Make sure your speakers are set to "small."


This is one of the most misinterpreted things in audio setup. People think of "Large" as "Large speakers" or "towers" but this is actually referring to bass management. The only time it’s recommended to set your speakers to Large is if they can play cleanly down to 20Hz. If you have a subwoofer in your system, you typically still don’t want to set the speakers to Large because the subwoofer can generally handle bass better than your speakers.



When the speakers are set to Large, it takes away the bass signal being sent to the subwoofer and sends the full range to the speaker. This causes your speakers to try and hit frequency ranges that it typically can’t hit and can also cause phasing issues in the room where the speakers and subwoofer(s) are trying to play the same frequencies and they end up canceling each other out.


You want your speakers set to small so they can handle the frequencies they handle best, and let the subwoofer handle what it handles best. This takes the load off your speakers and provides much more bass to your subwoofer. It allows the speakers to act as one so it can start slowly rolling off from the speakers to the subwoofer. This should give you cleaner sound with less phasing issues and more bass response.


General Bass Management Recommendations:

Subwoofer: Yes

Subwoofer Mode: LFE (DO NOT USE LFE+MAIN)

LFE Crossover: 120hz (The LFE soundtrack is mixed up to 120hz regardless, this settings should not be changed)


Also make sure you are not using any other DSP enhancement modes/presets. Generally the “Direct/Pure Direct” or “Normal” modes pass the original signal through without applying any artificial enhancements that can degrade the sound quality.


Also, check all your sources that plug into your receiver(CD player, Blu Ray/DVD Player, and Cable box) to make sure those audio out settings are set to bitstream or Surround and not PCM or Stereo. Those also must be configured correctly to output the full sound quality to your receiver to decode. As “plug and play” as many devices are today, proper audio settings aren’t generally part of that process.


For more detailed information on properly dialing in Bass Management, check out this article here: https://martinlogan.com/en/subwoofer-setup