Speaker Size Setup

Hi,
I am quite confused with the speaker size setup for my old Marantz SR4400, difficult to decide on whether to setup the front and center speaker to large or small. According to the manual, if the speaker is capable in handling the whole range (low to high) of frequency, it should be set to Large. However when i browse through some articles, in fact its recommending to set to small and let the sub-woofer to handle low frequency.

It seems logical but i am still abit confuse. Let say that the Marantz SR4400's sub-woofer output is having a fixed crossover of 100hz, so is saying that if i set the front and center speaker to small, all frequency lower than 100hz will be routed to the sub-woofer? or this sub-woofer crossover of the SR4400 is refering to the LFE effect?

Thanks and hope to have some good advice

Regards,
JS

You are correct. If you have full range speakers you want to set them to full and send a full range signal to them. Use the subwoofer just to extend the lower registers of the frequency range. Set the low pass filter and the level on the sub to get a good blend, after you've achieved the proper speaker placement on the main speakers. Place your main speakers first without the subs very important. Feel free to read my reply in speaker placement forum, the single most important part of settng up a system.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin ...
You mean u do have a speaker placement topic in this forum?

Regarding to the speaker size setting ... if my amplifier doesnt have the variable crossover setting for the sub-woofer (assume that the fix crossover = 100hz), so is that saying that it can only deliver or distribute all low frequency of lower than 10hz to the sub-woofer? So this is the case, is it saying i will have to set the crossover in my sub-woofer to a value near to 100hz? As if i have set the crossover of my sub-woofer to 60hz, it will lost the 60-100hz signal?

Thanks ...

Yes I do have a speaker placement reply in the speaker placement section. It lengthy but informatative. Not sure how I can help you find it but its in the speaker placement forum way toward the end.

Yes thats correct to. If you do set it to small that means your mains will be crossed over at 100hz and above being that the subwoofer output is fixed to 100hz you will propably find you need to set the high pass full up so the output is doing the cross over for you.

Again a good reason to go to large or full output.

If you select the large or full your sending a full range signal to your main speakers which is a good thing. First your not going to get a better blend of woofers to mids than what your main speakers are already doing. Second your getting stereo bass which bass is stereo, dont let anyone tell you different. You'll find satelite or single woofer systems the sound stage colapses, and when there is stereo information in the low bass reagon the sound always stears it toward the woofer not where it should be. Because your reciever has a fixed subwoofer output of 100hz which is fine as long as you have a subwoofer (as it should) have a variable highpass adjustment. That will allow you to cross the subwoofer at the extreme low frequencys which will just supplement the very low bass. Much better way of doing it. You'll probably find you'll be setting the highpass to somewhere around 40hz maybe even lower.

Kevin

HI Kevin ...
Thanks for the detailed info :-) appreciate that ...
I will try to check on your speaker placement advice later ..

For the speaker size, our explanation is logical; however there are some articles that claim that setting the speaker to small will actually improve the speaker to be more dynamic as it will not have to handle the low frequency and this has been practiced by some AV shops while configuring the test unit in the showroom, thats why it brings my attention. What do u think?

Regards,
JS

Well granted the main speakers if crossed over at 100hz would allow the mains to play a little bit louder with less strain, there is much less gained by doing so in my book. The gain in output (which honestly would be very little) would not outweight the gain in detail, tone, and of course the huge advantage in stereo bass. You can certainly easily try it both ways and hear it for yourself.

With the speakers crossed over and using the subwoofer below 100hz:
You'll notice that bass will be less detailed, will not be as tunefull, (meaning detail in the bass notes from high to low) and with one subwoofer you will find the soundstage to be closed in, not nearly as open sounding.

Unfortunitely you'll find a lot of miss information when it comes to audio in virtually every known way, from trade magazines and even stereo stores themselves that lack the knowledge and experience. The best way is to experiment yourself and make your own choices.

I just did a podcast to dispute the claims by these guys that reported on a earlier podcast that they believe theres no difference in cables lol. Thats reported from guys that think they know all about audio. So unfortunitely you have to take a lot of what you read and hear when it comes to audio with a grain of salt.

Read the more reputable magazines, like stereophile, and absolute sound. They have much more experience and knowledge.

Kevin