Crossover and speaker size

[jskibi]

I recently received the Harman Kardon 635 receiver to compliment the 340 mains and center, 170 surrounds and HSU VTF-3 MKII sub. When the receiver performs its auto EQ, it sets all of the speakers at large. The crossover for the 340's and 170's are set at 40Hz and the sub at 120 Hz.

It seems as though the receiver is overestimating the speakers for best sound vs. capability possibly.

Is there specific size and crossover settings that the speakers should be set to for optimum performance?

Joe

[curtis]

The auto setup feature on my Sherwood Newcastle P-965 pre/pro does something similar. My guess is the system measures the room effect as well.

I maually set my crossover to 80Hz and set the speakers to small.

[jskibi]

So both the sub and the speakers are crossed over at 80Hz? Should there be a crossover range, that is, if the sub and speakers are sharing a large range of lower frequecy sounds, could this make the room boomy?

[curtis]

It is actually one crossover....the speakers are crossovered to the sub at 80hz.

I think I on your HK there is are two settings.....a high pass for the sub and a low pass for the speakers. Setting them both to 80hz should be fine.

The crossover is not a brickwall....the speakers and sub will reproduce some of the same frequencies, but basicly, the sub will play what is below 80Hz and the speakers above 80Hz.

Also play with the settings to find out what sounds best to you.

[Kpt_Krunch]

jskibi - like Curtis I too have my Ascends (340's front and 170's surrounds) crossed over at 80hz. On the sub itself, I defeated the crossover (by turning the crossover setting all the way up to 150hz). If you have a crossover setting on the sub - and you set it the same as the receiver, you could actually miss some bass. I did it with mine as a test (set the sub crossover to 80) and sure enough, had a lot of missing bass!

[jskibi]

So would it be safe to say that the sub is better at handling frequencies over 80Hz than the speakers are at handling frequencies under 80Hz? Do you hear low dialogue through the sub at up to 150Hz?

Joe

[BradJudy]

Do you hear low dialogue through the sub at up to 150Hz?

Probably only if you're listening to Barry White since 150Hz is at the low end of the male vocal range.

[Dave Nelms]

When I was setting up my new B&K AVR 507 I was attempting to set everything up to THX specs and the word I got was to set all of the main speakers to small and set the crossover at 80 htz. This is regardless of speaker size.

I have PSB Stratus Silvers as my mains and Ascends in a full surround array and with this setting they blend beautifully with my VTF-3R for both music and movies. But experiment with different setting to see which one sounds best to you.

[Lee Bailey]

I recently received the Harman Kardon 635 receiver to compliment the 340 mains and center, 170 surrounds and HSU VTF-3 MKII sub. When the receiver performs its auto EQ, it sets all of the speakers at large. The crossover for the 340's and 170's are set at 40Hz and the sub at 120 Hz.

It seems as though the receiver is overestimating the speakers for best sound vs. capability possibly.

Is there specific size and crossover settings that the speakers should be set to for optimum performance?

Joe

Since the 170's hit about their -3db point at around 80Hz, you shouldn't crossover any lower than that. The 340's hit their -3db point at around 60Hz, which still makes 80Hz a good crossover point. As was noted earlier, if your sub does not have an internal crossover bypass, you need to turn its crossover up as high as it can go to avoid interaction with the receiver's crossover.

[curtis]

For reference, the anechoic -3dB points are:

HTM-200: 80Hz
CBM-170: 69Hz
CMT-340: 55Hz