Finally pulled the trigger.

[Qman]

Just to address this...
Because some manufacturers put a sub driver in a tower speaker does not mean it is the best practice.
As mentioned before, in a room, the best location for the sub is rarely the same as the other aspects of the sound.

If you expect the woofer(s) in a tower speaker to play below say 80Hz, then it IS acting as the subwoofer, relative to our discussion here with regards to bookshelf speakers. How is this different than Ascend towers running full range?

[Qman]

finally able to get a pic of the control panel of my Sub...I have a splitter cable coming from the receiver to both of the RCA jacks, (removed for picture clarity) sub back pacemaker.jpg

[davef]

finally able to get a pic of the control panel of my Sub...I have a splitter cable coming from the receiver to both of the RCA jacks, (removed for picture clarity) sub back pacemaker.jpg

Thanks for posting this. I do not see an adjustable low pass filter on this subwoofer. I see 2 options, either 40Hz or 90Hz. If you do not wish to update your receiver or update your subwoofer, your only option is to set your receiver at the lowest crossover point it allows (100Hz) and set your subwoofer to 90Hz. From there, adjust your volume control on the subwoofer to your personal taste.

I also recommend doing the subwoofer crawl as I previously mentioned, but this is a HUGE subwoofer so your placement options are likely limited due to aesthetics. Honestly, subwoofer technology has vastly improved since this sub was manufactured (1998) and you can get a new subwoofer that is half this size, likely even more than half this size - that will easily outperform this unit in every aspect.



This is far from proper sub/speaker integration, but it is the best you will be able to do with the electronics you have.

[davef]

If you expect the woofer(s) in a tower speaker to play below say 80Hz, then it IS acting as the subwoofer, relative to our discussion here with regards to bookshelf speakers. How is this different than Ascend towers running full range?

Because in the context of this discussion, we are discussing baffle step compensation and the problems created when you place a bookshelf speaker on top of a baffle that is considerably wider than the front baffle of the speaker. The difference with a well designed tower speaker and placing a bookshelf speaker on top of a such a large object is that out tower speaker has the proper amount of baffle step compensation to correct for the baffle size of the speaker (which doesn't change).

In your scenario, the bookshelf speaker has the proper amount of BSC to accommodate for the width of that speaker, - by placing the speaker on top of such a large baffle, you are increasing the front baffle width, for which the BSC circuit in the crossover is not optimized for. This will affect upper bass and midrange performance.

Since it doesn't seem like you are fully understanding what baffle step compensation is, I suggest googling it.