What are the "best" general settings for a sw 15 II? The three knobs on the sub itself. Thanks in advance.

 

Daniel

Every sub will have different settings in different rooms.  As a rule, for HT, you want to disable the subs crossover and use the crossover in your receiver.  That leaves gain and phase.  Those need to be adjusted with an SPL meter to be done correctly.  The gain can be thought of as a loudness control.  The phase is used basically to adjust the sound coming from the sub so that it doesn't cancel out the bass from the mains by playing out of time (phase) with them (simplistic explination).

Ceca> I have seen/heard/done the opposite with regards to sub xovers... but in the end I guess it is all a matter of preference and choice. I see it recommended regularly on here to set receiver xover at 120, and then adjust with the sub's xover instead. *shrug* 6/half dozen? 

Danely> I have my receiver set at 120Hz, and the sub xover at about 80.  I set the gain to 1/2 on the sub amp, and fine-tuned from there. As mentioned - different strokes for different rooms - carpeting, hardwood, size, shape, etc. Simply changing the placement of the sub can use significantly different results in your listening areas. Don't be afraid to play around with it :)  (Klipsch Sub12 btw)

srobak:

Ceca> I have seen/heard/done the opposite with regards to sub xovers... but in the end I guess it is all a matter of preference and choice. I see it recommended regularly on here to set receiver xover at 120, and then adjust with the sub's xover instead.

I don't see how this type of configuration would make any sense. If you have your speakers set to small and you LFE crossover on the receiver set to 120 then everything below 120 will be sent to your sub. BUT if you set the subs crossover as well to lets say 80 then neither the speakers nor the sub will be playing in the 80 - 120 hz range. Disabling the subs crossover allows the receiver to handle everything. The only time that using the subs crossover is handy is when setting up stereo subs, but that it a whole different discussion.

That's not quite 100% accurate.  Crossover slopes are different, and if you set a sub's crossover at 80Hz its not like the sub will have 0 output at 81Hz.  Crossovers can have 6dB per octave slopes, 12dB, etc.  Its possible that in srobak's room he has an unusually high peak between 80 and 120Hz in his room in his listening position and he has found that to his ears his setup sounds best. 

One other possibility is to use the controls on the front of the sub to dial it in.

Set the pass frequency about where the mains start to roll off. Using the manufacturers low end frequency is a good place to start.

listening to program material adjust the phase to the place where bass sounds loudest.

adjust the sub volume to match the program.

 

Experiment...Experiment...    

Try everything......Location of the sub may be the biggest influence on how well the sub performs in your particular room with your particular speakers.