Sirquack suggested I start a thread to see what others are doing. We've been trading PMs based on a post I made in another thread.

My AVR (HK 635) has the ability to set crossover settings for each speaker grouping, mains, center, surrounds, surround back and sub. With all speakers set to small, the HK manual suggests setting the crossover to the closest setting that is above the speaker's low-frequency limit to avoid creating a low frequency hole. To that end, I had my mains set at 40Hz, center and surrounds at 100Hz and the sub (via the AVR) at 60Hz. The sub itself is on bypass. Based on information that Sirquack provided, best practices lean toward setting a variable crossover setting at 80Hz or the lowest frequency that the smallest speaker in the system can effectively reproduce. Unfortunately, there wasn't much guidance for multiple variable crossover settings.

What are others with MVC AVRs doing?

Thanks,
Stymie

I have my center and 4 rears crossed at 100 and my mains crossed at 80 . I have a HK 525 and my mains are the M22. What speakers are you using?

My mains are at 60 Hz (M50s), center at 100 Hz (VP100) and surrounds at 120 Hz (QS4s). Accordingly, my sub is on bypass (ish) and crossed at 120 in the receiver. I've got a 525.

Thanks.

I running M80s for the mains and have now changed them to 60 and upped the sub to 80. I'll run it this way for a while and then up them to 80 and 120 respectively to see if I can tell a difference. I'm leaving the center and surrounds at 100.

Hey Stymie and others, I'm still a bit confused. I understand the reason for the independent settings for each speaker, actually that is much better than just having one universal setting for all speakers. What I don't understand is why you keep referring to the sub setting on the AVR. You have two choices, let the sub handle the crossover by using the knobs on the sub, which most people don't do, OR put the sub on bypass mode (or turn fully clockwise if you don't have bypass) and let the AVR manage the crossover of each speaker. So you set the crossover on the AVR so that freq's below those settings for each speaker will be routed to the sub. Why on earth would there be a crossover setting for the sub? So you can reroute the subs own freq's back to itself? Just doesn't make sense to me.

HK630 with M60s at 80, VP100 and QS8s at 100, sub crossover is bypassed. I still have a nagging feeling that the system sounds the tiniest bit better when all the crossovers are set to the same frequency (I have tried both 80 and 100) but I can't even describe the difference or even have confidence that one is better for sure.

I am kinda thinking of setting everything to 100 again, just to mess you up

My guess is that since you have the ability to set the speaker sets at different levels, then you also need to the ability to specify what frequencies below a certain level should be sent. In a setup where you only have one option, it's clear, everything below that setting goes to the sub. In a MVC setup, which setting determines what goes to the sub? With the mains at 40 and the center and surrounds at 100 for example, does the AVR send everything below 40 to the sub, everything below 100 or both? By specifying the crossover for the sub, then you can dictate what is sent below that level. My limited education in this arena leads me to believe that if I have the mains set with a crossover lower than what I have for the sub, then I will get better "blending". Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. This could be entirely a placebo effect to keep us A type personalities happy. So far, I haven't been able to discern any major differences.

Experimenting sure is fun though!

Sty, in my view the "closest setting" part of the HK language should be disregarded. Although your M80s have good response at 40Hz, your EP500 is better and you should allow it to handle what it does best by setting the M80 crossover at 80Hz.

On another point, which Randy mentioned, there's a misunderstanding about setting the "sub crossover" on the HK635. This isn't actually the overall sub crossover setting(which the settings for the "small" speakers determine). It's just the frequency above which the LFE channel which is occasionally present during movies is rolled off before going to the sub. Theoretically the LFE channel extends to 120Hz, but in practice movies contain little or no LFE above about 80Hz, so 80 would be a good choice for the LFE low-pass. The reason sometimes given for not setting it at the 120Hz max is that this can allow in some unintended noise.

Thanks for expaining John. Makes sense now.