Do i set amp to LARGE front speakers or SMALL?

[PKS17]

Im curious as to what i should set my amp too.
I noticed that if i set it to large front speakers,then my sub woofer wont play at all in stereo mode( cds, and music), but if i set them to small, then ill get the sub to play music.
Does anyone know whats best?

 

[Adam]

The best setting is the one that sounds best to you, IMO, but here's some suggestions.

You'd want to use a sub if it can produce low frequencies better than your speakers. If it can, then you'd want to set your speakers to small so that the bass was handled by your sub.

Also, you'd want to pick a crossover frequency that was higher than the low-end of your speakers and lower than the high-end of your sub. A crossover of 80 Hz is a good starting point and is the recommended setting by THX, but you can tailor it for your system (if your receiver is capable of setting different crossover frequencies - some can, some can't).

If you let us know which speakers, sub, and receiver you have, then we can give more specific suggestions.

 

[tbergman]

Depends on your speakers but most times, the receiver should be set to small fronts so your sub is handling the lower frequencies instead of sending everything to your front speakers.

EDIT: Beat out with a better written response. Same general message.

 

[AVRat]

Yeah, Adam should change his moniker to Quick Draw!

 

[PKS17]

Hey guys, thanks for the quick response. This is a really great site.
Heres some info.
Im using a Polk psw100 sub, and polk TSI300's for the fronts.

So should i set it to small, or large speakers? When i do the auto setup it selects Large, but i kinda like the sub to do the heavy work and not the towers.

 

[tom67]

Small.....and the few people who own speakers that should be set to large generally would know the answer in advance. I'm not in that knowledgeble group and had to be told myself and still experimented before setting mine to small...the exception for most is two channel setups without a sub where you need the the fronts to receive all of the bass content from the receiver.....or those who go back and forth with good bass producing speakers, when they switch to 2 channel.

 

[PKS17]

OK, Small it is.

But why does my pioneer amp automatically set it to large speaker, when i use the auto setup?

 

[Adam]

Good question. A lot of auto set-up routines do that. I don't know the answer, but it's recommended for most set-ups to go in and manually change the speakers to small.

 

[lsiberian]

OK, Small it is.

But why does my pioneer amp automatically set it to large speaker, when i use the auto setup?

It's because your speaker is capable of producing the frequency.

For your crossover it's suggested you double the bottom frequency on ported designs. So if your speakers are rated to 40 hz then 80 hz is a suitable crossover. If 30hz then 60 and so on.

If you use an external crossover you would set your speakers to large and let the external crossover handle the main/sub integration(just to add to your knowledge)

 

[PKS17]

OK great 80hz it is then. But another question here, why does my autosetup put all my speaker settings to very low levels.

For example, it sets my fronts and center to negative 7, and the same for my subs and rear surrounds.
-7 seems too low to me, but is that normal?
My speakers are fairly close to the auto setup mic.

 

[Alex2507]

OK, Small it is.

But why does my pioneer amp automatically set it to large speaker, when i use the auto setup?

Auto set ups are notoriously inept. The spec's on your speakers claim "Lower: -3dB Limit 47Hz". Your auto set up is doing a better job at advertising Polk than Polk.

On this I am kind of at odds with Adam because I'm of the opinion that once people get accustomed to listening to garbage quality audio (not that you are), they prefer it and to me that is wrong regardless of what they prefer. I would promote steering them towards 'right' and giving them a chance to let that set in.

Having said all that I listened to music from an MP3 player plugged into a single speaker with a handle on top for carrying around sold by Brookstone last night and it sounded alright ... but it was all wrong.

 

[Adam]

One of Adam's mottos: "Lower your standards until your expectations are already met."

Another one: "When in doubt, chicken out."

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Okay, that said - what does the auto set-up have to do with the system being garbage-quality audio? A lot of auto set-ups will set the front speakers to large.

As for it setting all of the speakers at negative levels, I'd like to know which receiver you have. It could be that it's simply trying to make a specific volume setting equate to a specific output level. My receiver resets the main volume level associated with "0dB" for that (which it can because it has a digital volume read-out), but your receiver might not be able to do that, so it adjusts the speaker levels to achieve that. Personally, I'd adjust them all up (by the same amount) to get them at or near 0dB offset. What's important is that they have the same levels relative to each other. In other words, if they are all at -7dB, then you could adjust them all to 0dB and still be good.

 

[Alex2507]

what does the auto set-up have to do with the system being garbage-quality audio? A lot of auto set-ups will set the front speakers to large.

It's not that the system is garbage. It's the set up that can make it sound like garbage. I've been all over the place and can't recall if we know what the rec'r is.

I think a speaker that can't reproduce LF sound is compromised SQ wise when it is fed a LF signal, never mind how that would tax the amps in an entry level rec'r which I think may reduce the dynamic range rather quickly especially if you were running speakers like mine that are crazy out of phase at a LF, low impedance point.

So when the auto set up sets your speakers to large, I feel like it's setting your speakers right to garbage-quality.