Help on set-up for best sound (NEWB)

J

JeffS

Enthusiast
I have provided links to my receiver, satillites and sub specs.

Using the following specs could someone please give me some information on what the best possible settings would be for better sound. I have had this set-up for 3 days and am still in the process of learning the system. So if someone could lead me in the right direction it would be appreciated.





http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7039536&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03045&id=1099395911231



http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=963&s=specs


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7067363&type=product&cmp=++&id=1108125946259
 
M

Mort Corey

Senior Audioholic
Those components should give you some pretty good sound in a medium or smaller room. Best bet is to first get an SPL meter from Radio Shack and then either an Avia HT setup disk or even use a DVD that has a THX optimizer tract. After calibrating the system, the next step would be room acoustic treatments if they fit in with your plans.

Mort
 
jcPanny

jcPanny

Audioholic Ninja
Setup the following

Speaker (volume) levels: SPL meter or your ear with test tones.
Speaker distances: Tape measure.
Speaker Size: SMALL, 5 channels and sub
Crossover: 120 Hz.

I you complete this process, you will be ready to go. When adjusting the speaker levels, leave the front channels at 0 dB and adjust the other channels to achieve the same volume level as measured on the SPL meter or with your ear.
 
Snap

Snap

Audioholic
jcPanny said:
Speaker (volume) levels: SPL meter or your ear with test tones.
Speaker distances: Tape measure.
Speaker Size: SMALL, 5 channels and sub
Crossover: 120 Hz.

I you complete this process, you will be ready to go. When adjusting the speaker levels, leave the front channels at 0 dB and adjust the other channels to achieve the same volume level as measured on the SPL meter or with your ear.
While I will agree that some times this calibration technique will work for most systems. I will have to disagree with the leaving the front speakers alone and calibrating the backs to the front only. With the auto set up on the Denon and the Yammy, it almost always makes changes to all the speakers. I personally use either SMAART live, or if I do not have my laptop, then I use a Radio Shack SPL meter. But just for information purposes THX uses 75Db for their base line. (See link)
http://www.thx.com/mod/techlib/volume.html
I set mine a little higher for my own personal pref. (85 db for all speakers except the center and the sub and they are 87) The key thing is to make sure that all your speakers are putting out the SAME volume as registered by the SPL meter at your primary listening position. I raised the Sub and center for personal listening pref. But some receivers will not be at 75db if you just adjust the backs and center to the mains. Some will, but some don't.

I would just calibrate everything to 75db or 85db and enjoy. Make small adjustments as time goes by and your listening prefs change.

But that is just my .02 cents.

Blessed,
Snap
 
J

JeffS

Enthusiast
Thanks to all that have helped

I have switched all speakers to small and redirect all lows to the sub, hugh difference.

If someone could please explain the phase switch to me it would be appreciated, I have two options 0 or 180 which is the ideal setting?

Also if someone could please fill me in on the ideal setting for the two dials on the back of the sub as I am finding myself constantly adjusting them for sound quality.

lastly, I ran into the WAF last night as I was playing with my receivers test tones while she was watching Survivor last night. Big No NO.

Thanks for all the help.
 
Snap

Snap

Audioholic
JeffS said:
If someone could please explain the phase switch to me it would be appreciated, I have two options 0 or 180 which is the ideal setting?

Also if someone could please fill me in on the ideal setting for the two dials on the back of the sub as I am finding myself constantly adjusting them for sound quality.

lastly, I ran into the WAF last night as I was playing with my receivers test tones while she was watching Survivor last night. Big No NO.

Thanks for all the help.
1. Phase select to keep it simple is just to make sure that your sub and your mains are in phase with each other. (basically you do not want the speakers on the mains to be going out, while the sub speaker is going in) Simple solution....try them both and see which one sounds better with your system. Choose what ever settings sound best to you.

2. The ideal settings for the back knobs on your subs depend on your personal pref, and main speakers. A Generic setting to start with... Set the X over to 80 hz, and the volume to 50%. Then calibrate your system, and balance the LFE with the output on your reciever. (THAT IS A BASIC GENERIC SETTING BY THE WAY!)

3. I think most every one has made the "HT Tune at the Wrong Time" mistake. Mine was just after the baby FINALLY went to sleep for a nap! Test Tones and my test DVD's woke her right up, and Momma made me spend the next hour rocking her back to sleep. Never made that mistake again!

Blessed,
Snap
 
J

JeffS

Enthusiast
Thanks

What would be the advantage of setting the sub from 80HZ to 120HZ like Jcpanny suggested?
 
