Help with setup

[JohnnyH]

I received all of my epuipment last week and I have some questions. My mains are B&W 704, Center HTM7, Sub ASW 675 and surrounds DS6 S3, all powered by a RSX1056.

How should I set the speakers and crossover up. Are they considered large or small. How about crossover frequencies. I'm a bit confused on all of this. I also noticed a lot of bass on the side of the room opposite the sub. Very deep, where it is more mellow everywhere else.

The room is approx 15X20 with 12' ceilings. There is a small 2x5 bump out on the back wall from a previous fireplace and a 6' opening into the dining room also on the back wall.

Also on all of the Dolby and prologic settings. Should I just leave them alone or do they require input from me.

Thanks
John

[Kobus]

There might be a lot of opinions coming your way, but really (I went through this), firstly you must understand all this crossover stuff in general and then play with different settings to see which you like best.

As for the sub, here you must play with different placement positions. Search, there is a lot written about this. Also if you clearly hear your sub (directionally), it might be that the crossover setting MIGHT be to high.

Anyway, I am sure I did not help much, BUT
enjoy your system.

Kobus

[Mark_C.]

Since this all seems new to you, I recommend for the time being that you set all speakers to small. This setting has to do with how low your speakers can go. Most speakers (even floorstanders) should be set to small to allow the sub to do what it does best and to take the very high demands of powering low bass away from the receiver (which is a good thing).
An SPL meter is a good tool for balancing the output of your system accurately.

[grit]

Ripped straight from B&W's website! Pay special attention to the links at the bottom of the page.

http://www.bwspeakers.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/local.faq/ObjectID/F5CA2EB5-3D20-11D4-A67F00D0B7473B37

As for crossovers, I really can't recommend enough you read the manual... there's TONS explained in there. Short version - cross over is where the sound changes from one speaker to the next. That may be from the tweeter to the mid, or from a floor standing speaker to a subwoofer, etc. "large" setting means the full signal is sent to the speaker and NOTHING from THAT CHANNEL goes to the subwoofer. "small" means that the lower frequencies instead get routed to the subwoofer and/or your "large" speakers, depending on your settings.

The best thing you can do is read and play. And, as Mark mentioned, buy an SPL meter from radio shack for like $30 or so. Very helpful.

[tomm]

small and large are terms that don't really have anything to do with the physical size of the speaker. by setting to large, all it is saying is that there is going to be no switching to the sub and the speaker is going to handle all of the frequency range including low frequency signals. by setting to low, in conjunction with the xover, this is saying that anything below say 60hz for example, are going to be sent to the sub. you should be able to set speakers to large for music and small for ht if you like.