B&W 686's large speakers?

[Canada]

I am finally hooking up my 686's for surrounds today I was wondering if I should set them to, large or small speakers (Pioneer Eliet Receiver settings). I belive they were the ones I listened to when I first went to audition. I want to set them to large.

[aramis109]

Great thread on it here.

I think you should set them to small with a crossover that's just above (like, around 10-20hz or so) the specs of the speaker.

[JJ]

I would put them as small, too - doubt you'll need the entire low-end frequency extension in the surrounds. I can't remember their effective frequency range off the top of my head.

[Beta Man]

I use those as surrounds..... set to small..... Even with no sub, I recommend people keeping their surrounds on "small"

[Driver_King]

All of my speakers are set on full band. I think Twister has some bass in the surrounds.

[keyzone72]

Hi Canada,

I have a 7.1 B & W setup with:

2 x 684 (Mains)
4 x 686 (Surrounds)
1 x HTM62 (Center)
1 x ASW610 (LFE/Subwoofer)

I drive them with a Yamaha RX-V3800 reciever and set the surrounds to small. I have found this setting to work just fine for me. If you think about it, it makes sense. When you compare the size of the mains to the surounds, the 684's are significantly "larger" than the "smaller" 686's.

Keep in mind most surround content (ambience, echos. background music, swooshing bullets, etc.) is heard very little when compared to what you hear coming through the center and mains throughout the entire movie. And when these movies are professionally mixed in a hollywood production studio, most (if not all) low end frequencies are sent to the LFE channel.

That is not to say that ALL low end frequencies are sent to the sub. I've set my reciever to "small" for my four B & W 686 surrounds and when I watch the Hulk at high volume, there's plenty of audio quality and some mid to low frequencies that shoot out of the surrounds!

I guess you can always try out both settings, But I have set my receiver set to "small" for the surrounds since day one and I've never felt like I wasn't receiving top quality sound from my setup.

Now if you were uising the B & W 685 speakers as your surounds, then maybe I'd suggest trying the "larger" speaker setting. The 685's are a few inches bigger than the 686 and in some surround setups, they are actually used as the mains. Just food for thought.

[Beta Man]

^^^---- large or small setting is more about the frequencies you want sent to the speaker.... not their actual size..... even for larger speakers, or towers up front, I'd recommend setting them to "Small" unless of course you're without a subwoofer....

[jomari]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

All of my speakers are set on full band. I think Twister has some bass in the surrounds.

but not enough to go below 80hz

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

All of my speakers are set on full band. I think Twister has some bass in the surrounds.

Even if there is bass in the surrounds, using the 80 Hz cutoff, which is the recommended standard for THX, that bass will go through the LFE channel to the subwoofer. Bass below 100 Hz is not directional, so you won't be able to tell if it's coming from the speaker or the sub. However, if you have a decent subwoofer, it will give off more bass energy and impact than the same bass played through a smaller surround speaker.

[Driver_King]

Check out my gallery. I do not have small surrounds. My auto-calibration set all of them to full band.

[jomari]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

Check out my gallery. I do not have small surrounds. My auto-calibration set all of them to full band.

im not saying you have small surrounds. heck ive seen your gallery from time to time. most receivers also set fronts as large, which is a faulty part in regards to these audyssey/macc settings found in receivers. what i dont agree on is the fact that some people prefer (strong word here is preference), to use towers as surrounds to be identical to their fronts. i dont necessarily believe them to be beneficial in this case, and would rather (if starting with a ht setup) go with delegating the money you would put towards those tower surrounds into the fronts.

[Driver_King]

Well, sure. I understand your view. I got lucky with the deals I got on my surrounds. Otherwise, I would have never purchased them (at least until Upgraditis got me).

[Driver_King]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

Even if there is bass in the surrounds, using the 80 Hz cutoff, which is the recommended standard for THX, that bass will go through the LFE channel to the subwoofer. Bass below 100 Hz is not directional, so you won't be able to tell if it's coming from the speaker or the sub. However, if you have a decent subwoofer, it will give off more bass energy and impact than the same bass played through a smaller surround speaker.

Well, for those rare times I am showing off my surrounds in all stereo mode and am listening to multi-channel music, I think the crossover is fine. The speakers and receiver can handle it. In movies, as you've mentioned, lower frequencies are not very common and even so, there should not be any noticeable difference in SQ with the crossover any higher.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

^^^---- large or small setting is more about the frequencies you want sent to the speaker.... not their actual size..... even for larger speakers, or towers up front, I'd recommend setting them to "Small" unless of course you're without a subwoofer....

Excellent distinction to have made on settings.

I have no subwoofer...my rears are small bookshelves, yet set to large!

John