Can I damage my system?

[Goldensuitcase]

Last night, I popped in Tron: Legacy to show off my system to a fellow lady for a second and the bass was so loud and kind of poppy it made me worry I may destroy my speakers yet I did not have the volume turned amazingly high which leads me to the question as to how high should I be able to go?

I have two:
XPA-3 running my fronts and center (Polk RTi A9's and CSi-A6)
UPA-7 running my surrounds and surround backs (Polk RTi A3 and FXi A6)

I have my fronts set to large for the bass as I don't use my subwoofer in the apartment
I have a Pioneer Elite Receiver and at the time where I worried, I had the volume at -22.

I dont have a decibel meter, but I have watched movies before at around the same level with no problems. I only noticed a slight hesitance as the bass was really strong in this one scene.

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by Goldensuitcase

Last night, I popped in Tron: Legacy to show off my system to a fellow lady for a second and the bass was so loud and kind of poppy it made me worry I may destroy my speakers yet I did not have the volume turned amazingly high which leads me to the question as to how high should I be able to go?

I have two:
XPA-3 running my fronts and center (Polk RTi A9's and CSi-A6)
UPA-7 running my surrounds and surround backs (Polk RTi A3 and FXi A6)

I have my fronts set to large for the bass as I don't use my subwoofer in the apartment
I have a Pioneer Elite Receiver and at the time where I worried, I had the volume at -22.

I dont have a decibel meter, but I have watched movies before at around the same level with no problems. I only noticed a slight hesitance as the bass was really strong in this one scene.

all speakers can blow (the cheapest/the most expensive), anybody that completly cranks speakers to 10/full blast is a fool IMO.

I have an older Yamaha amp, and at halfway I'm satisfied, I don't want to risk ruining my Boston Acoustic speakers that inherited from my late aunt.

[Goldensuitcase]

Originally Posted by Crimson King

all speakers can blow, anybody that completly cranks speakers to 10/full blast is a fool IMO.

I have an older Yamaha amp, and at halfway I'm satisfied, I don't want to risk ruining my Boston Acoustic speakers that inherited from my late aunt.

You mean 10 in the speaker setup? I think mine are that high but not because of my own doing but when I ran the MACC test, it did that automatically. So I will go ahead and reduce those.

And I know speakers can be blown, but I figured as long as I don't go near 0 then I should be fine with what I have.

[HAMP]

I’m not sure what that other poster was talking about, and it didn’t sound like it had anything to do with your question.. lol

I haven’t’ looked at the specs of you speakers, so I am pretty much generalizing here. You have your towers set to full, which means all of your LFE is going to go to them. Most towers are not seriously designed for low LFE from movies, but they are for music,

TRON is LFE heavy, and I’m sure it goes below 19hz, which I know your towers cannot handle.

Basically what I’m getting at, having your towers set to full is great for music, but to get the fullest out of a movie, you need to have your subwoofer connected.

[Almadacr]

What HAMP said and forget about what was said before .

[Goldensuitcase]

Originally Posted by HAMP

I’m not sure what that other poster was talking about, and it didn’t sound like it had anything to do with your question.. lol

I haven’t’ looked at the specs of you speakers, so I am pretty much generalizing here. You have your towers set to full, which means all of your LFE is going to go to them. Most towers are not seriously designed for low LFE from movies, but they are for music,

TRON is LFE heavy, and I’m sure it goes below 19hz, which I know your towers cannot handle.

Basically what I’m getting at, having your towers set to full is great for music, but to get the fullest out of a movie, you need to have your subwoofer connected.

Thanks. I live in an apartment though so I can't use my subwoofer like I would like to. ONly at certain moments so I mostly keep it off and let the speakers provide the subs which sound really good for the most part.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by Goldensuitcase

Thanks. I live in an apartment though so I can't use my subwoofer like I would like to. ONly at certain moments so I mostly keep it off and let the speakers provide the subs which sound really good for the most part.

My suggestion is to set the speakers to "small" and use the subwoofer - but dial it way back, let it do the fill for the low tones.

When you set the speakers to "large", they're expected by MCACC to deliver the low tones - and at a certain volume, which they're not going to do very well. MCACC is pounding out more volume, like an old guy with an ear horn shouting "What are ya saying, sonny? I can't hear ya" when the speakers are just fine. It's pushing power to get everything down to about 40Hz up front.

Even at medium volume, you're working everything too hard. Best bet in your environment is to manually tweak the MCACC, run the sub at -2 or -3 for a test run, or maybe even lower if the sub bothers people.

Get that setting off of ten, that's only saying the MCACC wasn't happy with the auto result.

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

My suggestion is to set the speakers to "small" and use the subwoofer - but dial it way back, let it do the fill for the low tones.

When you set the speakers to "large", they're expected by MCACC to deliver the low tones - and at a certain volume, which they're not going to do very well. MCACC is pounding out more volume, like an old guy with an ear horn shouting "What are ya saying, sonny? I can't hear ya" when the speakers are just fine. It's pushing power to get everything down to about 40Hz up front.

Even at medium volume, you're working everything too hard. Best bet in your environment is to manually tweak the MCACC, run the sub at -2 or -3 for a test run, or maybe even lower if the sub bothers people.

Get that setting off of ten, that's only saying the MCACC wasn't happy with the auto result.

Agreed plus I think it strange that MCACC dialed in +10 when using an XPA-3.

If I were you I'd recalibrate, with your sub. Whether the bass comes from your mains or sub, it will still be there to annoy your neighbors .

Also by using your sub you will be gaining much from your mains which will not be taxed as much and should perform better. Then, if need be, lower your sub volume for those times you don't want to shake the house. You can also get a sub riser which should help with bass resonance which in turn will help the neighbor factor.

And lastly, speakers biggest enemy is clipping (distortion). With your Emos that shouldn't happen, but asking them to perform tasks they're not built for is not a good idea. With your sub on you might actually listen with a lower level as your speakers will perform better this way.

[Mudfrog]

Maybe set them to small but go lower than the recommended 80hz for the crossover. At times I will set my crossover to 60 or 70 when I'm not using my sub and I don't want to run my towers / center as large. You'll still get some great midbass, just nothing to low for the speakers.