Set speakers to large or small??

[Lightning Steve]

Tried the search and got to much,lol.
Want to know what I should have my speakers set up as. I used the auto callibrate function and all my speakers are set to "Large" and the crossover funtion is disabled. It sounds good to me? But I tried setting them to small and the crossover to 60Hz, sounds differant and still sounds good to me?
-What should they be set to, large or small?
-What is the large and small setting doing?
-What should the crossover be set to and just what is this doing?

It's a small room (12'x12"?).
Sony DG510 reciever
PSB speakers (older speakers PSB-C1, PSB-400, PSB-100, P.A. sub(200watts)

Thanks for any help!
Steve

 

[jbrillo]

If I remember correctly, speakers that are set to LARGE will receive the full frequency range of the audio signal. If they are set to SMALL, they will receive the everything above the crossover frequency set with the low frequency signals being sent to the subwoofer. Unless your speakers can actually produce some low end bass, set them all to SMALL and let your subwoofer handle the low frequencies. Hope this helps.

Set the crossover frequency to whatever the lowest frequency your speakers are able to produce. You can experiment with this, you may find you like 60Hz better. Also, THX recommends 80Hz. Try 'em all out.

 

[Lightning Steve]

Thanks Jbrillo
Okay that sounds like what was happening (on small, position of bass changed). The Sony rec. is new and after the install I thought my speakers (bass) sounded "fuller?". The crossover explanation makes sence (that I can understand,lol) as I really don't know much about the in's and out's of audio.
If the speakers are set to large does the sub recieve any less of a signal? Wouldn't it be more advantagious to have speakers set to large just to get a little more low freq. sound out of them, what ever they are able to do?

 

[jbrillo]

Glad I could help.

I'm not sure if the sub receives less of a signal if your speakers are set to Large. Anyone else know? I would guess yes, but I'm not completely sure. I know that when I have all speakers set to Small that the subwoofer seems louder or more active.

Setting all of your speakers to Large to get more low frequency is generally not ideal. Most speakers aren't able to reach the 20Hz range with high fidelity and most receivers don't have enough power to push 5, 6, or 7 speakers to that kind of low. So, it's generally better to let your powered subwoofer handle all the low end stuf since it is designed specifically to handle the lower frequencies. Remember, it takes alot of power to reproduce really low frequencies. Leaving the low frequencies for the sub also allows your receiver more headroom for powering your other speakers.

 

[Lightning Steve]

That's good advice thanks, it also matches what I just found and read (unrelated topic but they started talking about the large and small settings).
Thanks again

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Tried the search and got to much,lol.
Want to know what I should have my speakers set up as. I used the auto callibrate function and all my speakers are set to "Large" and the crossover funtion is disabled. It sounds good to me? But I tried setting them to small and the crossover to 60Hz, sounds differant and still sounds good to me?
-What should they be set to, large or small?
-What is the large and small setting doing?
-What should the crossover be set to and just what is this doing?

It's a small room (12'x12"?).
Sony DG510 reciever
PSB speakers (older speakers PSB-C1, PSB-400, PSB-100, P.A. sub(200watts)

Thanks for any help!
Steve

The PSB-C1 has a FR of 62-21,000 Hz +/-3dB. I would set the speakers to small & crossover of 60Hz also. Setting to Large Full Range will also send sound 20-60Hz to your speakers and you may be missing out on details.

 

[MDS]

If the speakers are set to large does the sub recieve any less of a signal?

If the speakers are set to Large the sub will receive NONE of the signal for that channel. The subwoofer will always get the LFE regardless of the Large/Small settting on other channels.

 

[Nomo]

If the speakers are set to Large the sub will receive NONE of the signal for that channel. The subwoofer will always get the LFE regardless of the Large/Small settting on other channels.

I can only speak for Yamaha receivers on this but setting the speakers to large does not necessarily keep the sub from getting the frequencies below the cross over setting. That choice is made via the bass output setting and it's choice of Front, Sub, or Both.
I'm not at all sure about that Sony model though.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If the speakers are set to Large the sub will receive NONE of the signal for that channel. The subwoofer will always get the LFE regardless of the Large/Small settting on other channels.

This is what it says in the Panasonic DMP-BD10 blu-ray player:

Large Speaker- Select when the speaker supports
low-frequency (under 100 Hz) reproduction.

Small Speaker- Select when the speaker does not support low-frequency
reproduction.

When playing discs recorded with Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD, even if
you select “Small”, audio output will have an effect similar to when
“Large” is selected.

So in this case (TrueHD & DTS-HD), even if you set your speaker to SMALL, it makes it LARGE anyway!

And this is from the Toshiba HD-XA1 manual:

Small Speaker- Select if the speaker cannot output low frequency.
Large Speaker- Select if the speaker can output low frequency.

Crossover- Low frequency under which you set here will be of a subwoofer. Select one from 80 Hz/100 Hz/120 Hz.

In this case, it appears that regardless of how you set your speaker size, whatever you set as the CROSSOVER will determine what goes to your SUBWOOFER? You can set to SMALL or LARGE and 80Hz, and the subwoofer will get everything below 80Hz regardless?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I can only speak for Yamaha receivers on this but setting the speakers to large does not necessarily keep the sub from getting the frequencies below the cross over setting. That choice is made via the bass output setting and it's choice of Front, Sub, or Both.
I'm not at all sure about that Sony model though.

I owned a Harman Kardon AVR247, and it's the same way. It all depends on the CROSSOVER. If you set the Crossover at 80Hz, it will send EVERYTHING below 80Hz to the subwoofer regardless of how you set your speaker size as LARGE or SMALL.