Audiophile Alert - Page 7

What to do once it’s at your house

So you finally got the gear, and are ready to wire it all up. In some ways, it surprised me just how poorly the receiver’s manual explained how to set everything up, to be fair, there’s a fair number of variables to deal with. Here’s my understanding on what things mean and how to configure them.

Speaker configuration: It’s particularly important to connect each speaker in the correct place on the receiver when setting up rear or surround speakers – so you don’t accidentally mix them up (i.e . Be sure to give the speakers

Speaker distances: Set to the appropriate numbers.

Front / Rear Speaker Size: Large vs small is the choice – and curiously, it’s referring more to frequency spectrum, rather than physical dimensions. The difference is whether low-frequency sounds get sent to the speakers and subwoofer (Large), or subwoofer only (Small). If your speakers are capable of reaching 25Hz and / or have a dedicated subwoofer cone, consider setting to Large, otherwise use small. In my case, the Polk RTiA7s have dedicated woofer cones, setting to small means those cones wouldn’t be doing much, so large was the way to go. The specifics of the ‘transfer’ from speakers to sub is discussed more when talking about ‘Crossover’.

Crossover: The frequency whereby sound stops going to the speakers and starts going to the subwoofer. The default tends to be 80 Hz, due to the theory that below this frequency, your ears won’t be able to determine where the sound is coming from – useful, since subwoofers can be quite large, and, depending on your physical space availability, are often the furthest component from you. This said, depending on:

Your speakers – check the spec, can they handle going lower? Does this distort other sound when playing music?

Your ‘bass interest’ – do you like harder kicks (lower crossover) or longer shakes (higher crossover)? Note that actors with deep voices will more readily trigger the subwoofer, the higher the crossover is set.

Speaker levels: Amplify the volume to a particular speaker (or pair) if you feel the sound isn’t at the level you want. In my environment, the rear speakers are +2.5 db, as this is what felt right for a nice surround effect.

Equaliser Settings: Again, I don’t know enough about this to really comment, other than say I don’t use it, and, aside from using it to counteract negative room effects, I don’t really see a need for it. My feeling has always been that I want speakers which can reproduce music naturally, without the need for raising or lowering anything. That said, one thing I might investigate is ‘volume-levelling’, for instances where I’m watching a movie and want the explosions to be no louder than the average volume in other parts of the film.

LFE + Main

Media Centre Configuration

Pass audio from music as 2.1 or 2.0, if you don’t want LFE / don’t have a subwoofer)

Pass audio from movies as X.X (depending on how many speakers / subwoofers you have)