External bass management pros and cons, DVD-Audio, etal (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_T]

(Also posted at avs).
For some time now I've been thinking of trying out my X-30 crossover as something more than just a convenient volume control for the subwoofer.
My current set-up is as follows:
Yamaha RX-V3000 receiver, all speakers set to small (90 Hz Xover)
Bass/LFE out to X-30 to Paradigm Servo/15
Paradigm Reference Studio 60s, ADPs and CC.
Proposed set-up:
Sub set to no, mains to large, all others to small.
Main pre-outs to X-30 (80Hz Xover terminals), high pass back to receiver main-ins, low pass to sub.
The benefits I would expect might be:
- Now have bass management for DVD-Audio for at least the main channels. Great for two channel DVD-A mixes, and at least some improvement for five and six channel DVD-A mixes.
- The crossover frequency is lowered to 80Hz.
The drawbacks would be, I think:
- Analogue bass management is inferior to digital bass management.
- Center and surround material is now crossed over twice, 90Hz digital crossover in the receiver followed by 80Hz analogue crossover in the X-30. Could be ugly.
- Discrete LFE >80 Hz intended for the sub is redirected to the mains.
- Unclear what happens to the LFE channel from the RP91 six channel out, since the RP91 has no bass management for DVD-Audio (I think this means losing it if there is no sub) and the receiver has no bass management on the six channel in (again I think this means losing it if there is no sub). This could be the show stopper.
I guess could just try it and see what happens, but that would mean buying four more interconnects and rehooking everything. I thought I'd post first and see if anyone has experimented with something like this. Also I know that there are folks on this forum who understand bass management a lot better than I do who might validate (or invalidate) my assumptions and offer their comments/suggestions.
Thanks,
Wayne
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The bitterness of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has passed.

 

[Wayne_T]

To reply to my own post for anyone who might be interested... I tried a couple of things yesterday. I set sub to none in both the RP91 and the receiver and then played a six channel DVD-A disk. Sure enough, the LFE channel was still playing through the sub, confirming that not only is there no bass management going on, there isn't even a redirection of the LFE channel if sub is set to no. That rules out using the X-30, unless you wanted to change the sub connection back and forth for different material. So much for that idea!
It then occurred to me that the RP91 also has a two channel output, so I connected that thinking I'd then be able to use the receiver's bass management on it. To my dismay I found that the RP91's own two channel output is the same as the down converted crap they put out on the digital out! The hi-res material is ONLY outputted through the six channel outputs. Why would they do that?
It beginning to look like the Outlaw ICBM is somewhere in my future.
Wayne
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The bitterness of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has passed.

 

[AaronNWilson]

Wayne I don't know why the sub was still playing whenever you set the sub to no. Maybe it has something to do with the fact you were using analog inputs which may bypass all internal bass management.
On my 3801 I have sub set to no and whenever I play the testtones of the twister DVD then the LFE pounds out a really low note in the L/R mains, which tells me the bass management is working.
Aaron