How Is Bass Divided Among Speakers If No Sub?

I've heard that it can go to all five, and sometimes it is directed to the fronts. Size settings may cause this variation from Dolby, I'm guessing. IF you read different info on the net, you can see that Dolby varies on it. It may depend of your processor. The processor manual may give the best info. [http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/zz-_Shared_Assets/English_PDFs/Professional/L.mn.0002.5.1guide.pdf] [http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/zz-_Shared_Assets/English_PDFs/Professional/38_LFE.pdf]

Another Dolby link.[http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/42_DDFAQ.pdf]

If a 5.1 system has identical speakers all around with 15 inch woofers and all of the speakers are set to "large" on the processor, does the serious bass get evenly distributed to all speakers? Say, like an explosion or a dinosaur stomping?

My internet is giving problems, so if I don't post, that's the reason. With Dolby Digital, I would think that if you have the processor set to large for all five, only that one channel should get that bass, if they mixed it this way. More channels will, if they mixed it to do that. IOW, if an explosion goes off in the left rear, it should give all the bass if, it was mixed/made to do so, is my understanding. The channels are supposed to be totally isolated from each other. With the sub on, it will probably get bass from that one channel explosion, if they intended it to do so, during the making/mixing of the movie. Dolby Pro-Logic could not do a lot of this, like true separate channels, and it had limited frequency response to the mono rears.

Mitch, I would check what your processor does. THX may even change whether,or how much bass goes to your surrounds. My processor says full bass to the rears, but without some Thx setting, the way I read it. Maybe that's part of the reason for different info being given when full size is selected.

That headroom mentioned by Drew_eckhardt helped out finding more with Google on my end. Some THX processor has some features that others don't. No wonder this can make someone frustrated. This link has a little more. [http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/technical-articles/163-the-misunderstood-01-lfe-channel-in-51-digital-surround-sound.html]