Sub for LFE only w/Sierra-1

[millerwill]

The only way to know what you will lose is if you try it. Personally, I set my Sierras to small, and cross them over to the subs at 60hz.

I've been thinking about the question of 60 vs 80 Hz for the x-over of my L/C/R Sierra's with my sub (SVS PB10, in a medium-small room, ~ 2000 cu ft). Will the Sierra's produce better, clearer sound in the 60 - 80 Hz region than the sub, or vice-versa? (AVR is Onkyo 805, with Audyssey eq.) I will of course try this out to see what it sounds like, but I'm away from home for several months and just wondering what the more-experienced persons here thought about it.

[scape]

I've been thinking about the question of 60 vs 80 Hz for the x-over of my L/C/R Sierra's with my sub (SVS PB10, in a medium-small room, ~ 2000 cu ft). Will the Sierra's produce better, clearer sound in the 60 - 80 Hz region than the sub, or vice-versa? (AVR is Onkyo 805, with Audyssey eq.) I will of course try this out to see what it sounds like, but I'm away from home for several months and just wondering what the more-experienced persons here thought about it.

the sierra's look like they go down to 60hz no problem, though at 85db, I have a feeling it will sound much clearer than utilizing your sub at 80hz, even though it may run a bit more efficient at high volumes in that range, whose to say about all that. i messed around with my settings (albeit none of the same electronics) and came up with 90hz xo as a decent middle ground, though recently the bass is a tad overdone in some media (i think the sub finally wore in to a looser level) and may need to recalibrate the speakers or move the crossover to a lower setting.

the only way to tell is to test it, every room is different, as are most electronics and even the smallest changes can have a large impact.

[robruffo]

Do not ever cross above 80hrz, simply because above that sound is localizeable, and you will experience sound that "should" be coming from the mains actually emitting from the sub instead.

[DougMac]

Do not ever cross above 80hrz, simply because above that sound is localizeable, and you will experience sound that "should" be coming from the mains actually emitting from the sub instead.

This is generally good information, but things aren't quite so cut and dried. THX is responsible for the 80hz crossover point. It came from studies of listeners. 80hz was chosen because that's the frequency that no one in their research could localize sound at 80 hz or lower. For some subjects the threshold was higher, even above 120hz. I looked for, but cannot find a distribution curve.

I think it varies from situation to situation. It could be that because of the room and your hearing, you can't localize anything under 100hz. If you can show that through listening and there are advantages to setting the crossover at 100hz instead of 80 hz, then there'd be no reason not to.

Doug