Help with new speakers

[xterra77]

Hi Guys
I will be setting up for my HT with my HK AVR if anyone has something similar.
what basic setup should i look for
Ex:large or small- crossover etc...I have been reading but a little confused where do you change from 8 to 6 ohms etc.
RTi10 front
CSi5 center
FXi5 surround
CSi3 rear
athena p400 sub which i plan on changing soon.
Any help would be appriciated
Thanks

[McCelery]

Fronts: Large
Everything else: Small

All of those are 8 Ohm speakers, so I'm not sure what you need there.

I used the built-in mic on my HK AVR to calibrate the levels in each speaker, but ended up tweaking it manually. Maybe I'm deafer in one ear :D

[GSRBOB]

Not true. I know for a fact the RTi 10's and the CSi5 are 4 ohm. The specifications are incorrect.

[tcrossma]

Not true. I know for a fact the RTi 10's and the CSi5 are 4 ohm. The specifications are incorrect.

Polks lists the entire RTi line as being 8ohm, and from what i've seen of Polk up to this point i'm inclined to think that it wasn't a mistake on their part.

As to your speaker setup, the general consensus seems to be to set all speakers to Small with a crossover at 80. Personally, in my setup I find the sound to be better with my fronts set to Large and bass directed to both the fronts and the sub.

If your receiver has an 8ohm/6ohm toggle, just leave it at 8ohm and you should be fine. Setting it to 6ohm will lower the amount of power that can be sucked out of your AVR so that power-hungry speakers can't damage it.

[GSRBOB]

Take a fluke meter and check for yourself.

[obieone]

LET'S STAY FOCUSED PEOPLE!!!
But getting get back to your question, I'd run the front's thru the sub(if you can), set them to large, and sub to off/no. Then adjust the vol/ crossover ON THE SUB-again,
if you can- then tweak the recvr as neccesary-i.e. tone control, etc.
I don't know anything about your sub, but the spec.'s say level(vol.) + range(crossover)
So, good luck

[wallstreet]

Set all to small, crossover at 80hz, and experiment from there.

[ohskigod]

RTi's = 8 ohms. ohm meter be damned, if they were 4 ohm;s, people running them on lower end recievers would have the amp sections practically melt. Rti's are made to be 8 ohm, making them easier to drive and able to be used with a wider array of gear high to low end.

the Lsi's, not so much. they are 4 ohm and need beefy amplification to run

anywhoo, in regards to settings, try different things on your own over time, its part of the fun.

I would start all speakers set to small, 60 hz cross on the mains, 80 on the center, 80 on the surrounds. nothing wrong with running floorstanders on small, there is a rhyme and reason to sending as much to the sub as you can so your reciever amplification can not work so hard doing sub 80 hz stuff. I have a carver amp with plenty of power running LSi15's and still have them set to small, but with a low crossover point (40 or 60, cant remember)

start from there and play around, you never know what will sound good in your own home on your own ears. :)

[Kex]

What ohskigod said (love that German in his signature too, even if I only understand about half of it). It's easy to change the settings in the OSD without stopping playback of a music or video source so you can experiment. I bet EzSet/EQ on your harman/kardon (unless it's a 146, which doesn't have that feature) will set the fronts and center to "large" and set the crossover to 40Hz. You might want to play around from 40Hz-60Hz-80Hz and from "large" to "small".

The RTi10 have those woofers to drive, so you might find you need external amplification to really benefit from them properly, when compared to RTi8 for example.