>>What puzzles me is what is supposed to happen when the sub is set to 'Off' and a speaker (whether it be mains, center, surrounds, a combination thereof, or all) is set to small. In this scenario what dictates the crossover point for any speaker set to small?
If Sub is set to Off, Mains are set to Large, and anything else is set to Small the bass from the Small speakers will normally be fed to the mains. HK is the exception here, it only feeds bass from center & surrounds to Sub.
If Sub is set to On, of course, all the bass gets sent to the sub instead.
Most receivers let you set the crossover frequency from a short list of preset values (eg. 60, 80, 100, 120, 160, 200) but you have to use the same crossover frequency for mains, center and surrounds. Again the HK is an exception, it lets you pick different crossover frequencies for each speaker set.
>>To be honest, I prefer the sound of everything set to large (more bass sent to center and surrounds) and may use this setting for normal listening. I suppose if I ever want to show off my system by cranking some reference scene, I should probably set the center and surrounds back to small while I do that. Ummm...not that I ever plan on showing off at all...um...er..(clears throat).
I think we all strongly recommend setting everything to large and turning the volume down a bit if needed. If you want to show off, have your buddy with the PSB system bring his sub and you buy the beer.
