sMoRTy71.com: Hack #67: Set Speakers to "Small"

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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Hack #67: Set Speakers to "Small"

I've been reading through (and applying some of) the hacks in O'Reilly's "Home Theater Hacks" book. Hack #67 is "Set You Speakers to "Small" in Your Receiver Setup" (page 243 for those reading along at home).

This hack explains how most home theater speakers should be set to "Small" in your AV receiver's options. Apparently, the "small" or "large" distinction isn't really about the physical size of the speaker. It is really an indicator of your speakers' dynamic range and determines "when low frequencies are diverted from your front speakers and into your subwoofer."

My speakers were set to "large," so I made the change. It does seem like my subwoofer is a bit more active than it was (but that could just be the bass shakers talking).

According to the author of the hack, there are very few home theater speakers that should be set to "large." So check your AV receiver's settings. You may be missing out.

¶ 7:43 AM

About Shawn Morton

Married father of 6; VP of Social Media at JPMorgan Chase; gluten-free; gadget enthusiast; hair metal aficionado; #Movember man View more on LinkedIn.