Low freq vs. High freq. when set to large or small speakers (1 Viewer)

[Chassis221]

Hello thank you for allowing me to join this forum. I currently have a Denon X1200w receiver and I'm running two front paradigm monitor 9's connected onto the low frequency connections at the back of the speakers and a Bic F12 sub. I want to switch the speakers to "small" but do I need to switch the connections on the back to high frequency terminals instead of the low frequency? I have the sub connected by LFE.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum, Chassis!

I assume the high and low terminals have metal straps connecting them. If so, it doesn’t matter which terminals you use.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

Yeah, you are seriously confusing your terminology and what it means, so this might take several steps. As Wayne asked, the first question is to confirm the jumpers (metal straps) are installed between the high and low connectors on the speakers.

 

[Chassis221]

Yeah, you are seriously confusing your terminology and what it means, so this might take several steps. As Wayne asked, the first question is to confirm the jumpers (metal straps) are installed between the high and low connectors on the speakers.

Yes I do have the jumpers. So it makes no difference if I set them small or large?
Thanks

 

[JohnRice]

As long as the jumpers are installed, it makes no difference which post you connect to the receiver. Also, those connections aren’t for the large and small setting on your receiver. They’re for bi-amping, but I don’t suggest diving into that.

 

[Chassis221]

As long as the jumpers are installed, it makes no difference which post you connect to the receiver. Also, those connections aren’t for the large and small setting on your receiver. They’re for bi-amping, but I don’t suggest diving into that.

Thanks for the quick replies.

 

[JohnRice]

BTW, my stance is that you should run all speakers in a home theater on small, if you have a subwoofer. Ideally your receiver/preamp allows individual crossovers for each speaker, so you can customize it to the individual speaker. Lower end models don't always allow that, though. There are a lot of variables, and the details depend on your equipment. As a general rule for a starting point, I suggest finding the -3dB point of your speakers, which is usually in the specs, and use double that frequency for the crossover point. For example, if your speakers state +/- 3dB 40-20,000 Hz, then the starting point to set their crossover would be approx 80Hz. You can fine tune it from there.

I get a lot of argument about this, but that's my experience and my suggestion. There's a tendency to want to put too much demand on the main speakers and not let the subwoofer do what it's designed for. One of the things it's designed for is to take the lowest frequency demands off the other speakers.

 

[Chassis221]

BTW, my stance is that you should run all speakers in a home theater on small, if you have a subwoofer. Ideally your receiver/preamp allows individual crossovers for each speaker, so you can customize it to the individual speaker. Lower end models don't always allow that, though. There are a lot of variables, and the details depend on your equipment. As a general rule for a starting point, I suggest finding the -3dB point of your speakers, which is usually in the specs, and use double that frequency for the crossover point. For example, if your speakers state +/- 3dB 40-20,000 Hz, then the starting point to set their crossover would be approx 80Hz. You can fine tune it from there.

I get a lot of argument about this, but that's my experience and my suggestion. There's a tendency to want to put too much demand on the main speakers and not let the subwoofer do what it's designed for. One of the things it's designed for is to take the lowest frequency demands off the other speakers.

Sounds good to me. I will change the front speakers to small and see how it works.
What if I do an automatic speaker calibration via calibration jack will that change any of the speaker sizes from small to large or large to small? Or that can only be changed by me? Sorry about the newbie questions I am new to high-end stereo equipment. My last surround sound system was a plug-and-play all-in-one Sony system.

 

[JohnRice]

Auto calibration often changes the "Large/Small" setting from what you want, but you can just switch it back after calibration. It won't mess up the other settings.

 

[greggor]

if your receiver has more than one calibration memory settings than you can calibrate one of them with your speakers set to small for movies and another one with speakers set to large for two channel music.