Speakers and Subwoofer settings

[Paperman]

I am moving to an audio system (exclusively used for jazz, blues, and rock music - no movies, no home theater, etc.), with a pair of wall-mounted speakers and an active subwoofer from the same brand (Garvan SNW513 + WAE121, although still under evaluation).

Not being an expert in this field, my idea is to let the Devialet manage everything (as if it were an active crossover), setting the high-pass filter (via speakers output) and the low-pass filter (via RCA pre-out to the sub) to the same value. Then, I would begin to understand if and how to modify it for optimal performance.

Considering the frequency responses of the speakers (55 - 20k) and the active subwoofer (33 - 200), where would you recommend to start?

What other advice would you give me (in short, am I missing something)?

Obviously, I would keep the filter on the active subwoofer at the maximum value (200) since I would be sending a filtered spectrum from the amplifier, correct?

Thank you,
Alberto

[devianet]

Personally I would go the opposite way round, at least to get started.

The reason is that you'll need many adjustments, and adjusting the Expert filter settings requires a multi-step round trip with the configurator and the SD card. For dual mono it's even more effort.

Whereas you can jump out of your chair and adjust the sub upper rolloff directly.

In this setup described, where it seems unlikely you'll need to protect your wallmounteds from the deep bass that they can't fully reproduce, I'd run them filterless. I'd also run the sub from the Expert pre-out filterless - at least to begin with - and use the sub's upper roll off to remove mid-bass from the sub. Worth bearing in mind that every adjustment of upper roll off frequency will require a corresponding sub level adjustment (where one goes down the other up), and the best bass usually comes from a higher level setting and a lower crossover frequency than first expected. It's very unlikely the best crossover frequency will be 55Hz, for example, since so much depends on the order of the rolloff.

Personally I would start at the lowest possible crossover frequency, set the level correctly, and then identify any obvious gaps in the deep bass. If there are any, I'd increase the crossover frequency and lower the level, and test again for gaps.

I use a test tone generator and known mid/deep bass tracks which easily boom if not correctly adjusted to help get the crossover smooth. You'll know when it's right because the bass won't draw any attention to itself but will be thoroughly "there" and enhance the clarity and liquidity of everything above it.

Once you have the best crossover frequency for your speakers, room, and taste, it could then be transferred to a low pass filter on the Expert pre-out, or at least be a much better starting point for experimentation there. Beware the extensive choice of rolloff slopes which may/will be different to that in the sub. The frequency may well need to be changed for a different order of slope.

[Paperman]

Thank you, very clear...