Small or large speaker settings?

[mr. budget]

My question is what is the difference of the output of the reciver, if any, if you set it to small vs/or large speakers?

[old_s13]

its for freq. response.

large speaker setting keeps all frequencies coming out of the specified speaker.
small speaker setting cross over speaker at low freq. and forwards them to the subwoofer channel.

[mr. budget]

Thanks, actually I just found it a couple minutes ago in the instruction manual. Just by chance...I thought I'd just flip through it and I stumbled upon it...good to know this stuff eh.

[kexodusc]

As an addition, the terms "large" and "small" are misleading, and really have nothing to do with the physical size of your speakers.
In almost all setups that include a decent subwoofer, you will be better off setting your speakers to "small" and crossing over the bass to the subwoofer at 90, 80, 60, Hz or below...
This relieves the amplifier of a tremendous amount of stress when powering 5 to 7 speakers (bass frequencies are the most demaning usually). Your subwoofer should provide better bass for than your speakers (or why bother having the sub at all?) and the speakers should perform better in the midrange when relieved of the low frequency duty...
There are other benefits to selecting "small" as well, you can search the forums here for dozens of discussions.

[shokhead]

If your mains go down to 20Hz at 105db,maybe set them to lg,maybe.

[old_s13]

In almost all setups that include a decent subwoofer, you will be better off setting your speakers to "small" and crossing over the bass to the subwoofer at 90, 80, 60, Hz or below..

It really depends. Personally, I dont want all my lower frequencies coming out of my sub. I ditched my DD receiver and went with monoblock amps, so power or amp strain is not a concern. Plus, my center channel is pretty heavy duty.. and has excellent frequency response for its size. So with my setup, I configured the mains and center as large and the rears as small.

The switches serve a function, it just depends on your HT setup and what components you run.

[kexodusc]

Old_s13:

There's no substitute for personal preferences and you are quite correct to do as you have, that's why I qualified with "almost" all setups...a full range center would be an exception to my response, which I answered safely with the typical consumer in mind. I suspect in your system, however, that sooner or later your sub is taking over in which case you are using the lowest crossover (the "natural crossover) available to your system as I suggested. Selecting the "small" setting alows you to more precisely tune that, a valuable tool if you don't have full range speakers.
A problem with using the sub AND setting speakers to large or "both" would be an overlap in bass response at certain frequencies...If you boost the gain for the frequencies beyond your speaker's range without parametric equalization, you also boost the gain to frequencies that do overlap with the speakers. Or you employ the sub's crossover to compensate, and then have a gap in the rear channel's bass response. Or consequently, the very low frequencies are diminished so the overlapped frequencies aren't too loud. Not to mention phase issues....