Help with Athena AS-F2's and subwoofer... (1 Viewer)

[Tim Meader]

Hello all, I'm trying to figure out the best method of getting everything hooked up with my new setup. I have a Onkyo TX-DS575X receiver, Athena AS-C1 center, Athena AS-F2 fronts and Polk Audio RM2350 surrounds (speakers from the Polk 6700 home theater package) along with a Polk PSW350 sub. Basically, all the reading of the Polk guides for hooking up speakers has me thoroughly confused. To read their advice, one would think that the line-level in or LFE in on you sub is from the devil himself. It seems their staunch belief that subs should only ever be hooked up via speaker-line level in from the receiver (for the front R/L) and then out to the fronts from the sub. They claim this is the ONLY way to be sure of proper bass response. My question is this: It seems that the AS-F2s have extremely deep bass ability... as such, is it truly that crucial to have the bass for those being filtered through the sub initially? Also, in the aforementioned Polk preferred hookup method, what exactly happens with the lower bass info for the center and surrounds? I know that if you have it setup via the LFE input, that any speaker set to "small" on your receiver has bass info below a certain depth sent to the sub LFE channel. Is something similar done when you have the sub hooked up via the speaker-line level connection, or are the center and surrounds virtually "on their own" at that point?

My first thought for this setup is to hookup the receiver to the sub via the sub preamp out on the receiver, into the sub's LFE input (unfiltered). Then hookup all the other speakers directly to the receiver... setting the fronts to Large and all others to Small.

Thoughts? Any insight or explanations would be GREATLY appreciated... thanks in advance to any and all that reply.

 

[ColinM]

The "Polk Method" has been discussed before, you may be able to search it up. I know most folks read it, shake their collective heads, and go with the LFE connection.

The F2's can belt out the bass, I hear. If you can, run them with a crossover down around 60. Let the sub go from there down. Don't be afraid to dial down the sub's crossover at the same time, it will help lean out the bloated bass you may hear.

Or try them as large full range, sub = LFE + L/R, sub crossover dialed down to midpoint or lower.

Then calibrate, adjust to taste.

There's no wrong way, but there are differences in the sound and ease of setup.

 

[Tim Meader]

Thanks for the advice. Just one thing I'm wondering though: when you mention towards the end about sub=LFE+L/R... did you mean hooking it up both through the speaker line level as well as well as the LFE Co-ax on the back? Is that doable?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed.

 

[Nathan W.]

I prefer using LFE and other subwoofer dedicated outputs since their volume changes with the main volume. Other pre-amp connections have fixed volume levels, requiring subwoofer volume adjustments to be made at the sub itself, unless the sub has a remote. It sucks when you turn down the action or music for the ringing phone and the sub is still pounding away.

I've never felt the bass to be lacking with this setup.

 

[ColinM]

Goog question - I mean that my HK will add the bass from the LR to the lfe in the sub pre-out, while maintaining large on the front LR.

That will allow the mains to woof, and the deepest bass they do not reveal can eminate from the sub. So in practice, also dial down the crossover control on the sub amp to it's lowest level to start, blend it the best you can including phase and volume. The hitch is the upper freq's in the LFE channel will not be reproduced as much.

I've tried it with my Athena B1's, and they fall off around 52hz in my room. So far so good. It helped minimize localization of the sub, which is being used as an endtable directly to my right. It's crossed at 100hz in the AVR (no choice) but the dial on the amp is almost totally backed off. It measures and sounds better this way.

I don't think you want to run speaker level and LFE inputs at the same time......?

 

[Jack Gilvey]

The only way a speaker-level sub hookup from the mains would work properly (meaning "get all the bass") would be to set them to "Large", and center and surrounds to "Small", and sub to "None". That way all the bass would be directed to the L&R. I would run a parallel set of cables to the sub and not use the sub's high-pass crossover. The AS-F2 really do do 30-40Hz bass (I use three as my L,R, and Center), so I'd set the low-pass sub's crossover as low as possible.
Having said all that, I don't see why this would be better than setting all to "Small", sub to "Yes", and feeding the sub from the "sub-out" jack (where all the bass would then be sent). I have the same receiver, and it works.