I have an Outlaw 950 to go with my M60s, VP150 and QS8s. Since I can set the crossover for each separately (front, center, surrounds) I am wondering what the proper settings might be. I realize my room part of the determining factor. However, I have read many things about crossover and got more confused. Currently, I set the center to 150, the surrounds to 120 and the fronts to 80. Am I on the right track?

I'd take the center and the surrounds down to 100 at least. 120 and 150 are WAY high. You could probably get away with lowering the fronts to 60, but that's controversial around here.

Okay, I know Chess has um...very definite opinions on the matter, but the idea of a pre or a receiver with separate crossover settings for each channel is very appealing to me. Up until now I thought the H/K's were the only brands that offered this feature, but apparently Outlaw does too. Does anyone else know whether this is available on Denon, Yamaha, newer Marantz, NAD, etc?

As my Denon 3805 has one setting for all, I went from 80 to 60 a few weeks back and have had no desire to change it back to 80. If I could do it on a per channel basis I would be something like 80 on the center and 60 for the fronts and 60 for the rears. Keep in mind that I run full size speakers for surrounds so this won't work for all.

Now I know I am confused (a lifelong attribute). Can someone tell me, in a few monosyllabic words , what I am trying to do with crossover?

In short, it tells your speakers not to play anything below a certain frequency (80 hz or 60hz) and then sends those lower frequencys to your sub.

Crossover

Crossover Point

The above definitions come from AudioVideo101.com's Dictionary. It's a good site to bookmark.

So, if I don't have a sub the frequencies below 80 are lost? Bummer, I have to wait until my daughter moves out to order the PC-Ultra becuase she has no love for soul moving bass. Am I correct in assuming that setting the speaker size to small on the center and surrounds that something else is afoot and setting the crossover for those speakers is moot?

If you don't have a sub, then you shouldn't set a crossovger for your M60s. Make sure you set them to Large in your receiver settings, and that you have the Sub channel set to Off. That will ensure that your M60s will play as low as they can go, which is around 35Hz.

You would lose the frequencies below 80Hz if you set your front speakers to "small" in your receivers speaker menu, and if the crossover is fixed at 80Hz, or you manually set it to 80Hz. And actually, the crossover is not a brick wall. It's not like everything below 80Hz is gone.

80Hz is where the volume STARTS to drop off. How much below the 80Hz is audible is a factor of the crossover slope. As you can see, with a 6dB per octave slope, anything available at 40Hz (1 octave lower than 80Hz) would be 6dB quieter than anything at 80 Hz. (Have I got that correct guys?)

However, if you don't have a sub, and you set your front speakers to "large" in your receiver's menu, they will reproduce the entire frequency spectrum they are capable of reproducing. You would only set your main speakers to "small" if have a sub.

"Up until now I thought the H/K's were the only brands that offered this feature, but apparently Outlaw does too."

My Sony STR-DA777ES will also let you set crossovers for front, center, and rear speakers. What I don't know is whether or not Sony's newer ES-line stuff offers it.

Todd

Rog, welcome, and to summarize some of the previous replies, since you have no sub you'd set the 950 to "no" for the sub and "large" for the M60s, which would automatically allow the full range to go to the M60s. The crossover setting for the M60s would then have no effect regardless of the setting. The center and surrounds would then be set "small" and a crossover frequency selected(probably 80Hz would be the best compromise for both, certainly not higher than 100Hz). Center and surround bass frequencies below 80 or 100Hz would then be directed(rolled-off, not totally cut)to the M60s.

Good summary JohnK! Wished I had put it that simple.

Me too!

Thanks to all who responded. You made it clear and in words of one syllable. So to summarize, I should set the fronts to large and the center and surrounds to small. I should set the crossover for the center and surrounds to 80. Then, when I get the sub I set the fronts to small and the front crossover to 80.

Don't forget to set SUB to NONE until you get one or else your bass might not get redirected to the main channels even if they are set to large. (Definitely the LFE won't get redirected unless you set SUB to NONE.)

>>So to summarize, I should set the fronts to large and the center and surrounds to small.

Until you have a sub, I think you would want to set all of the speakers to "large" or you won't get LF from any of the channels...

Guys, feel free to jump in here. The discussion was about mains but shouldn't all be set to "large" until he has a sub ?

No. If he sets his surrounds and center as large, then they'll be fed full signals. You should only set a speaker to large if it can play well below 80 Hz. LFE should be redirected to the fronts if the rest of the speakers are set to small.

At the time I posted I hadn't realized that LF from center and surrounds could be routed to the mains if you didn't have a sub.

Sorry for the bad info. I thought I had deleted that post already.