Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Subwoofers

LFE is really for Low Frequency Effects. It is often confused with the "bass channel" inside a receiver that contains both the LFE and whatever frequencies is below the crossover. But they are distinct.

Yeah, I wasn't too clear about that in my attempt at an explanation.

He he he. I often call LFE-intensive movies as "Concerto for Subwoofer and Other Equipment"! I watched "Troy" in DolbyTrueHD on Sunday and even if I don't particularly like that movie, it was pretty sub-80hz rich!

Are you saying that bass contains LFE + notes below the cutoff? Then why does LFE have its own O/P?

Well, if the speakers are set to small, then yes, the LFE output channel from the pre/pro or receiver would include the bass from the other channels along with the content of the LFE channel from the source.

However, are you saying that your integrated amp has an LFE output on it?

LFE output is for dedicated LFE channels in a movie. Rarely (if ever) does a music source have a dedicated channel for LFE. Unless I am wrong

Multichannel discs (SACD/DVD-A) frequently have a dedicated channel for LFE.

I have 120 of them and they are all 5.0 (or 2.0, 4.0!). To have a LFE channel for music would mean that the sound engineer has decided for you what your sound system can handle. Exceptional cases like a canon firing or some other special effects could use the LFE channel, but those are rareties, not the norm.

Are you absolutely certain of that? If so, why are there 6 hookups?

Yes. The technical capabilities does not mean it has to be used. Furtermore, your player is capable of doing bass management so it needs to have a LFE output that will be used to redirect the bass to that channel that is typically connected pretty directly to a sub-woofer.

In any case (and I had to think about it myself at some point), think about it: if the sound engineer redirects some bass on the LFE, what's the xover? In case you never heard double-bass management (two different sets of xover) it is horrible. For a good ten minutes, a few weeks ago, both my Oppo player and my receiver were doing bass management, one at 100hz, the other at 80hz. The sound was soooo bad!

The 5.1 you read at the of DVD-Audio (SACD really displays that) is pure marketting. People are so used to "5.1" to mean surround that they feel cheated if they see "5.0". In the booklet, when they bother to mention it, they will ether say "unused for this recording" or "barely used", and the "barely used" is synonym with unused.

As I type, I am currently listening to a 5.0 (it is actually displayed as such on the receiver) SACD.

Hope this helped.