Bass Mgmt for Dummies

[jpossum]

I thought I would start this thread for those like me that can't follow the discussion that has gone back and forth between much more techinically literate folks. 8O

I just ordered the 1066 as it seems to be among the best at its price point. Perhaps someone could take a minute or direct me to somewhere that explains things simply. Here goes...

I have tower speakers (B&W CDM 9NT) at the front and B&W CDM 1NT for the surrounds.

So.....

1. Are the 1NT's considered "small or "large"?
2. If I want to watch a movie from a DVD, does all this bass mgmt stuff become an issue? It sounds like it doesn't because the DVD is sending "digital" stuff. Right?

3. If I want to just listen to a good old fashioned CD from my 2 front speakers, do I have a potential bass mgmt issue? Maybe so because this is a analog signal?

4. Now for the really stupid question...can I listen to a normal CD and have it come from all 5 speakers? Isn't this doable with all this fancy Dolby Po Logic 2 and DTS stuff? If so, do I have a bass mgmt issue here?

Sorry for the amateur questions but I need some basics before I can hope to understand some of these other threads. ops:

Thanks in advance

[JKohn]

1. Are the 1NT's considered "small or "large"?

Small

2. If I want to watch a movie from a DVD, does all this bass mgmt stuff become an issue? It sounds like it doesn't because the DVD is sending "digital" stuff. Right?

If you have your mains set to large and sub=yes, you may get doubled bass. I haven't tested this with DD/DTS, but it does happen with PCM. This is a bug that will be fixed in an upcoming firmware release.

3. If I want to just listen to a good old fashioned CD from my 2 front speakers, do I have a potential bass mgmt issue? Maybe so because this is a analog signal?

In stereo mode, you'll get doubled bass because that's the way the analog bypass works. With the latest firmware you can work around this by setting the Sub Level equal to "Off" for stereo sources.

4. Now for the really stupid question...can I listen to a normal CD and have it come from all 5 speakers? Isn't this doable with all this fancy Dolby Po Logic 2 and DTS stuff? If so, do I have a bass mgmt issue here?

Yes you can use ProLogic 2 or DTS-NEO6, just select the sound mode you want from the remote. At this point you're no longer in analog bypass mode since the signal is getting converted to digital, so you won't have a bass management problem (except possibly if your mains are set to large, see my answer to question 2).

Basically, the safest thing to do for now is set all speakers to small and then you won't have any problems with digital sources. For analog sources you'll have the bass doubling unless you use one of the surround formats (as opposed to stereo analog bypass). You may think you need to set your towers to "large" to take best advantage of them, but since they only go down to the 30's you should probably set them as small for home theater anyway.




Jeff Kohn

http://home.houston.rr.com/jeffkohn

[jpossum]

Thanks for your thoughts. If I wanted to set my front speakers to "large", couldn't I just physically go over to my sub woofer and turn down the volume for 2 channel and then turn it back up when I want to watch a DVD? Even with some CDs, maybe I won't want any sub bass on some music but other CDs might need some extra bass, which would come from the sub.

[gianni]

Yes. You could simply do that.

[jpossum]

Jeff,

I thought you might find this interesting. I go an email back from B&W suggesting that my CDM 1 NT speakers be set to "large". Seems they think they are capable of full range.

[wng]

You'll probably help yourself out by setting them as Small to route the bass (which can be heavy in movies) to the subwoofer.

[JKohn]

Jeff,

I thought you might find this interesting. I go an email back from B&W suggesting that my CDM 1 NT speakers be set to "large". Seems they think they are capable of full range.

Well, I think they're full of it. My definition of full-range goes well below the 60hz -3db point of those 2-way speakers, even for music. They may be really wonderful speakers, but they're not full range. DVD soundtracks can have bass down to 20hz or lower, and even for music it's not uncommon to have bass down to the 30's or 40's.

My towers are capable of playing down to the 30's, and I have them set as small. You have to keep in mind that when using a crossover with small speakers it's not a brick wall, they'll still be getting some sound a full octave below the crossover point; it's just attenuated by the crossover slope. So it's not like you're "wasting" your the bass capabilities of your speakers by setting them to small.




Jeff Kohn

http://home.houston.rr.com/jeffkohn