Need help with crossover options

[noxangelus]

I have the following


Denon 1713 - receiver
Whalfdale Diamond 10.6 - floor standing speakers
Polk PSW125 - 12inch sub

I play movies through my blueray player and TV which are attached by HDMI cables to the receiver.
The speakers are connected with RCA cables, the sub uses one RCA cable from subwoofer out on receiver to either L/R plug on sub.

I need help with what would be ideal setup for my crossover for my bass.

Would it be better to use the LFE and bypass the sub's own filter or?

And what frequency should I be setting it to.


Cheers!

 

[herbu]

The Warfedale site says its freq range is 35-24kHz, but I don't see any graphs or detail.
The Polk site says their "King of the Deep" PSW125 has a lower limit(-3dB) of 34Hz, and total freq response down to 32Hz.

In other words, your sub won't play any lower than your towers. (So if this sub is their "King of the Deep", you can infer they don't have strong subs.)

If you set your towers to "Small" and crossover at 60Hz, they may sound a little better as they're not straining to make the sub-60Hz signals. Try it and see what you think. Try 50Hz... 70Hz... see what you like. I don't think you'll ever get the lowest music bass or chair shaking explosions with what you have now.

 

[zieglj01]

I would just go with the towers and save for a better subwoofer

 

[zhimbo]

1. Bypass the subs crossover completely, use the receiver only. If the sub doesn't have a "bypass" options, set it as high as it will go.
2. The standard starting point for a crossover is 80Hz; you might start lower with towers that go pretty low (as low as 60Hz, say). Some will say always do 80Hz, even if your speakers can play quite low.

Basic Subwoofer Setup Guide NOT for Dummies | Audioholics

Don't get too misled by what herbu said; your subwoofer almost certainly will be better at lower frequencies than your speakers. Speaker specs, even from many generally reputable manufacturers, are often "best case scenarios" (to be generous). Not that the Polk sub is a powerhouse or goes especially low, but it will be better at what it does than your speakers.

Added by Edit: Hmmm... The Wharfedales look fairly capable down low. Try setting it up with the sub and without, and see if the sub noticeably helps. If so, great, if not, sell it.

 

[noxangelus]

Thanks for the responses.

I changed the sub to bypass, and under 'crossover' in receiver options is at 60.

Theres another option page under Bass, there is LPF to LFE option and the lowest I can go is 80. There is also an option to have LFE + Main, I'm guessing that main is my front speakers.

I just want LFE only don't I? Why is there two cross over options is that going to cause a hole in my sound?

Thanks!

 

[GIEGAR]

Thanks for the responses.

I changed the sub to bypass, and under 'crossover' in receiver options is at 60.

Theres another option page under Bass, there is LPF to LFE option and the lowest I can go is 80. There is also an option to have LFE + Main, I'm guessing that main is my front speakers.

I just want LFE only don't I? Why is there two cross over options is that going to cause a hole in my sound?

Thanks!

Have you run Audyssey? Audyssey MultEQ XT will measure the in-room frequency response of each speaker and the sub. This frequency response is dependant on the speaker/subs relationship to the room and it's furnishings and can be quite different to the published specifications. Audyssey will report what it detects is each speaker's -3dB roll-off frequency and the AVR's processor will choose a suggested initial crossover frequency above that from those that are available to it. You are free to change each speaker's crossover frequency, however you should only ever raise the crossover from the initial one. Never go lower than the crossover as this can leave a gap in the frequency response for that channel.

My general advice is to raise the crossover to a frequency just below the point where you can readily "localise" the sub (ie. pick the spot it's in) when playing familiar program material. 80Hz is generally a good starting point and you can advance upwards from there. You will find after a brief period of experimentation chopping and changing crossovers that you'll settle on a preferred crossover frequency and forget about it for months/years. A couple of benefits of higher crossovers are:

1. Each time you drop an octave, maintaining the same SPL requires displacement to increase fourfold. If you hand off the excursion heavy lower octaves to the sub, this makes life much easier for the mains and they will do a better job of producing upper bass and midrange.
2. Displacement requires power, and the lower octaves are therefore power hungry and are the limiting factor in how much power an amp can produce cleanly. Again, tasking as much of this burden as possible to a powered sub or two is much less taxing on the AVR's internal amps.

LPF for LFE: This is not a crossover. This is a variable low-pass filter that acts on the LFE (.1) channel only. Dolby's LFE channel is bandwidth limited to 120Hz (a "brickwall") so sound engineers tend to roll content off below that. DTS's LFE channel is theoretically full range, however by convention or for consistency, sound engineers roll the content off at or below 120Hz. So set this at 120Hz (default) and forget about it for good.

LFE+Main: Confusingly, in Denonworld "Main" refers to all satellite channels in this context. And yes, leave this setting at the default "LFE". Have a read of page 96 & 98 of your owners manual about this. If you have trouble deciphering it, please get back to us.

This is a great Denon resource: batpigworld | the "Denon-to-English" dictionary | your one-stop shop for Denon help.