3.SETUP MENU continued …

Crossover (Xover) Frequency:

The crossover divides the audio signal into two frequency bands, thereby restricting the amount of bass sent to any speaker set to ‘Small’, and preventing midrange and treble from going to the subwoofer.

Using the ￿￿ buttons, choose a frequency between 25 Hz - 160 Hz suitable for the low frequency capability of the speakers in your system. If you are using THX certified speakers, the crossover should be set to 80 Hz.

The subwoofer’s built-in crossover should be bypassed – be sure to set it to the highest frequency.

A crossover does not cut frequencies off like a cliff, but rolls them off according to a slope. If set to 80 Hz, for example, your main speakers will still play lower frequencies – they just won’t have to play them as loudly. This also lightens the load on the amplifier, leaving extra power for mid and high frequencies. Setting the crossover to the lowest number on your speaker’s specification page is unlikely to provide the best result.

LFE is redirected only when Subwoofer is set to ‘No’. If set to ‘Yes’ or ‘Super’, the Movie configuration XOVER FREQ should not be set much lower than 80 Hz, otherwise some LFE information will be lost.

Bass response is highly dependent on room acoustics, and experimentation with subwoofer placement is recommended – start by temporarily placing the subwoofer in the listening area, play some music with a range of bass and walk around the room. Locations where bass sounds even, without certain notes being much louder than others, are usually good spots for placing the subwoofer if decor allows.

Advanced Settings – Crossover Frequency:

When ‘ADV SETTINGS’ is set to ‘On’, each speaker type can be set to a Crossover Frequency that best suits its low frequency characteristics and room acoustics. For example, if placing a speaker against a wall reinforces the bass making it excessive, the Advanced Crossover can be used to roll off the excess bass.

If room acoustics cause response to drop in the crossover region, the Subwoofer channel can be set to overlap other channels to compensate, for instance setting SUB/LFE XOVER to 90 Hz and FRONTS XOVER to 70 Hz. In the opposite situation, if there is a bass peak in the crossover region, you can spread settings to flatten response, for example SUB/LFE XOVER to 70 Hz and FRONTS XOVER to 90 Hz.

A very low setting, such as 25 Hz, may be used to protect full-range speakers from potentially harmful signals. Scrolling below 25 Hz or above 160 Hz brings the ‘Off’ setting, which bypasses the crossover.

Advanced Settings – Subwoofer Phase and Polarity:

Room acoustics vary. If you have the flexibility, experiment with subwoofer placement to determine where it sounds best in your system, providing deep, tight, and well defined bass. Certain subwoofer positions may cause bass frequency cancellation – when your front speakers and subwoofer are “out-of-phase”, they work against each other, resulting in weak and dislocated sounding bass. This can be corrected by adjusting Subwoofer Phase and Polarity.

If your subwoofer has these controls, set them to zero/normal before making menu adjustments. The advantage of adjusting through the Setup Menu instead is that you can do this from the listening position.

As a general guide, set Polarity to ‘Normal’ if the subwoofer is placed close to the front speakers, and to ‘Inverted’ if the subwoofer is located behind the listening area or toward the back of the room. With bass material playing, switch Polarity back and forth from ‘Normal’ to ‘Inverted’ – leave it in the position where bass is louder and more solid sounding.

Subwoofer Phase allows you to take things a step further and fine tune the phase alignment of the subwoofer to your front speakers. Again, adjust Phase for the least amount of cancellation by listening for loudest and most solid bass. Alternatively, listen to the ‘shhhh’ noise created between FM radio stations, and adjust Phase until you find the most natural sounding transition between your main speakers and subwoofer.

Advanced Settings – Bypass LFE Crossover:

If you have set SUB/LFE XOVER to much lower than 80 Hz, the upper portion of the LFE signal will be lost. With BYPASS LFE XOVER set to ‘Yes’, LFE goes to the subwoofer without going through the crossover, preventing loss of LFE information. This also applies to the 6-Ch input’s SUB input (effectively, an LFE input).

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