Emotiva X-Ref 12 Manuel D’Utilisation

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There are several ways you can configure a combined stereo and home theater system 

to work with your X-Ref 12. 

If you have entirely separate stereo and home theater systems, both with bass 

management, and intend to share one X-Ref 12 (or one pair) between them, then the 

best option is to simply connect the subwoofer outputs of each to one of the X-Ref’s 

input connectors. (Connect one to the balanced input and one to the unbalanced input. 

If one source component is physically closer, use the unbalanced cable for the shorter 

cable run if possible.) Set the X-Over (crossover) to Direct on the X-Ref 12 to allow the 

preamp and pre/processor to each handle their own bass management.
The X-Ref 12 also offers a feature which automatically adds a little extra punch when 

you’re watching a movie (it increases low bass by about +6 dB at 45 Hz). This feature 

is enabled by connecting the Movie EQ Trigger input on the X-Ref 12 to the trigger 

output on your home-theater pre/processor. (Assuming you have a stereo music source 

connected to one input on the X-Ref, and a home-theater pre/processor connected to 

the other input, the Movie EQ Trigger input is typically configured to activate the bass 

boost when the home-theater pre/processor is turned on). 
If you have a pre/processor (like Emotiva’s UMC-1) which has programmable trigger 

outputs, this allows the Movie EQ boost to be turned on by the pre/processor for just 

certain types of program material.   
This configuration should also work well if you have a separate preamp and pre/pro but 

use “HT Bypass” or “Direct Mode” on either to allow both to share one power amp and 

set of speakers for the front channels. 

If you have a separate stereo preamp and home theater pre/processor, and your stereo 

preamp does not have bass management (but you use your stereo preamp as a phono 

preamp), the easiest solution is to connect the Tape Output of your stereo preamp to 

one of the high-level inputs (Aux In) on your home theater pre/processor. This will 

allow your pre/processor to control most aspects of playing music, including bass 

management, yet allow you to play records via your stereo preamp.
Another option is to purchase an external line-level crossover to provide bass 

management for your stereo preamp (passive or active) and then configure everything 

as described above.