Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Large vs. small speaker settings - Help

Please help me to better understand setting up my speakers. I've got M22's as my mains, an EP350, VP150, and QS8's (just got 'em). I've got a Yamaha RX1300. I've got the mains set "small" so all bass should go to the sub. When I set the center to "large" (makes sense to me, with the 150) it seems like ALL sound goes to center, and very little comes from the M22's. I haven't played around with the rear surrounds yet. Is there any generalizations to how I should consider these Large or small? I'm no audiophile, I just want these speakers to sound as good as they can. Thanks a lot.

From the way I understand it, if you're using a sub, all speakers generally should be set to "small".

Not ALL bass goes to the sub, what is sent to the sub is dependent on where you have the crossover set at.

With your setup, you'd probably want to set the subwoofer crossover at 80hz. That means that your receiver will redirect bass from 80hz and below to the subwoofer. (note: it's not a brickwall setting at 80hz - it's slopped) Above 80hz would go to your mains, center, and surrounds.

After you've made these setting adjustments, be sure to then adjust the levels of each channel. You want them all to output the same spl level. If you don't have a spl meter (most people don't) judge by ear. If you are not using an spl meter, when you think you've got all the channels at the same level, knock the subwoofer's level down about 2-3 notches. Guaranteed that if you judge by ear, you'll have the subwoofer setting too high.

Alright gang, did I get all that right?

since none of your speakers play full range i think you would be better off with all of your speakers set to small and send the deeper bass to the sub.i am not familar with your receiver,but if you are able to set your crosover.80-90 seems to work fine for my vp150,as for the other speakers,wich i dont own,the specs seem that the 80 mark should be good,or your reciever may have predetermined crosover points when set to small wich i belive are usually around 100hz.so i would say set them all to small,and let the sub do the bull work,it will take away some of the load from your mains center and surrounds....good luck...ron

You've pretty much nailed it spiff.

For this setup with M22s it is a good recommendation to set ALL speakers to small.
Then turn up the crossover knob on the subwoofer to its maximum (this gets the subwoofer internal crossover out of the way to allow the receiver to handle the crossover duties).

Then calibrate your speakers for sound levels. There is plenty of info on this in these forums but spiff has pretty much covered it.

Yes, and I would always start with an ~80Hz crossover. Once all this is said and done, and if your receiver allows several differerent crossover frequencies between 60-100Hz or so, I would further experiment from there.

TP, set all speakers "small", which will send frequencies below the 90hz fixed crossover on your 1300 to the EP350 and frequencies above that to the other speakers. Turn the crossover control(not the level control!)on the EP350 all the way up to get it out of the way of the 90hz crossover the 1300 does. On the 1300 send low frequencies to SWFR, not BOTH.