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Every BASSBOSS MK3-R5 preset is a DSP filter recipe: a precise highpass and lowpass setting that tells each box where to play and where to hand off. These tools and this guide show you how those filters shape your sound, how a sub and top combine across the crossover, and which presets to choose for your system.
Select a top preset (gold curve) and an optional sub preset (blue curve). The white curve shows the summed response when both boxes are running together. A matched crossover, with the same frequency and filter type, sums flat through the handoff.
ControlBASS presets are labeled with filter frequencies and types. Here's a plain-language glossary so you can read them at a glance.
A filter that lets high frequencies through and rolls off everything below a set frequency. On a top speaker, the HPF protects the drivers from bass they can't reproduce: it hands those frequencies off to the subwoofer.
A filter that lets low frequencies through and rolls off everything above a set frequency. On a sub, the LPF sets the ceiling: above that point, the top takes over.
The handoff point between sub and top, in Hz. Set them both to the same frequency (e.g. sub LP at 80 Hz, top HP at 80 Hz) and the two boxes pass the baton cleanly: no gap, no overlap.
A crossover filter design where the sub and top are each at -6 dB at the crossover frequency. When two LR filters of the same type and frequency are summed in phase, the result is mathematically flat: no bump or dip at the handoff.
A crossover filter design where each filter is -3 dB at the crossover frequency. Butterworth filters have a maximally flat passband and a slightly different phase relationship than LR. Mixing BW and LR at the same crossover can produce a small bump or dip in the summed response.
BASSBOSS MK3-R5 presets are designed so the sub and matching top are phase-aligned at the crossover. Their outputs add in-phase: the waves reinforce rather than cancel. Match the crossover frequency and filter type on both boxes, and the summed curve is flat.
See which BASSBOSS products cover which frequency ranges, and where a top + sub pair overlaps. An overlap means there's room to set a crossover; a gap means a frequency range goes uncovered.
Both systems cover this range — set your crossover here.
The MK3 series uses pushbutton presets that select from different filter types and cutoff frequencies. The honest answer is that the best preset depends on your boxes, your application, and the music you play, so trust your ears. But a handful of rules will get you most of the way there.
Use a Butterworth highpass preset. It gives the flattest, deepest low end a single box can produce.
Use Linkwitz-Riley presets on both boxes through the crossover. They hand off with no peak and no dip.
Lower-numbered presets on your subs, higher-numbered presets on your tops.
The right settings depend on your boxes, your room, and the program material. Start here, then listen.
Every non-cardioid preset is time and phase aligned with the others. You cannot pick a wrong alignment.
Every preset is built from two kinds of crossover filter. They sound similar on paper, but they behave very differently where a sub meets a top.
Maximally flat in the passband: the most low end physically possible. Down 3 dB at the cutoff, with a gentle rolloff that lets through more low-frequency content than any other filter. Ideal for a box running on its own.
Two Butterworth filters cascaded, so it is down 6 dB at the cutoff. That deeper dip is the point: a sub and a top each 6 dB down sum back to flat through the handoff. The standard for crossing a sub into a top.
Set a lowpass and a highpass to the same frequency and you would expect a clean handoff. With Butterworth filters you do not get one, because half power is not half magnitude: both boxes are still pushing hard at the crossover, and the overlap stacks into a bump. Linkwitz-Riley was designed in 1976 to solve exactly this. Its deeper 6 dB dip lets the two sides sum back to perfectly flat. You can watch it happen in the visualizer above: match a sub LR lowpass to a top LR highpass at the same frequency and the white summed curve runs flat. Mix the filter types or the frequencies and a bump or dip appears.
So why does David Lee run his subs on Presets 1 to 2 (around a 65 to 70 Hz lowpass) and his tops on Presets 6 to 8 (around a 100 Hz highpass)? On paper that leaves a hole between 60 and 110 Hz. In the room it does not, thanks to crossover shift. Most people prefer their subs run hot, often around 10 dB louder than the tops. Turning the sub up raises the frequency where the sub and top meet at equal level, which slides the real crossover point upward and fills that apparent gap, with the extra low-end weight that makes a system feel powerful.
Running a DV12 full-range with no sub? Preset 1 is a 40 Hz Butterworth highpass, the flattest and deepest setting the box has.
Pairing a VS21 with an AT212? Preset 3 on the VS21 is an 80 Hz Linkwitz-Riley lowpass, and Preset 4 on the AT212 is an 80 Hz Linkwitz-Riley highpass. Same frequency, same filter: they sum perfectly flat, as long as the levels match.
The complete technical write-up: filter math, crossover theory, and worked examples, in one PDF.