Crossover frequency for HTM-200SE

[goldark]

So I'm using the HTM-200SE for surrounds. Audyssey XT32 set the crossover frequency at 150 Hz. Is this a little too high?

They should be easily be crossed over at 80Hz, right?

Are there any negatives to manually raising the crossover to 80Hz?

[sludgeogre]

So I'm using the HTM-200SE for surrounds. Audyssey XT32 set the crossover frequency at 150 Hz. Is this a little too high?

They should be easily be crossed over at 80Hz, right?

Are there any negatives to manually raising the crossover to 80Hz?

It depends on how hot your subs are sometimes. I have crossed mine over that low, but prefer it around 100-120 Hz. Just experiment with it, won't hurt anything, it's just preference, and quite a lot of it depends on your room, of course. If you have them really close, 80 Hz is probably alright, but if you have a moderate sized room I'd recommend starting out at 100 Hz at least, probably 120.

[N Boros]

So I'm using the HTM-200SE for surrounds. Audyssey XT32 set the crossover frequency at 150 Hz. Is this a little too high?

They should be easily be crossed over at 80Hz, right?

Are there any negatives to manually raising the crossover to 80Hz?

How did you place your microphone when you took your measurements? Did you just set the microphone on the seat or on the seat back? If so you have skewed your measurements and you need to rerun Audyssey. Ideally you want to get the microphone in your seat on a tripod, at ear level, where it has at least one foot of space between it and any obstructions like the seat and seat back. Furthermore, you want to make sure that there is a clear line of sight between it and all of the speakers. Hopefully you don't have highback seats where the seat back blocking the line of sight from your speakers to the microphone (ear-height). If that is the case then you want to raise your speakers a bit until they get a clear line of sight to your ear level.

Assuming that you did all that and you are still getting a high crossover you might play around with angling the speakers so make sure the tweeter is pointing in a clear line to your ear level in the seat. One other thing to think about is how far are these speakers away from your seat? If they are 25 feet away, then they might be straining in the bass region, which tells us why such a high crossover was chosen. In this case you would need to get larger speakers if you want a lower crossover. However, I doubt you have this situation. One last thing to think about is if you have the speakers wall mounted or on stands out in the room. If the speakers are wall mounted then you have them ideally placed to help with bass reinforcement. If they are out into the room, since they are a smaller sealed bookshelf speaker you might run into issues where the bass below 150 Hz can't match the output above. An easy think to check here is placing them back against the wall and rerunning Audyssey. If have checked all of these things and you still get a high crossover setting like that then things get a little more challenging. If you just manually lower the crossover on them from 150 to 80 Hz, then Audyssey is doing no EQ between 80 to 150 Hz on those speakers, which isn't the best. If it came back with a crossover of 80 Hz and you manually raised it to 100 Hz or higher then you wouln't lose anything in terms of EQ.

[goldark]

How did you place your microphone when you took your measurements? Did you just set the microphone on the seat or on the seat back? If so you have skewed your measurements and you need to rerun Audyssey. Ideally you want to get the microphone in your seat on a tripod, at ear level, where it has at least one foot of space between it and any obstructions like the seat and seat back. Furthermore, you want to make sure that there is a clear line of sight between it and all of the speakers. Hopefully you don't have highback seats where the seat back blocking the line of sight from your speakers to the microphone (ear-height). If that is the case then you want to raise your speakers a bit until they get a clear line of sight to your ear level.

Assuming that you did all that and you are still getting a high crossover you might play around with angling the speakers so make sure the tweeter is pointing in a clear line to your ear level in the seat. One other thing to think about is how far are these speakers away from your seat? If they are 25 feet away, then they might be straining in the bass region, which tells us why such a high crossover was chosen. In this case you would need to get larger speakers if you want a lower crossover. However, I doubt you have this situation. One last thing to think about is if you have the speakers wall mounted or on stands out in the room. If the speakers are wall mounted then you have them ideally placed to help with bass reinforcement. If they are out into the room, since they are a smaller sealed bookshelf speaker you might run into issues where the bass below 150 Hz can't match the output above. An easy think to check here is placing them back against the wall and rerunning Audyssey. If have checked all of these things and you still get a high crossover setting like that then things get a little more challenging. If you just manually lower the crossover on them from 150 to 80 Hz, then Audyssey is doing no EQ between 80 to 150 Hz on those speakers, which isn't the best. If it came back with a crossover of 80 Hz and you manually raised it to 100 Hz or higher then you wouln't lose anything in terms of EQ.

Thanks for the tips. I went out and bought a tripod and Audyssey has set the crossover at 120 Hz now, which I guess I'll stick with. It was just more of an issue because I know the HTM-200's should have no problems being crossed over at 80 Hz, so I'm wondering what the issue could've been.

[davef]

So I'm using the HTM-200SE for surrounds. Audyssey XT32 set the crossover frequency at 150 Hz. Is this a little too high?

They should be easily be crossed over at 80Hz, right?

Are there any negatives to manually raising the crossover to 80Hz?

Receivers rarely get this right (especially Onkyo in my experience, although I don't know what you are using) - just manually lower the crossover to where you want it, 80 - 100Hz is generally recommended for the 200's.

[goldark]

Receivers rarely get this right (especially Onkyo in my experience, although I don't know what you are using) - just manually lower the crossover to where you want it, 80 - 100Hz is generally recommended for the 200's.

Thanks for the reply, Dave. The only issue with manually lowering the crossover is that Audyssey wouldn't have corrected for the extra frequencies now covered by the speaker. With 120 Hz, I guess I can live with it. Just worried about subwoofer localization.

[davef]

Thanks for the reply, Dave. The only issue with manually lowering the crossover is that Audyssey wouldn't have corrected for the extra frequencies now covered by the speaker. With 120 Hz, I guess I can live with it. Just worried about subwoofer localization.

You're talking about only a half octave range at most. I wouldn't be concerned about it - all Auto EQ systems have a finite number of control points, it is not possible to EQ every frequency from 20Hz - 20kHz. These systems EQ in ranges of frequencies. For example, if the receiver (Audyssey does not set the crossover point, it just takes the measurements) set it at 120, and you dropped down it down to 100Hz, that small range of frequencies in between would just be averaged and no human could possibly hear a difference in that range between eq'd and non eq'd.

The crew at Audyssey will also tell you to manually lower the crossover point....