My new system - setup suggestions (1 Viewer)

[Anish]

I just purchased and received my new system as follows:

Denon AVR-3802 (I've had this for a while)
Paradigm Studio 100 v3
Paradigm Studio CC-570 v3
SVS PB12/Plus 2

I am quite excited about the setup... at first they looked like a bit of an eyesoar (compared to my old piddly looking system). But I am starting to like them more and more, the more I look and especially hear them!

I have a couple of questions on setup. I have the front and centre speakers in "small" configuration. The Denon receiver has crossover settings of 80Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz. If I understand correctly, if my speakers were not capable of producing lows lower than one of the above 3 frequencies, I would set the crossover at the frequency above it, so as to send those frequencies to the sub. But seeing as the Paradigms are clearly able to play lows below 80Hz, I could set my crossover frequency at either 80, 100 or 120, correct?

If so, would it not be best to set the crossover frequency as high as possible to as to send as much of the lows as possible to the SVS subwoofer?

If the above is true, then would I be better off taking all the port filters off and expose all 3 ports (low of 24Hz, vs keeping 2 port filters in for a low if 16Hz?)

Lastly, I read that the SVS does not require any break-in. Does the same hold true for the Paradigms? I have been playing all the speakers for a few hours on end, with "gentle" lounge music at about -45 on my receiver, gradually increasing the volume to about -35 over a 24 hour period.

Any advice is appreciated. I am sorry if some of those questions were stupid. I have been reading a lot and trying to learn.

 

[Anish]

Just did some tuning with the AVIA DVD. I found that I had to take out both subsonic filters from the SVS PB12. I was losing some of the high freq. bass with my crossovers on the receiver set at 120Hz. So I lowered that to 80Hz and took out my subsonic filters and set the subsonic filter to 25Hz.

Sounds much better to me... I am just playing with the gains and phase controls now. I'm getting in the 85-95dB range on Dr. Doolittle soundtrack at -30 volume on the receiver. Very clean bass... no rattle anywhere. The sub is so stable even when it hits hard! I didn't even realize it was on... I just "felt" it, until I took the filters out. The gain on the sub itself is just at about 30%. The sub gain on the receiver is at 0.

Any advice on points that I might have not considered would be appreciated.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

If you don't already have one I would pick up an SPL Meter to properly calibrate all the speaker and subwoofer levels. Avia should have instructions on how to do this. W/ an SPL meter you know that your levels are set properly and you can forget about them (unless you change a component or move something). Without proper calibration you can fiddle w/ levels forever and never know for sure that they're right.

 

[Anish]

Yep I bought the AVIA DVD/SPL meter package from SVS when I bought the sub. Definetly a very useful tool!