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Subwoofer Crossover

Scott Wilkinson  |  Nov 14, 2011

I have a Yamaha RX-V2400 A/V receiver driving a set of Boston Acoustics VR2 towers and a Boston PV1000 subwoofer. My question is what crossover, if any, should I set on the front of the subwoofer? It has three controls—a selector switch with 50, 80, 120, and 150Hz; Crossover Set or None; and Polarity None or 180. I did not get a manual because it was a floor model. My bass sounds odd and it is bothering me.

Greg Peckinpaugh

With a setup like this, you definitely want to disable the crossover in the subwoofer, so set the Crossover switch to None. The RX-V2400 (reviewed here) is performing the crossover duties, which direct the frequencies below the crossover point to the sub. (In the RX-V2400, you can set the crossover to 40, 60, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 160, or 200Hz; 80Hz is the default and most common setting.) If the sub's crossover is engaged, the signal it gets passes through two crossover filters—one in the AVR and one in the sub—which can make it sound weird. If you disable the sub's crossover, that should fix the problem.

For those with a subwoofer that has no crossover on/off switch, set the sub's crossover frequency as high as possible and make sure the crossover frequency in the AVR is lower than that. This is not ideal, but it's the best you can do.

The Polarity switch controls the phase of the subwoofer, which can potentially help even out some irregularities in the bass of the system. Try it in both positions and see if there's any difference in the bass performance. If so, use the setting that sounds better.

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