need set up suggestion

[Dave]

I have a question regarding possibly a better setup with my VTF-2 and my current 6.1 setup. I have 3 Cambridge Soundworks Newton MC300's for my front speakers and CSW's mutipole(?) surrounds for sides and rears. They are supposed to go to 80hz which is the setting in my Denon universal DVD player for DVD-A and SACD. I love the way they sound overall but they drop off significantly at about 110hz. My receiver's crossover is set at 100hz for DTS and Doby Digital.
Now for the main question. I have an extra Cambridge Soundworks passive Subwoofer that has 6 1/2" woofers in it that go 42hz to 150. Should I use this in my setup to fill in the gap and then lower the crossover a little in the VTF? According to Consumer Reports, the passive subwoofer which was part of a hometheater package was very accurate in laboratory tests but was lacking in the lower range (don't know if that makes a difference). I would be able to hide this "cube" behind my stereo cabinent, between my left and right front speakers.
I could experiment with this but it will be a real pain unhooking the passive subwoofer where it is currently hooked up so I thought I'd ask for your opinion before I went through that.
Thanks so much for helping a Newbie:)

[Lwang]

Don't bother using the other sub. You are going to have another set of integration issue between the two subs at the crossover point. Plus any signal below 40hz, the Cambridge Audio sub is going to start straining and garble up the mid & upper bass.

The Hsu sub is very good at >40hz, if you had a one note HT rumbling sub, you might have to use your solution though.

One advantage would be that you could place the Cambridge Audio sub that would be optimal in the 40-100hz range, and the Hsu sub where it is optimal <40hz. But that requires alot fine tuning, an active high pass crossover for the Cambridge Audio sub.

[Dave]

I guess I was thinking about running the speaker wire to the Csw cube first and then to the MC300(it was made to do that with their smaller satellite speakers)...still setting them to "small" and having the crossover on the VTF-2 set around 80.
Still not worth it? I'm not good with this stuff:) Thanks for the help.

[Lwang]

If you use the Hsu, have it crossed at 100hz and could localize it, then you might want to use the Cambridge Audio sub, especially if the Hsu sub is placed off cener from the mains, thereby pulling the soundstage toward it. In that case, you could put your original sub in between the L&R speaker so that it would go down to 80hz.

Also depends on how much of a suckout you have with only the mains and Hsu sub. You could also play with phase switch on the sub to see if it makes the notch worse off or not.

But to have a sub active for half an octave, you will get alot of overlapping between the Hsu, Cambridge sub and your main speakers.

[Dave]

Thanks for the advice on the setup. I think I'll pass on using the Cambridge sub. I messed with the phase switch and it helped a little. The setup I have sounds great for Movies but not as good for music. I love sitting in the sweet spot and listening to Jazz at night. I'll probably upgrade my main speakers within a year and I'll get something that has better range. (I just upgraded to the MC300's last spring and the Hsu in the fall). I bought these because of some great reviews I read about them for home theater and how great the vocals were. I tried them out and loved them but now I guess I'm getting pickier because I'm listening more to music then I ever did in the past. Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Thanks!

[Dudley]

There is no reason you couldn't use the speaker level inputs on the HSU, and set the crossover to 80 hz or so, then go from the speaker outs on the HSU to the speaker in on the CS sub, and from speaker outs on the CS sub to your front speakers. Set the crossover in your CS sub as high as you want to your satellites are comfortable.

This way the two subs will not compete in the same freq range, but it will take much wire.