Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Subs, down vs front

Hello all. Need to be educated on subwoofers. I currently have a small sub (def tec, 8in) that fires to the front. Alot of the subs I've been looking at fire down. I don't have a lot of room so I couldn't give the sub a foot clearance on each side, probably not even half that. In my situation should I go with another front firing sub or does the clearance not really matter if the sub is designed to allow space for the down firing sub.

Does anyone have experience or info with the REL T2 pictured below? On their website they have instructions to actually hook up the sub High Level posts to the same posts on the ave as the front speakers with a special cable they provide. They (sub) are over 100K ohms so it won't really add a lot of overhead to the avr. They say then use the .1/LFE connection also which works for DVDs that have a .1/LFE channel. Hook up both at the same time. They say the High Level hookup will ensure the sub receives the exact same info at the same time as your front speakers and produces superior sound. Has anyone ever had their fronts and sub running off the same connections simultaneously? They also say that this sub should be placed in a corner behind your front speakers. My placement wouldn't be directly behind but would be beside and in a corner. You might be able to tell from the small picture below that my sub is to the right of my right front.

I'm not set on the REL T2 or T1 that is just an example. I'm looking at the EP350 and others as well.

Any feedback welcome and appreciated



Thanks.

I wouldn't stress about down vs front firing.

The high level/low level bit sounds like a bunch of bunk to me. At one time I ran my sub off of high level inputs instead of low level (my old sub, not the EP350), and I perceived the exact opposite experience from what they describe.

Also, do they have an automatic switcher in there that mysteriously detects when you're listening to music vs. listening to movies? Otherwise they're just combining the two inputs, and if what they say is true, that would provide a muddier sound.

I think what they are saying is that certain sources i.e. DVDs that are .1 as in 5.1 or 7.1 have a channel for that .1 which is the low freq to the sub and that is different than playing music that doesn't have a .1 channel.

Here is the link to that info. http://www.rel.net/index2.htm


Again I'm here to learn so everyone jump in.

Thanks.

Recievers do bass management so that any of your speakers set to small, have their bass below the crossover point redirected to the subwoofer. This happens both with soundtracks that have an LFE channel (5.1) or not (2.0). There isn't any need to use the high level sub inputs unless your receiver doesn't do this- but I doubt you'd find one made in the last 10 years that doesn't.

Part of their instructions for hooking up the High level and .1/LFE were to set the fronts to large.

Yes, you'd have to set the fronts to large, otherwise the receiver would not send the bass signals to them, and therefore the sub.

It really is six of one or half dozen of the other. In the end the same result is accomplished. It is the convenience of having bass management done at the receiver / pre-processor that makes it the way to go. The high-level input is the only way to go if you have a 2 channel only receiver setup, with no sub output on the receiver. You can hook up both, but it is not necessary. I really doubt anyone would hear a difference. Soundwise, it shouldn't matter if the receiver or sub do the bass redirection from the mains. Remember it will always need to do the redirection for your center and surrounds. Using the receiver gives you one place to make all your adjustments.

Dave, thanks for the info. I have my M60s set to large and in the setup on the avr I have sub set to LFR/Main instead of just LFR. I'm still a little confused about all that.
Should I set my front M60s to small and let avr direct everything below 80 to the sub or is the way I have it now ok? It seems that when I have large with LFE/Main it sounds better than just LFE but they may be my imagination. What is a good crossover from the mains to the sub?

If I want to listen so something as direct or stereo should I turn the sub off or turn it on and use the LFE/Main setting or just LFE? I'm learning alot on this forum but there is so much to understand I hate to be a pest

I think the way you have it set now sounds fine. Ultimately it is best to experiment and go with what you like best, and it sounds like that is what you have done. You are the best judge of what sounds best to you.

A good crossover for use with the M60s is probably either 80 or 60 Hz. Choose what you like best. If your receiver forces you to use the same setting for all your speakers (surrounds and center too) then maybe stick with 80 Hz. There is probably no need to turn off your sub when listening to stereo. Let it stay on and play anything it gets. In direct mode it may not be getting any redirected bass as direct mode usually bypasses all bass redirection. It depends on how your receiver works, as many vary in how they handle the term "direct" or "analog bypass".

I'm using the Denon 3808 and I can set a different crossover for all speakers separately, center, fronts, surrounds etc. Do you know what a good crossover for the center might be? I think I have that set to 100, am I forcing some of the sound that should be coming out of the center to not be played from the center? Not sure the range of human voices if indeed that is mostly what the center is for. And I guess while I'm asking, what about the surrounds? If I set the crossover too high on those will they sound harsh and tinny?

Again I appreciate the information. I do play with the settings alot but after a while things start to sound different to me and I can get into a loop and never know when to stop

I use mine at 100Hz, and I haven't noticed any particular problem with voices. I don't remember what kind of surrounds you have, but my QS4s are set to 120Hz, simply because the 4" woofers can't quite hack the lower frequencies.