Home theater crossover question

You are confusing two things. The crossover for the fronts will, indeed, send everything below 200Hz from those channels to the subwoofer and the sub will reproduce all of it (assuming the sub is capable).

OTOH, the crossover for the sub is set at 120Hz but that applies only to the cut-off for the dedicated LFE/sub channel signals, not the re-routed bass from the others.

Finally, you should realize, also, that all those settings are not absolute cutoffs but are the beginning points of gradual rolloffs/cutoffs. Thus, a crossover of 200Hz for the main speakers means that those channels will be transferring their content to the sub over a range from 200Hz to 100Hz to, mebbe, 60Hz. There is lots of overlap.

In other words, all's well (except that your main speakers must be fairly wimpy to require such a high crossover). :-)

Kal

Thanks. I knew that re-routed bass and LFE were separate, but there is no info on the receiver as to the frequency response for the former, so I assumed it was the same. In any case, my subwoofer's frequency response is listed as 29hz-150hz, so I'm not sure it can produce the 150hz-200hz sounds even if the receiver re-routes that range from the other speakers. On the other hand, my receiver wouldn't have put that burden on the sub if it wasn't producing sound in that range during the test, would it?

For now, I've changed the main speaker crossover from 200hz to 120hz. I didn't want to chance missing the occasional 188hz note that will make all the difference. When I have time, I'll A/B Dianna Krall and decide whether to change it back.

I'm having an epiphany at the moment, as I don't think I'm properly processing your quandary. I think you are correct, if your sub doesn't have a bypass, then you're limited to crossing over at or bellow that 120 hz setting. But I could be missing a brain cell on this one. Doh! It must be late.
Anyway, email your sub manufacture.
Let us know.

Kal says "all's well" and Kal knows what he is talking about, but I disagree with him anyway. If your subwoofer puts out anything much higher than 80 Hz, then it will be localizable. In other words, you will be able to hear it thumping away in the corner of your room, or against the wall, or wherever. Sound loses its omnidirectionality above 80 Hz. So you should manually override the crossover settings and set both the subwoofer and the front mains to 80 Hz, for upper and lower crossover points respectively. If your front mains are so small that they can't get down to 80 Hz with ease, then you must have two identical subwoofers, placed beside or under each front main speaker, and then you can make the crossover as high as you like.