Surround Speakers -3dB

[richie00boy]

Is 160 Hz deep enough for surround speakers when used with sealed box mains that go down to 90 Hz and a very good subwoofer?

Thinking about NXT flat panel speakers for rears.

[Timn8ter]

With the increase of actual sounds used in the surround channels of modern HT soundtracks, rather than just ambience, I doubt 160Hz is going to get the most out of them. Keep in mind, the ideal is all the speakers in the system being the same. Everything other than that is a compromise because the criteria is not frequency response alone but also tonality.

[richie00boy]

Yeah I'm aware of matching voicing etc but just wondered if I could get away with the panels 160 Hz response. If I set surround speaker size to small I'm hoping it might be just about OK.

[morbo]

sounds like you've already convinced yourself IMO, if you set the crossover in the receiver to 150hz or more, you should be ok. Otherwise, performance will be far from optimal, though it may well be enough for you, depends on tastes. I ran little TB 871 surrounds, which start to roll off at ~ 150hz, for quite some time and was happy. Once I switched to something that better matched my receivers XO frequency (100hz), things really opened up a lot, not a subtle difference.

[cratz2]

I kind of thought that the 'small surround' speaker setting was for when you were using a rear sub... No? I've heard some mighty big explosions coming from the rear. End Of Days springs to mind.

Awful movie - outstanding surround experience. You'd be missing information with surrounds that didn't go to at least 50 Hz.

[richie00boy]

Originally posted by morbo
I ran little TB 871 surrounds, which start to roll off at ~ 150hz, for quite some time and was happy. Once I switched to something that better matched my receivers XO frequency (100hz), things really opened up a lot, not a subtle difference.

But was the improvement in sound due to going to bigger drivers as well, not just lower F3?

Originally posted by cratz2
I kind of thought that the 'small surround' speaker setting was for when you were using a rear sub... No? I've heard some mighty big explosions coming from the rear.

No, setting small simply limits the bass sent to the surround/rear speakers and directs it to the sub instead. There is no way to connect a 'rear' sub unless you run the surround/rear speakers as large and feed off that signal, but that would preclude the use of the small setting

I've heard what seemed to be explosions coming from the rear, but how much of that is really bass from the mains and sub, and you are getting the directivity from the surround/rear channels?

I've found out a high pass filter module I made a while ago so I'm going to mod it for 160 Hz and see how it sounds with my existing speakers.

[cratz2]

Ah... My current receiver has an RCA rear sub output though it lacks a small or large setting for the surrounds. My ignorance. I totally buy into the single subwoofer being very non-directional angle as my computer speakers have the subwoofer about four feet to the right of the main speakers and when listening to, say, Barry White, I could SWEAR that the lowest registers of his voice are coming from those 2" drivers.

Having said that, if it was at all possible, I'd like to have a -3dB point of no lower than 80 Hz if possible, even on rears.

[paulspencer]

Perhaps you could do a little test of an existing speaker to find out. Use some eq to simulate the response and see what you think. You probably would not be missing as much as theory might suggest, but just knowing it would bother me enough to not want to do this!

[richie00boy]

I suffer from the same 'mind distraction' thing as well. However:

Originally posted by richie00boy
I've found out a high pass filter module I made a while ago so I'm going to mod it for 160 Hz and see how it sounds with my existing speakers.