Moderator wrote: First off, you own the speakers, set them up however you want.

That said, there is zero chance you will get the best performance from the Triton Ones using a crossover and the LFE input. Zero. The Triton Ones should be set to no crossover (check the Full Range/No Crossover box next to Fronts in the ARC speaker setup menu). In this configuration, sub-out signals are LFE only (if subwoofer is set to Yes) and the subwoofer crossover should be set to 120Hz to not lose any of the LFE information.

I haven't been on this board in a while, but I thought I would post my experience with setting up my Triton Ones (Front L/R) and Triton 3+s (Surround L/R). I've owned the speakers for about a year and a half. I have a Marantz SR7011, so I have Audyssey, not ARC, but I think the process should be similar.

I have been running my system following Sandy's setup tips for most of this time with my Triton Ones and Triton 3+s set to Large (Full Range) and all speakers with LFE (Fronts on LFE 1, Surrounds on LFE 2). I did not run Audyssey and just set the distances using a laser measure and level matched with an SPL meter. The system sounded great with this setup, but I felt like I wasn't getting the bass performance I desired for movies. I bought a pair of the SVS PC 4000 Cylinder Subs, but ended up returning them because I didn't really get any improvement over the Tritons with them. (Note: I'm in an open floorplan living room with tile on concrete that is about 7,000 cu.ft.)

Recently, I decided to give Audyssey a try and I was surprised (and maybe a little disappointed) that Audyssey set the Triton Ones with a crossover of 40hz and the Triton 3+s at 60hz. (I also have SuperCenter XXL and four SuperSat 3c's as Top Atmos speakers and Audyssey set the crossovers on those at 60hz and 150hz, respectively.) I have been running the system with these settings for a few weeks and I do think that the bass performance is slightly improved.

Here is my thinking on this. Everything I've read indicates that bass frequencies are non-directional below about 80hz, definitely below about 60hz. With the Audyssey settings above, I will still get 100% of the information sent to the LFE channels in all four Tritons (LFE set to 120hz in both scenarios) In addition, bass information below 40hz (Fronts), 60hz (Surrounds and Center), and 150hz (Tops) are also being sent to the LFE input on all four Tritons, which is helping to smooth out the bass and providing an increase in dBs due to the multiple subwoofers. (Note: This is just for movies and tv, I run the system in Pure Direct for music which bypasses all crossovers and EQ on the Triton Ones)

I have not performed any measurements with REW to see what kind of response I'm actually getting, but does my logic with the Audyssey cross-overs make sense?

thank you for sharing your settings and impressions. It can be very time consuming to experiment with so many variables. That's what makes these forums so great and helpful, a community of people offering their trials, successes and failures for everyones knowledge. The moderators comment " you own the speakers, set them up however you want" seemed unnecessary .

The moderator wanted to make it clear that you can experiment all you want and whatever makes you happy is good ... the opposite side of this is people complaining that we are telling them what to do, which is what we were trying to prevent with that comment. Can't win either way apparently.

Moderator - I found Sandy's Setup Tips on this site to be very helpful in getting my system setup and sounding great and appreciate the input from the designer/creator of the equipment.

The purpose of my comment and my experience was to get feedback on whether my perceived slight improvement in bass performance made sense or has been experienced by others, not to challenge Sandy's Setup Tips or the full range capability of the Tritons.

Let's assume a Goldenear customer had a standard 5.1 surround sound system consisting of four Triton Reference Speakers and the SuperCenter Reference. I do not believe that anyone would contest that the Triton Reference was a true full range loudspeaker that can dig down to 20hz and below. Sandy's Setup Tips would have you set all of the Triton References to Large (Full Range) with a four way split of the LFE. This would no doubt achieve stellar results.

The question is whether you might be able to achieve slightly better results by setting the crossovers in the Tritons to say 60hz, thereby redirecting all audio in the front and surround speakers below 60hz (which admittedly there is probably not much in these lower frequencies going to the discrete channels, but rather programmed to the LFE channel) to all four Tritons. The advantage being that the bass is more evenly distributed and at higher dBs because of the multiple subs.

I seem to be noticing this with my less capable Triton Ones and Triton 3+s, but I haven't taken any measurements to verify.

What you are discussing here is a bigger topic than basic setup, which is always the starting point so one has a sonic reference point.

One of the caveats I always include is "if you want to utilize the full performance of the speaker". If you crossover the powered towers, you are not using some portion of what you paid for ... if you cross them over high enough, one could not be using the powered section at all. That begins to beg the question of why buy large, full range speakers - why not just get small speakers and a couple subs instead?

The beauty if the powered Tritons is their full range performance and integration, it is what sets them apart from other "full range" speakers. That said, experimentation and augmentation is still at your disposal as an owner, of course, I am just pointing out the issues with those decisions. Many on this forum have experimented and have shared their results.

In a very large room, for maximum possible volume and dynamics, crossing over the powered Tritons and adding multiple large subs is a viable solution. Keep in mind subwoofer locations suddenly become an issue when you no longer are sending center channel bass below the crossover to the L/R Tritons.

Hope this clarifies.