i am currently using my 2 front towers and subwoofer until my center speaker cable comes in. I just purchased a fiber optic cable for my dvd player and would like to know, which format should i use on my 950. Keep in mind that i am only using my front towers and subwoofer. I was using 5-stereo before with my analog hookup for my dvd player and everything played fine. The optical connection automatically swithches to dd or one of the other surround formats, but i can't choose 5 stereo anymore. Which format is best? Thanks,

Not to sound rude, but pick up two speakers and start enjoying surround sound. It really makes all the difference. I use two cheap, as in free, speakers for my surrounds and the experience is fine. Look for something used if you don't want to spend all that much money. Just my .02 cents...

I am going to pick up my rears when I have the time and money. I have already spent 8-9K for my system, I don't think that i will stop and not have surrounds. I have moved into a new house and we are furnishing the house and I am piecing my system in between. Please, don't think somebody is cheap, when you don't know all the facts. I purchased the 950/770 combo from Steve about 2 months ago, why would i only use 2 speakers with a 7 channel amp. Go figure.

Thanks,

Until you add surround speakers, I'd recommend just using stereo -- that will insure that you aren't steering information to speakers that aren't there. If you set the mains to "small" the 950's bass management will feed the subwoofer.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

Hey...relax. No offense meant. It was just an idea.

Trust in the Gonk, use stereo.

I talked to Steve at Outlaw, and he said in the meantime set the mains at large and set the center to small. I am to choose none for the surround and center (until I get the cables for the center) and that should allow me to have 2.1.

Thanks for the response,

Hello marcpam,

I spoke with Steve about this and I think there may have been some miscommunication here. We recommend that you set your main speakers to "small", and center speaker to "none" until you acquire the cabling to actually connect your center channel. Once you can connect your center channel also set that to "small". The sub setting should be "on" in both configurations. With your speakers, only set your main speakers to "large" and sub to "none" if you do not have a subwoofer.

Regards,

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scott (edited June 02, 2004).]

Scott,

My front speakers are polk rti12's, which are rated at 50-500 watts per speaker. I looked in the manual, and it says Bass Management settings: Front=Large. Should I still set my mains to small? Please give me your feedback

Oh yea, my overall frequency response on the front towers are 18hz-27khz

Thanks,

[This message has been edited by marcpam (edited June 02, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by marcpam (edited June 02, 2004).]

In order to have the subwoofer active, you have to set the Polk's to small -- otherwise, the bass management will send everything to the mains. The -3dB point on the RTi12's is listed on Crutchfield at 30Hz ("frequency response 30-26,000 Hz (-3dB) "), so I'd recommend experimenting with both the 40Hz and 60Hz crossover points. There is a rule of thumb that I've heard several times that suggests setting your crossover point at twice the -3dB frequency, which is why I suggest trying the 60Hz point out. In fact, the -3dB point on my Studio 60's is 30Hz and I'm using the 60Hz crossover with them.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited June 03, 2004).]

As I understand it, you are also using an external subwoofer. If this is the case your main speakers will need to be set to "small", otherwise the sub will not receive a signal in stereo mode. If you are not using a subwoofer, you'll have to set them to "Large". Based on Polk's specs of a +/-3dB at 30Hz, you should use either the 40 Hz or 60 Hz setting (whichever sounds better to your ears- with your subwoofer). Feel free to drop us a line if you would like to discuss this further.

Regards,

Scott

Yeah.. the reason for not following the speaker manual is that most audio equipment has a non adjustable crossover that's typically at 80 or 100 hz but for the 950 you've got far more options to customize it for your speakers...

Different people have different interpretaions of "small"...

ok guys,

I have set my mains to small and set the front xover point to 60. I have talked to Steve at Outlaw and he is very helpful and cust. oriented. This is just another positive reminder that Outlaw has the product and the cust. service to back it up. Good job guys, keep it up.

Thanks for all of the replies

the 950 does not allow lfe+main as an option for the sub output? i.e. to allow bass to go to any speaker set as large, but also allow bass to go to the sub? that is unfortunate for full range speakers...

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If it did, how would the steering work? If you send the full range, unaltered signal to the mains and cross the mains' signal over to produce something for the sub (which the 950 actually does when using stereo bypass mode with the mains set to small), you get the "double bass" condition that so many people objected to back around the time of the 950's beta testing. The whole point of a true full range speaker is that it doesn't need a sub; the reason Outlaw set up the stereo bypass mode the way they did was that they assumed a speaker set to small must start to drop off significantly near the specified crossover point and that therefore the sub would be able to support the speaker even without applying a high pass crossover to the speaker's signal.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

there are different ways to produce the desired results, called different things im sure. setting to small and setting the crossover low enough is the same thing.

lfe+main (sub setting) is filtering off any bass that is too low for the mains and sends it to the sub. it is all dependent on the crossover setting. sounds pretty much the same to me, as long as setting the mains to small and crossover send all that bass for the sub to reproduce instead of just losing it. i thought that was the difference, small mains and low crossover just kept the signal from going to the mains, nothing more. lfe+main allowed the bass that the mains couldnt produce to be played by the sub... with small mains and crossover, the sub would only get lfe signal and some bass could be lost... i guess the setting is actually better for not quite full range speakers playing back full range sound.

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This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Any time a speaker is set to small on the 950, the bass removed from the speaker's signal is redirected somewhere -- either the subwoofer or (in the case of a system without a sub, in which case the mains should be set to large) the main speakers. Nothing's being lost here. I would expect any surround sound processor to do this as part of the bass management. To not do so would yield an inherently broken bass management system.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

so in essence the sub is getting the lfe input AND low frequency intended for the mains? what would you say is double bass then? the same frequency being played by the mains and the sub at the same time?

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This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

The double bass issue had to do with the low signal from the mains being played by both the sub AND the mains, IIRC. Also IIRC, that was mostly with the multichannel analog input.

If the sub is playing the LFE info plus what was originally recorded for the mains and the mains are not playing that info, there is no double bass. The sub would be playing info from more than one channel, BUT the info from a single input channel would not be reproduced by more than one speaker.

Does that make sense to anyone?



If the mains are still playing the same signal then that would be double bass. If that signal has been filtered from the mains then that would not be double bass.

that is what i thought, and thought i said. glad you cleared it up. i am however unclear as to what IIRC means. i didnt know what you meant by that in previous posts either...

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If I Remember Correctly