"Large" or "small" with an amp to lows

[Johnny Canuck]

Hello folks. After reading the recent article from Clint on bass management I had a few questions.

Please, can someone explain this clearly to me and give me some guidance once and for all. This topic is difficult to understand and I am going crazy, not to mention my girlfriend is getting frustrated with my "always screwing around with it"...LOL

From what i read, I am to assume I will hear more bass from my fronts having them set to small and crossed over lower, say at 60hz compared to 100hz. How I read that article was all sound below a crossover point will go to the sub, all sound above will go to the mains.

I hear more bass in my system the higher I set the crossover. I find 100hz or 120hz the best but Clint says this is the recommendation for small cubed speakers. I have large Polk RTI12's that can handle bass down to 20hz and are internally crossed over at 120hz. When i set the crossover to lets say, 40hz on my Denon 3805, bass is weak. Non exsistant. As I stated above, my understanding is that all frequency over 40hz would go to the mains. There is no bass at all.

I also have a NAD 2200 power amp with no gain on my lows of the Polks. Do I still set them to "small" even though the Denon now is not powering the lows and the burden has been taken off the AVR and replaced with the NAD? The way i understand it is you want to set your fronts to small to take this burden off the receiver. I don't have that issue now. Why would I still have them set to "small" with a power amp on the lows. Would that mean the amp is in effect useless as there is no low frequencies being played on my mains set to small???

To my ears, which obviously is the final say, I have my Denon 3805 set at "LFE and MAIN", fronts "Large" and all others small, crossover at 100hz.

Now does it matter where that "external IN Subwoofer Level" , option 3-2, is set? mine is at +15 .

i also wonder if the type of music matters. Rap has different bass than rock.

Thanks guys. Hopefully an educated response will help others too...

 

[jaxvon]

What kind of subwoofer are you using with your polks?

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Polk PSW 404. Not the greatest sub, i know.

 

[Audioholics]

Try setting the crossover at 60 or 80Hz and then be sure to rebalance your system with an SPL meter. After making a big change like that, it's possible your sub isn't set loud enough.

Obviously, your subwoofer really may not be as good as your mains at reproducing quality low frequencies - and that may be a major issue right there (The low frequency 3dB point of your tower speakers is lower than your sub!) You also want to make sure you open up the low pass crossover on the back of the sub all the way.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

"You also want to make sure you open up the low pass crossover on the back of the sub all the way."


How do i do that? I am using the LFE filtered jack on the sub...I thought when i used that, the low pass knob on the back is inoperable?

There is also a few other switches. One for "80khz" or "full range"..I would imagine that's if i wire the sub "the Polk way" and use speaker wire throught the sub ..the other is the phase, which I have at "0"..

JC