:
Some subs have two line in. One goes through the crossover and the other bypasses it.
I didn't know this. Is this true for all subs that offer LFE input along with r/l?:eek:
 
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M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Calling the input 'LFE' is a misnomer because only DD/DTS has an LFE channel (the .1). It is just a line-level input with the special case of bypassing the sub's internal xover. They name the input LFE to make it clear that it is the input to use if you connect from the receiver's sub pre-out, in which case you want to use the receiver's bass management and xover control.

Not all subs follow that convention. Some JBL subs have a single line-level input and an additional switch. The switch is labeled 'LFE' on one side and 'normal' on the other. When the switch is in the LFE position, it bypasses the internal xover and when in the normal position, the internal xover is active. Other subs have one or two line-level inputs and the word LFE is nowhere to be found.

So basically it is just a convention to indicate whether or not the sub's internal xover will be active and not just for LFE. A receiver connected to the LFE input will still send bass to the subwoofer when the track being played doesn't have an actual LFE channel.

It's kind of the same thing as 'small' vs 'large' settings for bass management. They don't mean small vs large speakers - they mean 'send the bass to the subwoofer or not'.
 
Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
MDS said:
It's kind of the same thing as 'small' vs 'large' settings for bass management. They don't mean small vs large speakers - they mean 'send the bass to the subwoofer or not'.
I need to remember this response when I insist that people set their speakers to SMALL. I usually argue for a while. Probably will anyway.;)
 
N

Nick250

Audioholic Samurai
Without having to go through a detailed explanation of all the possible settings on the back of the sub and possible misunderstands, adding the statement "and set your the dial on the back of the sub as high as it goes" at the end of one's setup recommendation makes sense I think.
 
dave1490

dave1490

Audioholic
jonnythan said:
I hear people saying all the time that you only need to plug into one input, but I get much louder output using a splitter and plugging into both. So I use a splitter. You can find them pretty cheaply. Here is the type of item you want:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2477724&cp=&sr=1&origkw=rca+y+adapter&kw=rca+y+adapter&parentPage=search

i had a simalar prob with mine the sub out on my reciever just didnt have enough "juice"so i got a carver high to low level output you plug into the speaker termanals and ran the sub,s now you can "realy"here them.ps crossed@70hz
 

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