settings and hookup

[marloue13]

Im a newbie and totally unknowledgeable about the different terms here. I just found & bought some clearance Polks to replace my Bose am15 for my family room and need some advice on what will be the best hook up and settings for this system.

i will be using an RTi150 as my main front,

a csi30 as center (on top of my 53"Hitachi UWX10BA)

and still thinking between Fxi30 or Rti38 for my surround.

also i boughht an open box RTi100 (last Pc.) and planning to use it as my backsurround (can i?)can you tell me how to connect it with the other spkr and how about the sub conctn. (do ineed a y adapter?)

i still have my Onkyo skw150 sub and thinking of adding it as a back up sub for the RTi150.

whats the best speaker hookup, until now im still confuse about the biwire and biamp term.does the metal strip produce the same purpose as this? i just want to hook it simple on the terminals and iwould like to know if there is a difference on hooking my wires to upper terminals than the lower -,+ terminals, which is the best? i still have 80 feet of 12 gauge spk wires that i bought from home depot.

Im using an Old Onkyo sr600.
please help me esp.
-setting the receivers spk.config.,,
-sp large/sml, sp calibration (+,-) do i need to crank my RTi150 to make it balance with the other speakers or the other way.
-and the difference between the crossover 80-120.






any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

m13

[Frank Z]

First off, welcome to the forum!

Now sit down and read your manuals...TWICE!!

Next step is to get an SPL meter from Radio Shack and pick up a copy of the Sound & Vision Magizines Home Theater tune-up DVD.

Fxi30's are great for surround duties, the y will difuuse the surround effects so that they are not localized.

Sure you can use the Rti100 as a rear speaker.

You might want to check out WWW.Dolby.com for more placement info.

Biwiring is basically removing the metal jumper from the speaker and using 2 pair of wires from the speaker terminals on the receiver/amp . Some people think that it makes a difference, others don't. You're going to have to experiment a little to see if you notice any difference.

Speaker wire is a hot button for a lot of people, so I'm going to stay away from that issue. Same as the Biwire issue I guess.

The Large vs. Small speaker setting relates to the frequency range of the speakers. Your 150's should be set to large, all others set to small. An 80 Hz crossover (the THX Standard) will re-direct all sound below 80hz to your sub. You'll read-up on these settings in your receiver manual to determine the best settings for your room/equipment.



And last but not least...Congrats on the upgrade from the Bose gear!!

[marloue13]

Thank you very much for the fast reply.
1 more thing , how about the calibration? i saw it on the manual that i can adjust each speakers. i tried some cranking on the receiver like cranking my main speakers and sub to +12 to get more bass and also i crank my center to the max because i feel like im not getting the most of it. and what is the best hook up fro my back which is the RTi100. am i doing the right thing or should i put all of them at 0.
sorry im asking a lot of Q. im just confuse .


thanks.

[mccarts747]

hi. welcome!

I have the Onkyo tx-sr600 also, mine is only a year old though.


When setting up the speakers go into the setup menu and make sure you adjust the speaker distance, this should help the lack of sounds coming from your center. Also, as mentioned in the previous post make sure you set the speaker size and crossover properly. You really shouldn't have to crank(adjust) them to 12db. Mine is at 0 and im 15feet away and can hear whispers clearly (my avg dvd listening volume is about 60 on the main dial)

Note: i have not fully calibrated my system yet either though, but still sounds good.

[Frank Z]

To properly calibrate you'll need an SPL meter to get the outputs from each speaker to match. Doing it by ear is ok just to get things up and running, but you won't get the most out of your system until it is set up using the meter. You'll be amazed at the difference!

[kberg]

Another thought to consider is after calibration, set your surrounds and rear center 1-2 dB higher from the calibration setting. I did this to compensate somewhat for the CSi30 and FXi 30's since the drivers are a bit smaller in these speakers than those in the RTi70's or the CSi40 on my front soundstage. I really like the results but your mileage may vary.