Subwoofer crossover setting

[Kevinw]

I have seen many options about how to set the crossover but if my speakers are rated :
Overall Frequency Response 60Hz - 24kHz
Lower -3dB Limit 65Hz
Upper -3dB Limit 20kHz
Would I not set the crossover to 60HZ instead of the 80HZ as recommended by THX or the 100HZ I see recommended at other places?

 

[navychop]

I certainly look forward to seeing the replies to this one, for my own benefit.

 

[cebbigh]

I toyed with this a long time too. I wound up with the 80 setting because I read it's best to free the fronts for what they do best and let the sub do the rest.

But playing around with it is half the fun and what really matters is what sounds best to you.

Add some shakers to the mix too. They are cheap and really add to the experience.

 

[Kevinw]

I have had mine set at 80 but when I looked at the range of my peakes sarting at 60 I moved the crossover setting to 60 and it cleared up a lot of muffledness I did not know I had. I dod have to bosst the sub a bit. I will say the blu ray player has no issues with low LFE now.

 

[jayn_j]

The high pass for the mains and center on my Onkyo only go down to 60 Hz, so I set it there. My mains are good for 40 Hz. (Klipsch KG-5/RC-35)

My reasoning was that you didn't want to set a six pole filter to the frequency where the response was already 3-6 dB down. These filters should have a pretty steep cutoff.

At 60 Hz, my mains are still pretty flat, so it seemed like a good crossover. I set the low pass on the sub to around 65-70 Hz. I weanted a little overlap and that seemed to give the flattest response.

I also experimented with full range on the amp and 100 Hz cutoff on the sub. The results were too boomy for my taste. I also tried the double bass setting on the amp, and that was WAY over the top.

The bottom line is that you need to do what sounds best to you. I lived for years without a sub and was happy with the sound. I only went there because I wanted a little more emphasis on effects for action movies. Even there, it is only important to punch up the lowest frequencies, thus setting the crossovers as low as I did.

NONE of this is going to apply to the typical HT user who has a satellite/sub setup. I have a Denon HTIB in my bedroom, and there I have the sats running full range and the sub set around 110 Hz and cranked up fairly high.

Bottom line is that my setup probably isn't going to help you much. You need to set it for what feels good to you. I always go ahead and formally set stuff up using the guidelines. I write the settings down and then over time will tweek stuff based on what I am listening to. Eventually, I get to something that works for me, or stuff is reallyscrewed up. If it is all messed up, I have the original settings written down so i can fall back to them. When I get to something I am satisfied with, I write that down as well.

FWIW, I am still fiddling with the sub, as I have only had it a couple of months. Right now, I am starting to think I need to have a couple of settings. What works for action movies is way too boomy for music. Romanitc comedies are somewhere in between, but probably closer to music settings.

I kind of wish I had picked a sub with remote, so I could set up presets on my Harmony. I am thinking about disabling the sub and making the mains go full range when I select music now.

 

[SatinKzo]

I keep my onkyo at 50hz for the mains and 100hz for center. My L/R go to 20hz

Sub I have at 60hz. It seems to keep things deeper and richer from the front without getting overwhelmed. But it took quite a bit of time experimenting and listening to the same movies.

 

[MSG]

There is a good article about Sub crossover setting:

Setting the Subwoofer / LFE Crossover for Best Performance — Reviews and News from Audioholics.

 

[jayn_j]

Good article, which pretty much agrees with what we all have been saying.

The only point I would take issue with is where they make the distinction that the SUB should not be treated as a woofer. I even agree with that part when you have reasonable full range main speakers. However, a lot of systems in HT use these tiny little satellites with big dropoffs below 150 Hz. If you treated the sub here as a true sub with 60 Hz cutoff, you would end up with a giant notch from 60-120 Hz.

It does go back "Do what is right for your system", which is also his final conclusion.

 

[bhelms]

I have the impression, perhaps incorrect, that if I let my full-range speakers handle some or all of the low bass they can, and allow significant overlap from the sub, that I'll end up confusing that whole frequency range coming from multiple souces and perhaps interfering/reinforcing/canceling/etc. I have my fronts crossed at 70Hz (receiver setting) and the sub at 80Hz (receiver) then I play with the crossover, phase, and level knobs on the sub to try to get something that sounds right in my listening location. I would be inclined to cross the fronts even higher, but I am convinced there is still a detectable direction content at that frequency that would be lost If I did so. Someone else suggested 70Hz so that's where I started. My center and rears I cross at 100Hz for now. I realize the potential directionality lost in the rears that way, but I think there would be less content there.

Another motive for not sending full range to all my speakers is a power handling issue. I don't sense that my receiver (90 w/ch, all 7 driven) is overpowering the fronts at all, but I once heard a nasty "blatt" out of my center and I have already replaced 2 LF drivers in my rears, one that froze up solid and the other that got "scratchy". Keeping the deep lows out of them gives me a greater margin when I crank 'er up! (If the receiver was underpowered I would be blowing tweeters instead and that's certainly not the problem.)

Much more experimentation is in order! I am also thinking of adding a larger, more powerful sub. I'm currently running a 12" 300 watt unit rated down to 18Hz if memory serves...