You have just upgraded your home theater setup with fresh Dolby Atmos speakers, a redesigned receiver, and a pair of subwoofers. The moment has arrived to initiate preparations. You’ve read the guides and are now ready to embark. The front, surround, and Atmos speakers, as well as the subwoofer, are all set up properly.
You’ve gone through the trouble of installing absorptive panels in your room. To finish setting up for a movie night, just run your room adjustments. Learn how to adjust Dolby Atmos Speaker Crossover Settings for the best Dolby Atmos experience with the support of this article.
Table of Contents
- The Function of a Crossover
- Process of Setting Up Crossover for Dolby Atmos
- Verify your Crossover Settings
- Conclusion
The Function of a Crossover
A crossover is the transition point between the speakers and the subwoofer, as defined by audio theory. Numerous people see a solid barrier. If the crossover is set to 80 Hz, the subwoofer will handle low frequencies and the speakers will handle high frequencies. What you’re imagining is incorrect.
The crossover frequency is when the midrange speakers and the low-frequency subwoofers converge. The speakers & subwoofers are now working together to produce that tone. If you increase the volume of the speakers and decrease the volume of the subwoofer, you will hear more of the former and less of the latter. The subwoofers kick in louder and the speakers fade out as you go lower. The rate at which responsibilities are transferred between the two is determined by a crossover slope, which is irrelevant here. Keep in mind that regardless of the crossover settings you pick, both your speakers and subwoofer will be producing sound.
Process of Setting Up Crossover for Dolby Atmos
A speaker’s crossover point may be determined in a number of ways. You may use the specified frequency responses to determine a crossover point that is greater than the -3dB mark. Playing sweeps will let you to accomplish it by ear. It’s also possible to allow your room adjustment do the work for you, although that’s not as simple. As we indicated up front, though, room correction configurations for the crossover aren’t always reliable, and they may recommend a frequency either below or well over your speakers’ -3dB threshold. Consequently, what should one do?
Our standard operating procedure is to trust the receiver’s automatic room EQ. Let it determine the optimal speaker placement, crossover frequency, and volume for your system. When it’s finished, you’ll return and tweak certain adjustments by hand:
- Minimize volume on all speakers.
- All crossovers below 80Hz were adjusted to that frequency.
- Any crossover with a frequency setting of 80Hz or above is ignored.
We’ve gone through the benefits of connecting your speakers to your subwoofers using a crossover. In a nutshell, the subwoofers have superior bass placement and can produce significantly lower volumes over your speakers. That clarifies why 1 above. Though the speakers may be capable of reproducing frequencies below 80Hz, subwoofers are better suited to handle such low-frequency bass. To conclude, if your speakers aren’t able to reproduce frequencies as low as 80Hz, crossing them over to a lower frequency range will result in a “missing” of certain sounds. It’s recommended practice, even though the average listener probably wouldn’t notice a change if the crossover was decreased.
If you’re using an older receiver with a universal crossover (one knob controls all speakers), turn them all down to the smallest possible position and lower the crossover to 80 hertz. Then, start looking for a receiver.
Verify your Crossover Settings
There are others who may be concerned they are losing out on things if they don’t adjust the crossovers on their tower loudspeakers to a lower frequency. So, you can check the crossover parameters for your speakers without leaving the room. You should get several sweeps from AudioCheck.net. You need one that can cover the range from around 200Hz to about 40Hz. A wider or full-range sweeping will also be effective, but it will require longer time. Just play the sweep via the one speaker you have left plugged in after turning off the others.
The 80 Hz point in the sweep is where you aim to listen for significant loudness fluctuations. Do not adjust the crossover if the sweep sounds uniform. Modify the crossover down or up & try again if you still hear a strange sound (typically a decrease in loudness). Finding the crossover value where there is no or little volume change is the last step. Many people simply cross over their frontal left and right speakers, however, you may cross over all of your speakers if you wish to.
Read More:
- How To Fix a Blown Subwoofer
- how to connect 4 8-ohm speakers in parallel
- How To Connect 2 Soundbars Together Bluetooth
Conclusion
With this comprehensive resource on Dolby Atmos speaker crossover settings in hand, you can confidently adjust the crossover frequency between your speakers and subwoofers. You’ll get the highest quality audio possible for all your media consumption, whether that’s movies or video games.
