I went to Best Buy and spoke with a geek. Turns out that I was only connecting the subwoofer with the left terminals only and needed a splitter to connect both left and right. Bought a 50 dollar Monster splitter and Boom!
You all have been great! I have learned a lot about this system...
I have the VSX-820 with the wimpy sounding bass. My subwoofer is an MTX 100 watt amplifier and when I had a Sony receiver it would shake the walls. NOT ANYMORE. I am absolutely not a genius when it comes to this stuff, but I know a thing or two. This is aggravating! Why would they make this...
Hope you all don't mind my post as well. Last week I bought a VSX Pioneer receiver because my Sony had a short in it. My Sony use to make the sub-woofer vibrate the walls. I hooked this receiver up and have done all the speaker set ups like it said and I don't get the loudness anymore either...