[badmonkey]

Well the title says it all, what are the crossover, speaker size, and speaker distance settings in the M-Audio Revolution control panel?

Crossover I take to be a hardware mixing of the left and right channels, good for headphone use (the preset M-Audio Headphone puts the crossover at 80Hz whereas the Stereo preset puts it at 0Hz). Am I right? If so, can someone please tell me what the frequency measurements mean, i.e. What is 80Hz? Is there a supposed ideal setting?

Secondly there's the speaker size: small, medium, large, flat panel, or cube. What does this do? What is a neutral setting?

Then there's the distance setting, any number between 0 and 30 feet. What does this do? What is a neutral setting?

I've seen this sort of thing before in surround sound simulation software, like SRS, and can see how it would affect their algorithms, but I don't understand why these settings are obviously basic key settings for normal sound.

Okay even if noone can give me the perfect explanation, just for interest's sake, can you Revolution users list your own preferences for music playback, both via headphones and speakers?

M-Audio presets:

Headphone...
Crossover, 80Hz
Speaker size, Small
Speaker distance, 5 feet

Stereo...
Crossover, 0Hz
Speaker size, Large
Speaker distance, 5 feet

 

[Solude]

Crossover is the frequency where the Revo cuts off the main speakers/headphones. It's part of the multi-channel management where a sub handles everything below that.

Speaker size is simply presets of the crossover point and whether it is on or not. Large speakers don't get cut off from any frequencies.

Speaker distance is for when they are of DIFFERENT distances. This will correct imaging for say a setup where one speaker is 5ft away and the other is say 10ft by introducing delay into the 5ft one. This is also standard fare for multichannel speaker management.

There I'm awake, next time crack open the manual

 

[badmonkey]

Hey man thanx for the reply, and I guess you explained everything, but I still don't completely understand.

If crossover and speaker size are related, then why are they not integrated into the same control(s)? The M-Audio control panel would imply they're not related. Maybe it's just bad design.

So if the crossover is cutting out low frequency sound, how would you find out what your headphones are capable of, and so set that setting?

Why would introducing delay compensate for speakers not correctly positioned? It's not like the sound travels slow enough for there to be any discernable difference over a few meters. I would understand if it increased volume to those speakers further away to compensate for the extra distance, but then the imbalance would cause so many complications that I can hardly see the benefit.

Oh and the manual just says, this is for crossover, this is for distance, and this is for size. Set accordingly. - Not exactly a descriptive explanation

 

[lan]

Heaphones do not need a crossover because they are full range devices. You also don't use subwoofers with headphones.

Delay is needed when speakers are irregularly distanced from the listener so the sound arrive at the same time.

 

[badmonkey]

Quote:

Heaphones do not need a crossover because they are full range devices. You also don't use subwoofers with headphones.

If headphones don't need crossover, why does the M-Audio preset for headphones set it at 80Hz? I would've thought it was because they can't handle very low frequency sound without potential damage, which begs the question what setting is right for any given pair of phones.

Quote:

Delay is needed when speakers are irregularly distanced from the listener so the sound arrive at the same time.

Let's take an extreme distance difference of 25 feet, i.e. 5 feet vs 30 feet. This is roughly 8 meters. Let's assumes sound travels at 1000km/hr, not at all accurate but good enough. That's 278m/s (probably a well known figure but nevermind). Over 8 meters that's about 0.02 seconds, or 20ms, which I guess would be noticeable as a sort of echo.

Let's say 1 meter difference, more realistic, that's 3ms. Is this delay noticeable do you think? Just wondering... I guess it's enough to warrant the setting.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by badmonkey If headphones don't need crossover, why does the M-Audio preset for headphones set it at 80Hz? I would've thought it was because they can't handle very low frequency sound without potential damage, which begs the question what setting is right for any given pair of phones.

Perhaps not at high levels for extended periods of time -- however, I've pumped 20hz thru 40 Hz test tones into my cans (mostly to see where they start to roll off), and they reproduce those low frequencies just fine. Particularly at 30-40 Hz, the tones are perfectly audible. Below about 30 Hz, there's nothing much to hear (however, I can hear the 20 Hz vibes with my Grado SR-60's very clearly... those cans have outstanding low bass extension).