How big should center spkr be to set to "large"?

Greetings.
I have a pair of 100v3, 60v3, and a CC570.
What would you recommend i use for the speaker setting for the CC570? Large or small?
I currently use the large setting for all speakers and drive each of them with bryston 7bst's.

Your recommendation is anticipated and appreciated.
Tim Kennedy

Hi Tim

I'd use the large setting for the CC-570 since it can reproduce most of the
frequency range, and you have more than adequate
power available.

Thanks for choosing Paradigm speakers.

Sincerely,
Gary Takeda
Paradigm Technical Support

I most DEFINITELY dissagree with the standard propensity to set speakers to "large" that are typical inefficient and low sensitivity designs inherently! (regardless of what some TECH GUYS on a telephone, who doesn't know better likely, has to say)
Some "Technical support" personnel guy at a company doesn't necessarily have the experience in setting up quality high performance home theater/mulit-channel systems for a living, and is simply giving his idea of how HE THINKS speakers that will play lower than 80hz (small) should be set!!!! This means nothing to me personally.
That said, if you have NO SUBWOOFER, then yes, you could tinker with full range settings, as you, afterall, need bass, yes. STILL, all things considered, it's not going to do proper dynamic justic to your system, by making speakers that can simply simply play down lower, ACTUALLY PLAY LOWER with dynamic DD/DTS material, and harder dynamic material! A powered speaker is much much better in this application.
This is a common problem/view-point of many speaker manufactures, who's speakers measure down to a certain frequency range, for them to recommend you cross their speakers over lower, since they'll basically play lower! HOWEVER, this accounts nothing for the inneficiency in their otherwise "hopeful" speaker designs, to ACTUALLY HANDLE THE DYNAMIC ABILITIES OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL OUT THERE!
I can't tell you how many hundreds of system's and years of experience I've professionally installed hi-end systems, only to find typical FULL RANGE loudspeakers (even the likes of BIG Dunlavy's, Thiel's, B&W's, etc), that can play down to 20hz or lower, that WILL DISTORT AND SQUASH DYNAMICS, even "clip" under dynamic demands, due to IN-EFFICIENCY of the design of the speaker system!!! This is why THX uses and recommends a higher crossover setting, for this very reason! They understand how things work.
Never-the-less, yes, if you HAVE TO, you can set speakers lower, with no subwoofer mind you, and just run things on a lower level. And still, you'll sacrifice dynamics quite a bit, even squash and flatten dynamic response, ideally, if even clipping speakers.
PEOPLE can set thigns however they want however. Afterall, it's their system's! But even as I sit and discuss proper hi-end system setup, room acoustics and calibration, with "industry professionals" who do this for a living, we all understand setting speaker to 80hz range most often, as typical full range home audio speaker systems simply aren't efficient enough to deal with the extremely high demands pressent in today's software and digital media!
Each person really needs to try themselves, with their variables, and their knowledge ability to find out however...if they're doing it themselves that is.
So, for the record, I'd not be setting mine up the way that's being recommend here...lol

Just to get a better gauge of other perspectives, how do many manufactors find the crossover point when selecting the large setting W/ a sub?

If you set the speaker to large, and have a sub or two integrated into the system, does the "brain" say send signals below ABC frequency to the sub? Or is this only the case for the "small" setting?

Reason I ask is because I've tried things both ways, "small" setting @ 80-50hz, and "large". Bass response in the sub, for the latter, deminished substantially which requires me to turn up my sub amp. Output from the speakers isn't as loud either. But I did seem to like things overall when they are set to large.

I do agree with Flrn that 80hz, in general, is a good "rule of thumb" starting point for the xover. I feel if the speakers can handle below 80hz, and the xover is adjustable, then set it lower. Maybe to 50hz or so.

Now...for technical support...the jury is still out. I would HOPE that the Manufactors TS would have a good grasp of knowledge for the product if nothing else. System performance MAY be another thing. But they SHOULD also be able to understand their product in terms of overall system performance. This would require knowledge of system setup. Therefore, if the manufactor says "go large", I think it would be worth at least giving it a shot for a week or two. If you don't like it, you can always set it back.

This is weird, but as I have continued to experiment with switching the center setting between large and small, I am finding I think I like it better overall with the center set to large.

Why? Because it seems my Paradigm 570 has a bit less "chestiness" to male voices than my Legacy Sig. IIs. I know that shouldn't be the case, considering the price ranges, but when I set the center to small, the lower midrange and bass in the center signal are routed to the front L/R Legacys, which have the poly midranges rather than the kevlars in later models.

Mind you, with center set to large, I do lose some of the total deep bass in action movies, since the center channel is full range, and the 570 just doesn't do anything down low. But I am just very keen on intelligibility of dialog in movies, and the chestiness I get with center set to small just bothers me and makes it harder to understand the dialog.

Sometimes I do switch it back to small when I want a lot of bass and I have to get the bass sent to the Legacys to get the most of it.

I don't play movies at anywhere near reference level, so I guess that is why I am not running into severe problems with overdriving the woofers on the Paradigm.

Mtrot,

Have your tried "Hometheater Blasphemy" and run a phantom center. Your Legacy speakers have ribbon tweaters so they should be fast enough for dialog. I run phantom center and I get a decent image. In fact I seem to hear seperation of dialog when there are 2 characters next to each other on screen (though this may be a visual/psychological mind trick)

I've experimented with the whole "use your receiver to cross" thing, but I found the sound to more balanced and pleasant to the ears when running my speakers to LARGE.

If you seem to like the sound better when running the center to LARGE, then "TRUST YOUR EARS"

But I would like to see what happens if you fooled w/ your Legacy speaker placement for good imaging, then try running the "phantom center". If this works good, then maybe sell the center for a nice sub - then run LFE to the sub.

If your tweaters are at a good height compared to your RPTV, I do not see the problem w/ dialog being anchored to the screen.