I need help tuning my home theater audio system...?

Question

I have a new onkyo receiver and 7.1 surround sound system, with a 10 inch sub and 2 12 inch subs. On the receiver I can control the cutoff of the frequency range to each speaker, and where the cutoff is for that speaker, the rest goes to the subwoofers. My front and center speakers are rated to 55Hz, the cutoff on my receiver is selectable at either 50 or 60 Hz for those- which one should I pick? Also, Onkyo states that my surrounds are rated to 60Hz, but I sort of don't believe that, should I still pick 60Hz- I was thinking the subs could put out alot more between 60-80 than the smaller surrounds can. Also, any good ideas for tuning the system after the freq. response cutoffs are selected? I've got the bass on a sine sweep real smooth and even, but for the mid-high end I was thinking of turning the subs off and throwing in a high quality C.D. and setting the Equalizer from there... any thoughts on this? I'm not a pro but I have a good idea of what stuff is!

Answer 1

I always set the subs to 120 Hz and if possible I will set it to 250 Hz if I have that choice....those frequencies are all in the bass range and should be delivered to the subs for the most efficient usage of the amplifier's power....

If you don't, your midrange has to handle that power and it muddys those frequencies...very inefficient.

Answer 2

well to be honest its hard via email with the limited info.

The best you can do to tune up the system, (for bass) set speakers to small assuming you have small speakers even towers fit in that small speaker category unless they have a powered sub inside 90% of people dont. Set to small, go to the sub if its got the option to enable low pass crossover and shut it off (that) allows the receiver to send/control the bass signal over to the sub. In the sub (reciever section) set to 200 or max it out to crank more bass threw it and max out the bass volume control on the sub, that will allow more dynamic bass even in low volume settings it will go at pace of your Volume control afterwards. You should never shut off the bass because everything has bass even voices in music and soft instruments. just lower the bass or increase it.

as far as frequency goes, every room is diffrent and every amp to. You need to basically sit and fine tune the highs using a music CD to your taste. Once you fix that, the movie fine tunning will fall in that category and the (bass mystery) solved. You should pop in a movie DVD and fine tune the back speakers and center. left and right was done with the CD. The problem with fine tunning with Amps is that some have a (+ or -) hard to tell, while others like (mine) have ranges (like 99hz- 1.1 khz) and above for pitch sounds aka (highs and mids) if that the case set all speakers to 1.1 khz, it will give you clean highs and clean mids (while) having the best bass tuned as well. If not play it by ear.

If you have the option for selecting center speakers and left and right speakers for a deeper field (select) mid-deep. So that the sounds comes off like its coming from the center of the screen vs spaced out everywhere. (adds to realism). After that just play with any other options to your taste like virtual speakers etc. Default mode is only for a tested average room, each room is diffrent and reflects sounds diffrently to. (note) some Amps you have to tune every surround setting not just one. good luck any questions Email me on here ill be glad to help.

Answer 3

Always, select the subwoofer(s) amp(s) crossover frequency at the exact frequency level of the main speakers at its low end; not the center channel speaker or surround sound speakers--even if they're of different driver size. Just stick with most of the receiver's default settings of sound tuning; only change the speaker settings to small and keep the subwoofer(s) volume level in the middle.