Any JBL S310II owners using a "Small" & "Sub only" setting? (1 Viewer)

[John Pine]

I'm having a difficult time leaving my new S310II's at "small/sub only" settings. I listen mostly to music(CD's and concert DVD's) about 70% of the time. They have great low end range, it's a shame to neuter them. What are you doing?

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I have the S312 instead of S310 but I keep my setting at small. I don't know who the marketing genius was that decided the correct setting for the male-dominated audio equipment field was "small" but they sound perfectly fine to me. It's a rolloff at the lower end, not a dropoff and I get a ton of bass information from the mains even at this setting.

 

[Lew Crippen]

A lot of people listen to 2-channel music w/o a sub. Of course this depends on your speakers and the type of music to which you listen. For example, if you are a fan of the pipe organ, I don’t expect that you will be satisfied with those JBLs alone.

 

[John Pine]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Mark: I'm curious, at what point does your receiver send the signal to the sub? My Yamaha RX-V530 has a fixed cutoff at 90Hz.

Lew: I had been keeping my JBL's at "Large" and setting the bass to "Main's & Sub" while turning my Velodyne CHT-12 down to 40Hz. Allowing the sub to handle anything below 40Hz.

 

[Lew Crippen]

While I have heard these speakers, I really can’t claim much familiarity with them, but you might like to try two different setups:

For 2-channel music, set, set the mains to large and the sub to no. (Also disable the center and surrounds). See how you like this.

For HT, set all of your speakers to small and crank the sub to its max. Even though you may think that you are ‘neutering’ you main speakers, you might be pleasantly surprised at how well they perform at 90hz and above when not asked to hit the real low notes.

I had been keeping my JBL's at "Large" and setting the bass to "Main's & Sub" while turning my Velodyne CHT-12 down to 40Hz. Allowing the sub to handle anything below 40Hz.

Even if decide to keep your mains at large, I would suggest allowing your sub to handle more that 20hz–40hz. This is because when you set your mains to large and your other speakers to small, the mains get all of the frequencies, the center and surrounds will get 90hz and above (due to the fixed crossover in your receiver) and your sub will get the LFE (the .1 channel) sound plus and sounds below 90hz that are in the center and surround channels.

So you will not reproduce any above 40hz LFE sounds, nor any 40hz–90hz sounds in the center and surround channels.

But in the end, try these ideas (and any others that occur to you) and determine what pleases you best. What sounds best to you, will be the best for you.

 

[John Pine]

Lew: Your right, for movies I would be losing part of the LFE track by setting the sub down so low(how stupid of me!). Believe it or not, I have yet to try these speakers in 2 channel mode. But, I've only had them for a few days. When I listen to old CD's, I mostly use DPL II. But, I will try your suggestions. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Mark Hedges]

Can I ask why you decided to set these speakers to small?

I recommend using your recievers "Analog Direct" mode if it has one for 2 channel. The way I do it is I run analog interconnects from my DVD players out to the CD input on my reciever. That way you don't have to reset speaker settings all the time since Analog direct doesn't do any signal processing.

Mark

 

[John Pine]

Mark: I don't think my DVD player has an "Analog Direct" option, but I will check. Thanks!

 

[Mark Hedges]

John - analog direct would be on your reciever, not DVD player.

 

[John Pine]

Mark: OK, I checked and my Yamaha receiver does have analog CD inputs but, my DVD only has optical outputs via tos-link.

 

[HienD]

John, does your receiver have a direct or pure audio mode. This mode usually by pass all the DAC's and keeps everthing in analog form. Thus, all the bass management and dsp mode is not used. My onkyo has a direct mode which does the following:

This mode delivers pure sound with minimum sound quality adjustment and filtration. The sound recorded for the right and left front channels is output to the right and left front speakers only and not output to the subwoofer.

 

[John Pine]

Hien: Got it! I don't believe my Yamaha RX-V530 has that feature, but I will check the manual.

 

[Mark Hedges]

John - as far as I know all DVD players also have analog outputs. Are you sure yours doesn't?

Mark

 

[John Pine]

Mark: Well actually, I'm using an X-Box as my DVD player and it only has a digital connection to a dongle.

Hien: Here's what I found. My receiver has a "Normal Stereo" mode where the center, rears & sub are bypassed. All bass that is normally sent to the sub goes to the mains. According to the manual, in this mode "all sound effects are disabled". Does this means that the DAC's are bypassed? I am not sure. There is no "Analog" of "Direct" feature in the manual. My old Kenwood had a "CD Direct" function. But I rarely used it as it would bypass the Bass & Treble settings.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Responding to your question back up the thread, my receiver crosses over at 100 hz (that's per the manual; I haven't tested it). It's a fixed crossover, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting substantial bass information from the mains below that, so I'm thinking it's a fairly gentle dropoff on my receiver (Technics DA-X940).