Well the 990 that I gave myself for Christmas is all hooked up. Yesterday I spent all day moving furniure the T.V. unhooking the old system and setting up the new. Now I need to do the intial set up and configure the speakers and that's where I have two questions. Does the Auto Speaker set up also set the cross over points? Secondly, my subwoofer like many have a dial setting it's cut off, I think the lowest setting is 40Hz and the higest 200Hz. Am I correct in thinking that I should set the cut off on the sub at the lowest possible setting, 40Hz? The 990 will then control what signal it sends to the sub depending upon the crossover selected for whatever speaker is needed? For example for the larger speakers that have a lower crossover say 80Hz it will only send a signal to the sub if it needs something below 80Hz, but for the smaller surround speakers that have a higher crossover say 150Hz, then it will send a signal for everthing below 150Hz. Please let me know if I understand this correctly or if I'm in left field. Thanks

You're in left field. Set the crossover on the sub to it's highest setting - 200Hz. Better yet, disable the crossover if possible. If you set it at 40Hz then everything above that will be filtered out.

I believe the Auto Setup will set speaker size and crossover but its choices can sometimes be a bit wonky. I suggest manual setup with all speakers set to Small. For the crossover settings, my general rule of thumb is this for the mains and center channel: Take the -3 db rating for the bottom end of the speaker's frequency response and round it down to the nearest multiple of 10 and then double that to get the crossover frequency. For example, if the speaker is rated down to 37Hz, I'd set the crossover at 60. For surround speakers, I usually go with the closet crossover setting that's greater than what the speaker is rated at. If the speaker is rated down to 82 Hz, I'd go with 100Hz as the crossover setting. This is just a guideline to get started, adjust to what your ears like best.

I don't think the auto setup adjusts the crossover settings - either way, I would do it manually. Cvinfig is quite right that the sub's crossover should be disabled if possible and adjusted to its highest setting if not. What the sub is doing is discarding all data above that crossover point - setting it to a value lower than your highest speaker crossover setting will basically throw away audio information, and setting it too close to any of the 990's settings will create two overlapping crossover slopes in series - not a desirable condition. Cvinfig's guidelines on how to select crossovers are in line with my own.

Thanks for the info gentleman I appreciate it. I was thinking of the setting on the sub as functioning opposite of how it apparently works. I thought of it as allowing all frequencies down to that particular number, not cutting off everything above it. But obviously, with a little thought (and quite a bit of help), that makes no sense whatsoever.

Which leads me to another question, again about set up. Can I use the auto set up to allow the 990 to figure out the distance from the main listening position and the speakers, and then when auto set up is complete go back and adjust the cross overs without whiping out the the other settings? Assuming I'm happy with those settings of course. I just a little leary of attempting to set the idividual speaker distances/ volumes and delays. Oh one other thing, my main front channel speakers are about 17-18 years old. I can not find the documentation that came with the speakers any where so I don't know excactly the limit of their proported frequency response. Any way that can be measured? Does Radio Shack sell something along that line, or am I going to need a little trial and error to find what I like the best.

Thanks again guys

Absolutely. Once it's done it has no influence over the settings
In theory, you could use Room EQ Wizard (a free program) and a Radio Shack SPL meter to calculate the response of each speaker, but that's going to be a somewhat tedious exercise. Trial and error is also an option: start at an 80Hz crossover and tinker with it.

Gonk, thanks you're a font of all meaningful knowledge regarding the 990 and a tireless sagre responding to all questions, large and small, mundane and arcane. BTW I have found (but rather hazy) memories of a New Years Eve on Beale Street with some friends of the family that reside in Memphis

I had read somewhere else about the Room EQ Wizard and the Radio Shack SPL meter it sounds like something that would be interesting if one had a whole bunch of free time and an empty house one day. But I'll take your advice for now and tinker away.

Thanks for the help