Fanning the flames

[gianni]

I finally read Hi-Fi's review of the RSX 1055 and 5 other AVRs. The 1055 got a good review. However, they did discuss bass management and perform some lab tests. The tests did evaluate bass circuitry performance. They did point out some issues with bass mgmt. with the 1055 and some of the other receivers. As most of you know, Rotel is not the only company tyring to deal with bass mgmt. It is a common problem.

I did find it interesting that they found the biggest errors in the bass redirection circuitry to be with the small speaker settings. They measured up to a 17 dB boost in the bass channel. This seems to contradict the thinking here that large speaker settings and the double bass are the worst case. I wonder if they took the main speaker bass into account when they measured large speaker performance.

The reviewers findings do not really upset my apple cart -- it just makes me wonder about all this. I use small speakers and have been able to get everythinng to blend pretty well. I thought you 1066 owners might be interested as well since I believe our units are the same in this respect. I would like to hear others thoughts on this if they get a chance to read the review.

If only Rotel would tell us what the differences are between these various inputs.

[mattburk]

Does the 1065 have the same bass managment problem as the 1065 and 1066? If not would it be the best pick of the three?

[Chris3G]

out of curiosity which receivers (if any) did they find performed all bass management correctly?

[ZX 6R]

I did find it interesting that they found the biggest errors in the bass redirection circuitry to be with the small speaker settings. They measured up to a 17 dB boost in the bass channel. This seems to contradict the thinking here that large speaker settings and the double bass are the worst case. I wonder if they took the main speaker bass into account when they measured large speaker performance.

It does not surprise me at all. We've been advising our clients to use "large" for quite awhile. After our own listening tests we felt for the setups we were selling, at least, it just sounded better.

[YeeDude]

Now I'm kinda confused.

I thought that one of the semi-workarounds for the 1055/1066 system is to set all speakers to small to reduce/eliminate the double-bass problem. The new problem (or so I thought) is that now the subwoofer is doing handling a LOT more of the lower frequencies that one's other five speakers could've handled anyway, especically if they're running floor standers.

[Entice]

I think I'll just have to wait till my stuff gets delivered to really know if bass mgt is a problem. Seems like whenever I ask the question I get different answers....


Sad but true.

[gianni]

Yes, the variety of answers and opinions is endless. I am really becoming more and more convinced that what works best is system/room dependent. I think a little trail and error for a particular system is going to yield the best results.

Having said that, I still am of the strong opinion that Rotel could help us out by making available the workings of bass mgmt. and bass redirection and differences between the various inputs. Perhaps if more users would email or phone tech support requesting this they might move a little quicker -- they have already acknowledged to me that this might be a good idea.