Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M22/Rava setup starting point?

Within the next few days I will receive an Adire Rava sub to go along with my M22s and Denon 1802. For those of you with this or a similar combination, what initial settings would you recommend for crossover, gain, and large/small receiver setting for the mains? I can tinker with it from there. For the time being, I will only be using the system in stereo mode, as I have yet to buy either a DVD player (gasp!) or surrounds. Thanks!

I suggest taking a look at the poll results from the recent subwoofer crossover question of forum viewers.
the poll
(and notice the nice standard distribution curve now coming out of the numbers...aren't stats great?)
I believe the majority fell into the 75-84hz range or so for crossover. There were some other discussions further in that thread that may be helpful.

Run a sub connecting cable from the sub out on the Denon to one of the line level inputs on the Rava. Set M22s on the Denon to "small". This will crossover the Rava below about 80hz and the M22s above. Then, to get the Rava crossover as far out of the way of the Denon crossover as possible, turn it all the way up and leave it there. The sub level should be set according to taste, starting out low and increasing until the bass becomes too prominent.

It's going to vary with the room and personal tastes, but my Rava (used w/ M22's) is crossed over at about 75 Hz, the phase is at 0, and the gain is about 40%. Consider purchasing an SPL meter to help calibrate the system. They go for $40 at Radio Shack.

Eric

Thanks for the tips! I have a few idiotically basic follow-up questions, if you'll indulge me:

1) Does setting mains in the Denon 1802 to "small" and turning the sub crossover all the way up have the same effect as setting the mains to "large" and using the sub to set the crossover at 80 Hz?

2) Would setting the mains to "small" make it impossible for me to set the crossover below 80 Hz?

3) What is "phase"?

4) If I had an SPL meter, what exactly would I do with it?

Sorry to be so clueless, but they didn't teach me this stuff in grad school! (Relax... I'm not an engineer!)

No. When "small" is set, the receiver takes care of all the bass management necessary. The crossover in the sub becomes a hindrance and should be bypassed if the sub has that provision( the regular Rava doesn't) or set as high as possible to get it as far away from the receiver cross as possible. If "large" is set there is no crossover done by the receiver and the M22s operate full-range. Setting the sub crossover to 80hz would have both M22s and Ravas operating strongly up to about 90hz and isn't as good as the alternative settings.

If "small" was set, setting the sub crossover below 80hz would create a gap between the 80 hz receiver cross and the, for example, 50hz sub cross. Again, the idea is to take the sub crossover out of the picture so that it doesn't interfere with the receiver cross, and doesn't cause the frequency response problems which could occur if it was also set to around 80hz.

Take a look at this recent post for many answers:

link to post answering your questions

I set my rav at 160 hz,0 phase and volume up 40 percent,set my m-80's to small and the sound is awesome!the m-80's have incredable mid-bass detail and the rava can belt out some really tight low bass with great detail. the only thing about the rava I don't like is the amp won't take sastained loud volume and the amp gets really hot and cuts out. I went threw two of them with the same problem and decided to live with it.