Review: Marantz SR7300 AV Surround Receiver (2 Viewers)

[Nick V]

to put your sub at its highest setting (or bypassed completely) when using a receiver crossover. It tells you to do this in many sub instruction manuals. In fact, that is the whole purpose of the bypass (to ensure that there are no holes due to double-crossover).

I have a bit of a problem with this statement. Although I do have my sub (Mirage BPS-400) hooked up via the bypassed input, I believe that the beauty of home theater and music is that you can do whatever sounds best to you, and I believe that is the only way that it's supposed to be done.
Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but for some reason I felt like I had to rant...

 

[ChrisAG]

Precisely. For me, it sounds much better with my subwoofer set at 100Hz.

 

[Chris PC]

Your 50Hz configuration will work well with music (as you said, there is a small overlap, but most likely not too bad - that's the way I had it too for music with my A/B setup). However, for movies, your Mains will be responsible for all bass above 50Hz, which will not sound as good as when your sub handles the bass between 50 and 100Hz. In fact some of the LFE signal can be above 50Hz and I doubt you'd want that going to your mains. It all depends on your sub, I guess.

With my MAINS set LARGE and SUB=NO the mains are doing EVERYTHING. My subwoofer with crossover set to 50 hz is not doing 50-100 hz, its only doing roughly 50 or 60 hz and below, duplicating what the mains are doing there, accounting for the fact that they roll off below 32 hz.

As far as not using the subwoofer crossover, I would generally agree, but I still think the receiver may not be implementing a low pass crossover in the subwoofer out. I'll check tomorrow!

 

[Mike Up]

ChrisDixon,

The biggest disadvantage the the L/R pre-out method is the double bass problem (unless you use a pre-out/main-in loop with the sub's high pass crossover which is not available in most mid-range receivers).

Most good subs offer a highpass crossover on their preamp 'outputs' and some offer them also on the speaker level 'outputs'. Velodyne is one brand that does this. My Velodyne subwoofer offers a 85Hz highpass crossover for the main speakers, on it's preamp outputs and on it's speaker level outputs. However, if you want to run the speakers full range, you have to hook the speakers and sub in parallel since the sub's highpass main speaker crossover can't be defeated. It's pros outweigh it's cons. It can lowpass all the way down to 40Hz also. Not many subs have lowpass crossovers that go that low today. Many are only 50 or 60Hz.

Have a good one.

 

[ChrisDixon]

Chris:

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I'm trying to understand why it sounds any different when set at 100 vs 150. If your receiver's crossover is working properly, there shouldn't BE any content above 100 (except the standard roll-off slope) even going to the sub. So, you could set your sub to 300Hz if it allowed it, and it still shouldn't play anything above 100 because it just isn't getting that frequency.

Nick:

I agree that people should go with what they think sounds best, and I almost never post in absolutes. The only thing that I am doing is try to help people who might be missing content and not realizing it. For example, someone could say that they like the way it sounds if you have your sub crossover set at 80Hz when listening with sub out (with a receiver crossover fixed at 100Hz). The truth is that they have a hole between 80 and 100Hz where content is missing. No matter what our preferences are, I don't think any of us want holes in content, right?

Chris

 

[ChrisAG]

I'm not sure how deep the male voice goes, but there may have been enough there in the "slope" above the receiver's 100 Hz to show up in the sub when its crossover was set to the maximum (150 Hz). I'd bet that many receivers have a fairly gentle slope, with a fair amount of content sent that is above the crossover setting. In any case, the problem was solved when I set the sub crossover to match the reciever.

 

[Jeff D.]

I completely agree with Craig, the best sound comes from using the front L/R preouts for bass information. I have small bookshelf speakers, so I don't think I have as much of an issue with the double-bass phenomenon - I set my crossover to around 60Hz, which is where the speakers begin to drop off. I can see it being a problem with larger speakers though.
As for calibration, this is the method I use. I have no idea how I came up with this, and maybe I am just deluding myself that it works. All I know is it sounds good. The first thing I do is calibrate my system normally for HT mode, using Video Essentials. At that point, I take a look at where my front L/R levels are. Now, let us say they are at +2dB. What I do is I set the sub's level (on the receiver) to that same level - +2dB. Then I run a sub test-tone from the receiver and measure with the SPL. I adjust the volume control on the subwoofer until it matches the mains. My rationale is: with this method the sub is getting the same level from the receiver as the mains, so all you need to do is adjust its volume to match. After this, because you adjusted the sub's volume, you'll need to recalibrate it for HT. This time, use the receiver's sub level adjustment. Whatever I'm doing, it seems to work.
As for Chris and the issue with voices coming through the sub - I have heard this many times on different subs. I have run music through subs (in a 2-channel system) with their crossover controls set to their minimum (usually 50Hz) and voices still come through. I believe it has something to do with the quality of the filtering. I know I don't get voices through my Paradigm PW2200, but I have heard voices coming through some Mirage subs. I still believe the correct way to adjust the sub crossover is to max it when using an HT receiver's crossover. The logic of course is that you don't want two crossovers interfering with each other and creating a hole in the response. I think the reason you are hearing voices is perhaps the filtering in the receiver's crossover may not be as good. Only hazarding a guess, of course.
/Jeff

 

[Tom_Mack]

The roll-off on some crossovers definitely hits 150Hz. I know my Yamaha (crossover at 90Hz) does.

I went to the double bass, mains = Large, sub = No solution and the higher bass is sent to the mains.

 

[Yusuf]

Back to the 7300, has anyone heard the 7300ose yet? How does it compare to the "base" 7300? Is it worth an extra $300 or would that money be better spent towards higher end speakers, etc?

 

[Anthony Landry]

To Jeff and all, I just purchased a refurbished 7300ose from accessories4less for $899, the ony one left. After hearing about all the noise problems aforementioned about the 7300 I was little worried, but sfsg no noise probems associated with the speakers or amp in the analog and digital modes. Also I notice when I first plugged in the receiver to the power pack II it did not turn on until I unplugged my two parasound monoblock amps and also my subwoofer??? I tried this over again to make sure it was not a fluke and sure enough....Does any one know why this happen?? Thanks!!