Crossover For Subs

[TheFluffyDog]

I have some new subwoofers, mostly for music playing, so i'm not worried about sub sonic trembling, however my receiver will let me set the crossover up to 200Hz. I want to set it that high, but the subs crossover has 120Hz as the highest setting. Will it be bad to pass it that high?

The subs are monitor audio RXW-12's so they are of a nice high quality.

I am aware that the higher I crossover, the subs will have to produce certain noises that they wouldnt normally play, but i notice in some somes that certain sounds that are supposed to be in the bass region are losing there intensity cause of the crossover, (sounds in like the 120-180 Hz range i assume) and since i'm expecting them to puch out these sounds, it sounds funny when it crosses over.

So will it be damaging at all? or is it just that it may not have good response in the 120-180 Hz range?

I am assuming that these subs will have much better mid-bass response than others since they are sealed subs, so I am also assuming that they should respond between 120-200Hz, but I dont want to damage them.

 

[steve_1979]

Having a high sub crossover won't do them any harm.

But why would you want to cross them over at 200Hz?

 

[TheFluffyDog]

I had it set at a 100Hz crossover and I noticed in a few songs that a few mid-bass tones that i felt should have been played on the sub were getting pushed into my speakers, and since I got the subs I plugged the ports on my speakers for tighter mids. This is making a few tones in a few songs seem like they arent balanced correctly. This isnt an issue in like guitar and piano where I have the speaker balance set differently, but more in like dance music where the subs are pushing harder than the rest of the system. In certain songs a few tones that are part of the beat suddenly lose volume as they get tossed into my regular speakers. (i have 2 of these subs with only 2 bookshelf speakers so the volume drop when i have the subs cranked a little is very noticable.)

I have been working a building a hifi audio system that can run my movies, parties and regular listening without sacraficing quality for power. So this has been a year of learning but this is my first time with subs, and they werent cheap so i wanna make sure all is good.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Amp set to 200 and sub to 120?? No wonder there are 'holes'! Suggest set sub to receive all frequencies (120?) and set the amp somewhere below - 100? For HC 80hz is recommended starting point but depends on speakers, room acoustics etc. The spec is 40-120hz so no point in setting it above 120hz. The sub will not reproduce much in the 120-200hz range. If your main speakers dont go well down to 80-100hz then you could consider better fronts.

I would list the rest of your kit for better advice.

 

[steve_1979]

Here are some useful audio links that can be used to help set up your subwoofer. Ideally all the bass frequencies should be at roughly the same level.

Sinewave sweep Clicky

30Hz Clicky

40Hz Clicky

50Hz Clicky

60Hz Clicky

70Hz Clicky

80Hz Clicky

90Hz Clicky

100Hz Clicky

125Hz Clicky

160Hz Clicky

 

[steve_1979]

I had it set at a 100Hz crossover and I noticed in a few songs that a few mid-bass tones that i felt should have been played on the sub were getting pushed into my speakers, and since I got the subs I plugged the ports on my speakers for tighter mids. This is making a few tones in a few songs seem like they arent balanced correctly. This isnt an issue in like guitar and piano where I have the speaker balance set differently, but more in like dance music where the subs are pushing harder than the rest of the system. In certain songs a few tones that are part of the beat suddenly lose volume as they get tossed into my regular speakers. (i have 2 of these subs with only 2 bookshelf speakers so the volume drop when i have the subs cranked a little is very noticable.)

I have been working a building a hifi audio system that can run my movies, parties and regular listening without sacraficing quality for power. So this has been a year of learning but this is my first time with subs, and they werent cheap so i wanna make sure all is good.

Interesting. I've recently bought a 2.1 system too (see signature) and have spent several hours fiddling with the crossover settings.

At low to medium listening levels I've found that running the bookshelf speakers set to 'large' so that they're operating in full range mode with the subwoofer just adding a tiny amount of extra bass (using an 80Hz crossover) generally works the best.

Using the bookshelf speakers set to 'small' with the subwoofer crossover set to 80Hz and the sub volume increased by 3dB also works very well. This setup also takes a bit of strain off the bookshelf speakers allowing them to play a tiny bit louder too. Both of these two setups sound virtually identical with my system.

I wouldn't want to use anything over 80Hz though because at 100Hz and above the subwoofer starts to sound a bit directional and it spoils the sound. A 200Hz subwoofer crossover is a big no no IMO.

If you want more mid-bass volume as well as sub-bass volume your best bet would be to use the bookshelf speakers set to 'small' with the subwoofer crossover set to between 80-100Hz. Then turn the subwoofer volume down a bit so that it's more in balance with the speakers and then turn all of the bass up using the tone controls or graphic equalizer on your hifi. This will increase both the sub and mid bass volume together.

Also worth bearing in mind is that if the rest of your system isn't up to playing at high volume with lots of bass then you're on a hiding to nothing and even with a subwoofer you aren't going to get the results you desire. Remember that a subwoofer is only really supposed to be used to extend the very low frequency bass of the speakers below 80Hz. It's not for adding more bass above 100Hz.

What speakers and amp are you using? I suspect that you may need to rethink the rest of your system if you want to play music at party levels with lots of bass.

 

[TheFluffyDog]

With the crossover set in my speakers can actually play a whole lot louder. I'm running a cambridge audio 351R which can supply 75 watts RMS 2 channel and 2 Monitor audio BX-2's as my bookshelf. With the crossover set and the everything cranked, the speakers still manage to pierce through the bass quite nicely even from a good distance. Also I purposely bought 2 subs to conteract directionality. This way I can shake pretty much any size room without worrying as much about perfect woofer placement.

Waht i found was bringing the crossover to 150Hz still didnt eliminate the cut out of atleast one song, so that song will have to deal with it. But at 150Hz everything else seemed to sound better. Like it really made it feel like te bass had more too it than just the rumble. It brought in a little more punch and shake.

Also I do change the settings for normal listening, like anything not party music, and in that case I found that 90Hz was the best. My bookshelfs really benefit from adding the sub when it comes to clarity. I feel like there is a crispness to the mids and highs now. like symbols, tamberines, guitar. all of it seemed to pop a bit more after the sub. I actully had to adjust some setting because the speakers were a little too "bright" after adding the sub.

 

[TheFluffyDog]

I had the crossover on the sub turned off. its just that i wanted to know more about what subs act like when you set the crossover really high.