Quote:

Been a long time since I posted anything here, but I keep up with most of what is going on. Anyway, I have a couple questions about crossovers. I have the epic 60 500 system, and even though I have had it for a year I still find myself just begining to learn how things work. Right now I have a Yamaha 5960 reciever. I plan on upgrading to one of the new 1.3 onkyo recievers that I see are coming down the pipe because of the hdmi 1.3 connection and it being able to decode the lossless tracks. Anyway, back to my questions, With my setup now I cannot adjust the crossover for each speaker, but with the new reciever I will be able to do so. With these speakers what should I set the crossover for on each of them. Everything is set to small except the M60's. They are at the large setting.



I see two questions, firstly what to use with your Yamaha receiver with only one universal crossover setting and secondly, what settings for the Onkyo which like most of the current crop of receivers allow individual speaker bass managenent.

One of the most important benefits of redirecting bass to the subwoofer is the improved dynamic range of the speakers which comes from lessening the load on the amplifier from reproducing LF sounds. Your Yamaha is rated at 7 x 100W and would benefit from redirecting as much bass as you can to the EP500. Because you can only use one setting I suggest you run all speakers crossed at 80hz for improved dynamic range, noting that the vp150 extends to 85HZ+/-3db, the M60 37hz+-/3db and the QS8s 95hz+/-3db. Note that because you can apply only one universal setting the blend between the EP500 and the surrounds and centre won't be as smooth as the blend between the mains and the sub. That's a typical problem with using the same crossover setting for all the sats. Ideally all the speakers blend smoothly with the sub.

With the more advanced bass management features of the Onkyo the picture changes. My starting rule of thumb before tweaking for mains is to set the crossover 1/2 octave above the +/-3db LF extension which in the case of the M60 would be 1.5 x 37hz or 55hz. I would set the vp150 at the +/- 3db extension or 85hz and the QS8s at 95hz. I cross my QS8s at 100hz because my processor only adjusts by 10hz increments.

The next step is some careful measuring of the M60/EP500 crossover with a good calibration disc like Avia and SPL metre and some critical listening. Your room acoustics may require a slightly higher or lower setting to obtain a smoother FR around the crossover point.

John