I have the the speaker set up on my Marantz receiver as (lfe + main), with a crossover on the subwoofer at 120hz. I am currently running Triton 1's through parasound A21. Trying to learn bass management, seems a little bit tricky when you have an active sub in your towers. I do not use the lfe input. My main passion is 2 channel music, but I like the ability to use an external sub. Are my settings correct?

Hi

Can you tell us more about your setup and what you wish to have it do?

Are you wanting to augment your T1's bass when playing music via two channel? LFE + Mains, or double bass would do that, though it can sound muddy. A typical setup for playing two channel music on T1's with their considerable bass capability would be with the front T1's set as large so they get full range frequencies for their internal crossovers and DSP to process and integrate, and if used for 2 channel music only, sub off, I.E. no feeds to the LFE channel.

You have an external sub connected to your receiver via LFE and are using LFE + Mains setting which lets the receiver also feed bass under the 120 Hz crossover to the T1's/mains, so called double bass. If that is your preferred way to listen to 2 channel in addition to full range feed going to the T1's via the speaker cables, go for it.

If you want to use the external sub mainly for movies to augment .1 channel bass, a typical setup would be fronts large (not + LFE), sub on, so only .1 channel content in surround feeds or crossover from speakers set as small goes to the sub. Those setups would typically run LFE leads to the T1's also.

So whatever floats your boat. If you want and like the additional bass for 2.0 music that double bass settings provide, LFE + Mains with speakers set as large is a good setting for you.

it sounds like the double bass outcome is what I'm looking for. I want the full range going to the t1's, and 120hz and below going to my subs through my receivers lfe output. that is the way I have it hooked up now. you are correct about the muddiness. hopefully tuning the sub level will help with that. additionally, I thought if it was hooked up this way, I would benefit from movies by not having to hook up the lfe input on the towers, but have a dedicated sub for that.

I am replacing my Marantz 7013 with Marantz pre pro 7705 or 8802a. both have similar price points, 7705 has the latest tech, but build quality and DAC processing is supposed to be better.

hoping for a noticeable difference in sound quality after going pre pro, very excited. I think I chose wisely with the Parasound. Thanks for any input.

First, congrats on stepping up to separates!

Just a curiosity question about your current setup, did you first try the T1's as large, without double bass, and play around with bass dials on the 1's and decide you couldn't dial in the amount of bass you like? It sure would clean up your muddy bass issue if you could find a setting there you like. Not all can. Read Art's post about trying various ways to boost bass at lower SL's.

Enjoy and happy listening!

Rick