AVRat

AVRat

Audioholic Ninja
Assuming you're connected into the LFE input on the sub, you can disregard the sub's X-over control since it is being bypassed. The Quintet's center has a 3dB point of 120Hz (correct setting), which means they don't handle frequencies below that very well and should be routed to the sub. This is done in the Yamaha's (see pg. 58) bass management.
 
J

JeffS

Enthusiast
AVRat said:
Assuming you're connected into the LFE input on the sub
I am


AVRat said:
you can disregard the sub's X-over control since it is being bypassed.
Since the crossover control is being bypassed like you said I recall tweaking the crossover control on the receiver last night and not be able to tell a difference in sound. Question is does the LFE input make the crossover control a non-issue ?

AVRat said:
The Quintet's center has a 3dB point of 120Hz (correct setting), which means they don't handle frequencies below that very well and should be routed to the sub.
please explain this in detail I notice my receiver goes from -3db to 3db, should I set the receiver to 3db instead of 0 and reconfigure my all my speaker to 120HZ? As you can tell I am having trouble comrehending this.

AVRat said:
This is done in the Yamaha's (see pg. 58) bass management.
So if the yamaha takes care of its own bass management then I should just set the volume at 50% on the sub and tweak away from there?
 
AVRat

AVRat

Audioholic Ninja
Made a mistake

The sub X-over is not bypassable, all you can do is turn it all the way up. That may be why you didn't notice a difference when making adjustments if you had the sub X-over at 80 Hz.

please explain this in detail I notice my receiver goes from -3db to 3db, should I set the receiver to 3db instead of 0 and reconfigure my all my speaker to 120HZ? As you can tell I am having trouble comrehending this.
Does this relate to the speaker level settings? If so, then, yes you need to reconfigure the settings. The 3dB points are like the optimum operating range tolerances. Your system might have a response similar to the attached graph. The purple is the satellite, blue = sub.

Satellite: 110Hz-23kHz +/- 3dB
Center: 120Hz-23kHz +/- 3dB

As you can see, the satellite's SPL/volume drops off at frequencies below the 3dB point. Your receiver has universal X-over control so the level should be set relative to the highest low 3dB level, 120Hz of the center.

None of this is set in stone, but it is a starting point.
 
Last edited:

Buckle-meister

Audioholic Field Marshall
Layman's terms

Hello JeffS. Welcome to the Forum. Here is my attempt to clarify what some things mean:

None of your speakers are considered full-range because their frequency response does not extend from 20Hz to 20kHz which is generally taken to be the audible range of humans. Don't feel bad about this though; the vast majority of speakers aren't full-range, and even when they are, you still might not wish to use them as such, since a sub will almost always be better at producing really deep bass than front towers for example.

Because your speakers aren't full-range, they are classified as Small. If they had been full range, they'd be classified as Large. These classifications have nothing to do with a speakers physical size; they are merely definitions by which one distinguishes non-full-range speakers from full-range speakers. By telling your Yamaha Receiver that your speakers are all Small, the Receiver will 'know' that your speakers cannot handle the really low frequencies, and so automatically direct those frequencies less than the crossover frequency that you select to your Sub, which, as you will see from its specification, is more capable of handling lower frequncies than your other speakers.

You may note that your Sub still doesn't handle frequencies down to 20Hz; it only goes to 28Hz. This is also not something to worry about. Whilst it is true that your Sub would ideally handle frequencies down to 20Hz, it really is neither here nor there since your presently untreated room will be doing all sorts of strange things to the sound anyway.

As for the Yamaha's Crossover setting that you should choose, this is something you may wish to play about with. However, strictly, the setting should never be less than the highest lower-end figure from any speakers frequency response specification (120Hz in your case). If the Crossover setting was less than that, it would mean that you were still sending information to the speakers which they couldn't accurately handle.

If you use the Yamaha's Crossover, then there is no need to use the Sub's, so that should ideally be dialled to its maximum so as not to interfere, i.e. 'confuse' the sub. However, in your case, with a crossover of 120Hz theoretically required anyway (due to the limitations of your speakers), this becomes somewhat academic.

As far as the +-3dB figures on speakers...

Ideally, a speaker should not add anything to the signal it receives, ie., the perfect speaker will simply pass the signal through without adding it's own signature. Unfortunately, no speaker is perfect, so the (by far) standard specification that speaker manufacturers state consists of a frequency range (say 110Hz to 23kHz) +-3dB. What this is saying is that over that frequency range, the speakers will 'only' add or subtract up to 3dB from the inputted signal (ideally it would be +-0dB but 0.5 is the best I've ever seen; on $63000 speakers!!!).

Phew! Hope this has helped a little. Enjoy your system :).

Regards
 
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