LFE Calibration (1 Viewer)

[Eric_Ennis]

I recently purchased a new receiver, an STR-DA4ES, so far I am enjoying it. I have been trying to calibrate the audio levels with the VE disc and found some interesting behavior. All of the discrete channels, I am only using 5.1 right now, calibrate one at a time except the sub channel. When the VE disc gets to the SUB channel, there is bass coming from the front two speakers. I have the front speakers set to large, is the correct? There are numerous settings on the 4ES regarding the sub and the crossover and LFE mix levels, I have tried messing around to see what effect changing things around has. Setting the front speakers to small, no matter what the crossover freq is set to eliminates the bass from the front channels. Other settings, when the fronts are set to large really seem to make no difference. Should I just leave the speakers as large, the fronts are Polk RT2000i, and calibrate with the additional bass they provide or set them to small and set the front cross freq as low as it can go? Additionally, when I use the receivers internal test tone for the sub channel, the bass also comes from the front speakers when they are set to large.

Thanks in advance.

-Eric

 

[ColinM]

In my experience, (HK) I get the best result using fronts/small, where the sub gets all the bass

 

[Eric_Ennis]

I tried out a few more options. The option that seems to control the LFE going to the fronts is what the center is set to. If I set the front l/r to large and the center to small, the front l/r get lfe added into them. If I set the center to large the LFE only goes to the sub. The setting of the surrounds does not seem to affect the situation. I am not sure why setting the center to small should add in LFE to the front l/r. The manual does mention that bass from the center will be sent to the fronts evenly if they are set to large, but there should not be any LFE in the center to send to them. This was all with dolby digital signal input, but I do not think that matters too much since the internal test tones follow the same behavior.

-Eric

 

[ChrisWiggles]

It's best to set everything to small usually. What speakers/sub are you using?

 

[Eric_Ennis]

I have kind of an assortment of speakers from my different upgrades. The front l/r are Polk RT2000i, the center is a Polk cs30i, the surrounds are an old set of polk bookshelf speakers I have had for about 12 years, and the sub is a five year old cerwin vega 15 incher that I push with an Audiosource Amp3 bridged to one channel. I do have the center and surrounds set to small, however the RT2000i speakers have built in powered subs and should be able to handle a full range signal. I can set them to small and set the crossover as low as 40Hz or I can even set all the crossovers to 80Hz, similar to a THX type setup.

The real question is why setting the center to small has the effect on the fronts getting LFE sent to them. Maybe some other Sony ES owners could try similar settings and see what they come up with.

-Eric

 

[GregLee]

You seem to be assuming that the calibration test signal for the sub is sent to the LFE channel. That's not necessarily so, and from what you say, it appears the test signal is sent to the fronts -- then the crossover determines what frequencies actually go to the sub when the fronts are set to "small". If you want the sub to play low bass that is sent to the front channels (which is the ordinary arrangement), you have to set the fronts to "small".