Hi all,

I have been running triton 3+’s as my mains for about a year and a half now, and they’ve been paired with a forcefield 5 sub since day one. I’ve been very happy with my system but I’ve always felt the bass was a little boomy or muddy. I’ve had them set up as large in my denon receiver, with lfe cables run to each triton as well as the subwoofer, and audyssey is off.

Recently I decided to tinker around, I set the speakers to small, left the lfe cables plugged in and lowered my lpf for lfe to 80 in my receiver. I’ve also crossed my tritons at 80hz. I’m noticing a ton more dynamic range in my towers the although the bass isn’t as impactful it’s a lot more punchy and clear, it sounds wonderful. I know Sandys set up tips mention running the 3+’s as small but it doesn’t mention about running lfe cables to the towers while doing that.

Do I have everything set up correct or am I missing something? I intend to definitely leave it this way.

Hi

When you leave the LFE connections to the T3's set as small, since you have sub on setting I presume, they are still getting low bass as a sub feed in addition to the LFE going to the FF5, despite your small setting with a crossover. Typically LFE leads are used to full range speakers set as large to also use them as subs.

You might try removing the LFE feeds to the T3's, and play some more with the crossover, ranging from 40 to 80 Hz. I think you'll find this cleans up the sound even more. If you want to maximize bass, the 40 Hz setting will have the T3's contributing more.

Happy listening!

Rick

Hi Rick,

I was under the impression that if I didn't use the lfe inputs on the tritons that id be essentially wasting their built in subwoofer capabilities, no? Ive noticed a big difference in just switching from large to small on the clarity and dynamics, while still feeling like theres enough bass. If I removed the LFE inputs and just ran the tritons as small with only the single external subwoofer, would I still be using my tritons to their full potential? or am I basically neutering them into triton 5's?

Thanks,
Matt

Hi, Matt

Good question. You made two changes when you switched the setting on the T3's to small with a crossover at 80 Hz, plus switched the lpf filter to the sub LFE channel from probably 120 Hz to 80 Hz. Both changes would take some load off the T3's by removing the under 80 Hz portion of the 2.0 signal (though some would be re routed back via the LFE connections to the T3's as well as the FF5), and the 80-120 Hz portion of the LFE signal. I would guess the combination gave them some more headroom and hence dynamic range? And some load off the FF5 also maybe. Hence maybe the T3's and FF5 have more headroom to play with and cleaner bass perhaps. Bass management gets complex for multi channel setups and I don't think all receivers do it exactly the same.

What counts is how you like what you're hearing. If you're happy with that, then go for it! Disconnecting the LFE leads to the T3's would give them even more headroom. I'd still be tempted to try the T3's without LFE connections, which would be a typical set up for running T3's as small with a sub, with maybe a 40 Hz crossover to let them play a big role in bass, and maybe even also try 120 Hz lpf for sub setting vs. 80 Hz for the FF5. It would be an easy enough experiment, and easily reversed by reconnecting the LFE leads and changing the lpf back to 80 Hz.

It's what works best for your ears and listening enjoyment that counts.

Rick

Ma1746 wrote: If I removed the LFE inputs and just ran the tritons as small with only the single external subwoofer, would I still be using my tritons to their full potential? or am I basically neutering them into triton 5's?

Matt

All the powered Tritons, T3 through T Ref, have at least one bass driver with built in amp. The T5's and 7' have mid/bass drivers but not any large bass drivers. So any of the powered Tritons have more bass capability than the T5. If you were to compare T5's to T3's with the same set up, either both large, full range, or small, the T3 can produce more and deeper bass. So, no, you would not be neutering the T3 to play it as small with no LFE lead IMO. The bass driver in the T3 still gets fed bass signals from the 2.0 channels down to the crossover and is an integral part of the T3's output.

Hi Matt,

Knowing my past history with connecting separate LFE inputs to my Triton Ones, Rick will have a chuckle when he reads my reply to your post. In my music-only two-channel system, I have tried both approaches you are considering. In my opinion, adding additional bass via a separate sub is not as musically-satisfying as adding bass via LFE connections to my Triton Ones.

Since I am driving my Ones with a full-range signal from my two-channel stereo amplifier, I do not have the option to set the speakers to "Small". With my Ones playing at louder "room-volume" level, I find the bass to be both musical and adequate with no augmentation via separate LFE inputs. However, when listening at lower volume levels, I prefer to augment the bass. So, my approach is to send a separate digital signal from my external DAC to a separate AV Receiver. The LFE sub output from this receiver is connected to the LFE inputs on my Triton Ones. This approach allows me to add bass when I choose to do so and to be able to vary the amount of bass I add. I can also alter the LPF cutoff setting in the AV Receiver to obtain the best bass augmentation. I have my Triton Ones' bass controls set to the 12 o'clock mid-position.

Happy listening and experimenting,

Art