Adire Rava on the way, set up help needed. (1 Viewer)

[Bert D]

I just took the plunge and ordered the Rava from Adire.

My question is on set up. My emphasis is on stereo music listening with HT as a secondary concern. Being new to all this, (first new equipment purchases in 15 years!) I get a little lost when reading my receivers instructions on set up with a sub and am not sure how to go about it.

I have all JBL speakers: S310's mains, S center, S38's surrounds with a H/K 310 receiver and a Panny rp56 player. I plan to set all my speakers to small, then all signals under 100 hz gets sent to the LFE output which is fine when I play dvd's if I hook up the sub to the LFE. But when I play stereo music I have no sub this way, so not good for me. I want the sub to be active with both music & HT.

I have an option to set the receiver to LFE+front mains, but that sends below 80/100 hz to my mains, and I want my mains to cut out at 80/100 and have the sub do the 80 below duty in both modes. If I use the speaker level inputs and set the mains to large, sent it to the sub, cross the sub at 80, and have the sub send 80 and above to my mains, all sounds fine except according to my receiver, with no LFE output and my center/surround set to small, I loose the 100 and below to these speakers in HT ?

Is a solution to hook up my sub both way's ? , with both line and speaker wired up and switch back and forth depending on Ht or music ? Sorry for being long winded and being new to all this, my question may not make any sense.

What do you think ? Thanks.

 

[Pete Mazz]

But when I play stereo music I have no sub this way

Why won't your sub play in stereo mode? Are you wired for analog bypass? From what?

I have my sub involved at all times. But I have no SACD or DVD-A to worry about (and I won't until a digital output is implemented).

Pete

 

[Tom Vodhanel]

>>>If I use the speaker level inputs and set the mains to large, sent it to the sub, cross the sub at 80, and have the sub send 80 and above to my mains, all sounds fine except according to my receiver, with no LFE output and my center/surround set to small, I loose the 100 and below to these speakers in HT ?

 

[Jack Gilvey]

If I use the speaker level inputs and set the mains to large, sent it to the sub, cross the sub at 80, and have the sub send 80 and above to my mains, all sounds fine except according to my receiver, with no LFE output and my center/surround set to small, I loose the 100 and below to these speakers in HT ?

Hmm, I would think, like Tom pointed out, that that info. would be sent to the mains if the others are set to "small" and the sub setting is set to "None".

In any event, I think your best bet is to set all to "small" and see what goes to the sub.

In case you did wind up using the speaker-level feeds on the Rava, the speaker-level high-passed outputs are fixed at 125Hz, so I wouldn't go that route (the high-level high-pass usually makes your satellites sound like crap, anyway). I'd take a parallel set of cables and feed the sub.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Bert;
Do you listen to your stereo music in Direct Mode? That is, do you bypass the processing in the receiver and send the audio signal directly into the speakers? If so, that would explain why your sub doesn't kick in during two-channel recordings. If you don't listen to music with the processor working, then you don't have to worry; it will work fine for both purposes.
However, if you don't like using the processor in your receiver for two-channel music, you can still use your sub. I recommend picking up an ICBM from Outlaw Audio. Hook it up through the receiver's 5.1 analog inputs on the back, and you will be able to bypass the receiver's circuitry, but still get some form of bass management. I use one in my system and it has worked wonders. Additionally, you'll be able to use it for DVD-A and SACD, if you so desire.

 

[Bert D]

Thanks to all that responded. I think I misread the manual to the H/K 310 and what Jack is stating is what will occur, set all speakers to small and any and all bass, music or "5.1" will be sent to the sub out. I have not tried any of this as the sub is not here yet. And, no I do not have a bypass on the receivers bass controls, so that is working ok.
Thanks again for all the advice, I will need to experiment when my X-mas present to myself gets here !

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I'll bet you'll be very happy once you get set up. I looked at the details of that receiver, and there's very little it can't do, very nice. I particularly like the different crossover points you can choose. I wouldn't go as high as 100Hz, but experiment with 60 or 80 and see what sounds better to you.

 

[Bert D]

I just got the response from H/K on this question, and if it is NOT a digital input, you can not set your fronts to small and cross at 80/100 hz, but automatically the fronts default to "large". In large you can cross to the sub at 40/60 hz. So if input is cable TV or Vcr you do not get the "small" front option.

Are other receivers, such as the Denon 2802/3802 set up like this too ? or can you set fronts to "small" on any input ?