Video Asylum

Posted by Teejay (A) on March 04, 2006 at 11:36:38

I'm trying to advise a person of a modest 2-channel theater and am totally unsure how the bass management in a 'typical' surround receiver works. (I think we're looking at an older Marantz 4000 series).

I was advising just to have him grab a decent stereo receiver, but he's likely going with smaller fronts that go down to app 70 hz. So high-pass filtering seemed pretty essential. I've always assumed that the 80 hz LFE crossover is a high-pass filter for the 'small' speaker setting to help save the little speakers' lives, but now I'm wondering. One SVS sub I'm looking at has no low-pass crossover, I assume because they figure an AV receiver does that. An NHT sub I'm looking at mentions that using the LFE inputs defeats the sub's low-pass crossover and uses the receiver's crossover electronics.

So, is the typical 80-90 hz crossover a high-pass filter or a low-pass filter? Or do AV receivers typically do both jobs? Thanks!