I am replacing my ancient (25 years old) system consisting of a Harman Kardon 330C receiver and Advent 1 speakers. I recently bought a pair of Axiom M2i speakers. I expect them to arrive today or tomorrow. I also recently purchased on Ebay a refurbished Harman Kardon AVR 225 from HK. I expect to receive it in a few days. I have thirty days to return for a full refund (less shipping) if I do not like it.

After buying the receiver, I decided to download the manual to get familiar with it (I know I should have done this before I bought, but I did not). It was then that I noticed that this receiver it has a fixed sub crossover frequency of 100HZ. It cannot be adjusted. I have a RBH TS-10AP subwoofer that can accept speaker level inputs and has its own cross over control, but its output to the speakers is also fixed at 100HZ. So if I hook up the sub to the speaker outputs on the receiver and then hook up my front speakers to the sub, I am still stuck with the same 100Hz crossover as set in the receiver.

I intend to use this receiver in a two speaker and one sub set up for now (may add more speakers later for an HT setup) and mostly for music, although I do intend to hook up my TV, DVD player, etc. to it for improved sound when watching movies.

My question: Will a fixed 100HZ crossover be fine for music, or would I be better off being able to adjust the crossover? If being able to adjust is preferable, is there any way I can hook the sub up to accomplish this, or should I just send the HK receiver back and get something with adjustable crossover frequency? I do not know much about bass management, and from what I have read on the internet, it is quite a confusing subject.

Next time I will look at the manual BEFORE buying, not matter how good the price.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

JP, if it's a problem it should be no more than a very minor one. 80Hz is the most commonly suggested crossover, which isn't something picked randomly, but was determined to be a good compromise, being high enough to take some of the low bass burden off the mains(and on to the sub which is designed to handle it)and low enough so that the sub shouldn't be localizable. 100Hz is close enough so that there shouldn't be much of a problem, especially if the sub is placed in a corner more or less directly behind an M2. You should use the receiver crossover rather than the one on the sub's outputs, since that's frequently inaccurate. Turn the sub crossover control all the way up to get it as far out of the way as possible if the sub doesn't have a switch or input which totally bypasses its crossover.

JP, don't worry about it. I have a brand new Sony SACD player that has a fixed 120Hz bass crossover. At least your "old" HK receiver is better than this! I don't like the fixed 120Hz crossover, but my Hsu VTF-3R sub is close enough to my M60 mains that I can't localize it. If your sub is anywhere close to your mains, you're probably OK.