RELQ100E - how do I set it up?

[Alan_eye]

If you've looked at the KEF Q7 thread, you'll know I'm about to get a pair of these speakers for my mains. All my speakers are set to small. I've had my set up for sometime, but have never really gotten to grips with the sub. I just set it so it doesn't sound over-baring. How should I go about setting the three knobs on the back from scratch? They are main volume, LFE volume, and the roll off. Where do I start in getting an optimum setting? Any help will be much appreciated.
Alan

 

[Member 14718]

Hope this helps I dont have a q100E now but had one in the past.

Firstly there is no main volume you have a high level gain and a low level gain, they adjust independantly of each other. If you are using the LFE then you are using the low level gain only. Turn the high level gain down to minimum, this reduces noise, turn your frequency high and your low level volume low. Test with a film or audio track that you know well. Now it gets harder, you need to turn the volume up untill you hear the bass then turn the frequency down to a point where it matches in with your main speakers, problem is as you turn the frequency down the volume level goes down as well, so then you have to adjust the volume again.

At this point you should be in the right sort of area and over a couple of days you need to tweak the frequency and the volume, hopefully you will find a point where you cross the clairvoyants palm with siver ( The happy Medium ). Remember if you have a sealed enclosure if you adjust the frequency cut off under Fb you will get bass eq

In any case its all trial and error, and if im wrong I know another forum member will shoot me down,

Good luck

 

[Alan_eye]

Thanks for the pointers, Dan...it's been so long since I had a proper look back there that I had forgotten that the first knob was high level gain! Can you clarify something for me though...when you say you "need to turn the volume up", are you talking about both low and high level gains? Or something else?

The last bit - "Remember if you have a sealed enclosure if you adjust the frequency cut off under Fb you will get bass eq." - lost me entirely.

But I know more than I did!

Awaiting further instuctions....
Cheers
Alan

 

[Ian J]

Originally posted by Alan_eye
The last bit - "Remember if you have a sealed enclosure if you adjust the frequency cut off under Fb you will get bass eq." - lost me entirely.

Just to make you feel better - me too.

 

[Member 14718]

OK I'll try explain.

In a sealed enclosure the frequency will drop at 12dB an Octave below Fb, so if Fb is say 60 Hz then it will be 12dB down at 30Hz. If you set your freq pot to 55Hz (just for instance) then it will be giving little power above 60Hz but it will deliver full power bellow 55Hz this is where the sensitivity is dropping at 12dB/Oct so in effect its Eq.

 

[MuFu]

I followed this and got pretty good results: http://www.rel.net/setup.shtml

I didn't really have to change much from having the gain at 12pm and the crossover freq as high as it would go though (just took the freq down a notch and the gain up a notch). That's a good starting point. I keep mine in "Depth" mode all time, BTW.

One piece of advice would be to decide on a setting you are happy with then take the gain down a little bit. I think people always tend to set subs up slightly on the unsubtle side.

MuFu.

 

[Alan_eye]

Heeey...thanks for the link MuFu...will try this later!
Alan

 

[Alan_eye]

Hmmmm. just been reading it and have found some things I'm not sure about. What are the talking about with 'coarse' and 'fine' controls? Are they the high and low gain? If so which is coarse and which is fine? Is 'crossover' the same as frequency control? It sounds like these instructions are for subs with only one gain control and not two.

Can anyone apply what they are saying there to the Q100E?



Alan

 

[Ian J]

Those instructions aren't for the Q100. the coarse and fine controls adjust the crossover on the sub on the ST range (and perhaps others)

Gain means volume. It is the roll off knob that adjusts the crossover.

 

[MuFu]

Yeah.. sorry I forgot to mention that, but the basic principles regarding placement etc are still the same.

The later subs (Q150E etc...) use a 4-position rotary "Mode" dial for phase control instead of the 2-position rocker on the Q100E. I think (please, someone correct me if I am wrong) that positions 1&2 set in-phase operation and therefore correspond to position 1 on the Q100E. Postions 3&4 turn the response 180 out-of-phase and therefore correspond to position 2 on the Q100E. The reason there are additional positions on later models is because they allow you to turn off the crossover altogether and rely on the amp to roll off the low end for the sub channel (usually the LFE channel or some approximation using onboard doo-dahs).

When they say adjust the "crossover" they are refering to the crossover rolloff frequency. As Ian J said; higher end models have coarse and fine adjustment whereas most of the Q-series only has the one control.

Hope this helps,

MuFu.

 

[Alan_eye]

I can see that Uncle Eric is the man to help me. Can you be arsed Unlce Eric to give a bit of advice?
Hopefully
Alan