Hi:

I am still experimenting to find the best match between my NHT 1.5 main speakers, NHT VS 1.2 center and HSU VTF-3 sub. I found with the mains set to small and crossover set to 80Hz, the sound is pretty good. I am trying to punch up the lower-midrange a bit. The question I have is if I set my speakers to large and leave the crossover @ 80Hz, what happens to sound below the crossover setting? Does the same rule also apply to the surrounds?

If the speakers are set to large, the crossover is not used at all (the setting selected will be ignored, all bass goes to the speaker, and nothing is redirected to the sub). That applies to all of the speakers, as far as I know.

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

Yeah - that behavior would seem correct technically, but it seems especially schizophrenic when contrasted with the famous 'double bass' issue.

The 'other' Cirrus based pre\pro offers a three step adjustment that allows 'double bass' from digital sources as an option, which makes this 'design choice' even more odd.

After all the discussion lately, I thought this might help. Call it the "Model 950 bass management cheat sheet."

6-channel analog input

• bass management off: full-range speakers receive full-range signal, subwoofer receives LFE signal plus information below 80Hz from the other five full-range speakers ("double bass" condition); subwoofer also has a filter that discards material above 120Hz on the LFE input signal (material that subs typically can't reproduce well)
• bass management on: full-range speakers receive all information above 80Hz, subwoofer receives LFE signal plus information below 80Hz from other five full-range speakers; subwoofer also has a filter that discards material above 120Hz on the LFE input signal (material that subs typically can't reproduce well)

Stereo Bypass Mode

• Mains set to LARGE: Left and right channels receive full-range signal with no processing, subwoofer is off
• Mains set to SMALL: Left and right channels receive full-range signal with no processing, subwoofer receives information below specified crossover from left and right channels ("double bass" condition)

Digital bass management

• Applies to all digital inputs and all stereo analog signals that do not use the "stereo bypass" mode
• Any speakers set to large will receive full-range signal with no data sent to the subwoofer (crossover setting is ignored)
• Any speakers set to small will receive all information above the specified crossover and nothing below the crossover; data below the crossover is sent to the subwoofer
• subwoofer will receive the LFE channel of multi-channel soundtracks as well as any re-directed bass from small speakers
• If there is not a subwoofer (sub turned off in the menu) and the mains are set to "LARGE," then information redirected from small speakers will be sent to the mains and the LFE channel of 5.1 soundtracks will also be sent to the mains

It's be a rather hectic day, so there may be errors in there, but I think that's a fairly complete capsule of the 950's bass management modes...

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

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited September 25, 2002).]

Gonk - I like it!

Could be added to a FAQ on the 950 somewhere.

One small thing, for example, and I'm nitpicking here , here:



You imply brickwall filters. Could add a footnote about the slopes involved. Could also add some info on *how* to pick the crossover in the digital domain. And then phase, and then... Anyway! Very nice.

A good suggestion, Kevin. Sadly, I just remember enough electronics to know that filters (high-pass, low-pass, band-pass, take your pick) aren't absolutes, so I'm not the best one to get into the specifics of how "not absolute" these things are. Also, I was reminded by another thread today that the LFE on the 6-channel analog input includes a 120Hz LPF that I didn't mention. Off to do a couple quick edits...

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

Does a 120Hz LPF= Low Pass Filter? If so, What happens to the signal,say, Avia Low Freq. Sweeps chapter- 200hz to 20hz, above 120hz?
DmC

[This message has been edited by DMC (edited September 25, 2002).]

DMC,

That's a really good question. The 950's bass management will probably perform as expected if running Avia through the digital outs of the DVD player. If you decide to use the decoder in the DVD player and use the 6 Ch direct, then I would think that the DVD player will use whatever bass management _it_ has and the 950 will act according to where the analog bass management switch is. If your DVD player ends up sending something over 120 hz to the sub channel on the 6 ch direct, that material will be filtered out by the LPF (yes, low pass filter). If the DVD player sends all 120 hz signal to the other speakers, the 950 will pass those on through as you would expect.

I haven't done this yet because I can't get my family out of the house long enough to do these tests. I know the 120 hz LPF works because my Kenwood 409 didn't have one and I was getting a lot of high frequency stuff in the sub. I'm not getting it anymore with the 950. There are quite a few DVD-As that are not mixed as 5.1, rather they are 6.0 and some are even 5.0 and 4.0. As Gonk indicated above, the LPF works to filter out frquencies the subwoofer was never intended to handle.