Kenwood VR-509 Surround Sound Mysteriously Disappeared - Please Help (1 Viewer)

[Movie Addict]

Hi all. I have a Kenwood VR–509 which has worked perfectly for years. Suddenly last week my rear surround speakers don't output sound anymore! Also, the sound coming from my left and right front speakers is very, very low! My center speaker still works fine. I'm not sure about the subwoofer though.
My components are:

Kenwood VR–509 AV Receiver
Samsung 52 inch LCD TV (TV's internal speakers are turned off).
Cable Box - HDMI cable (video) to TV / RCA jacks (audio L+R output) to VR–509 video 2 input.
Samsung Upconverting DVD player - HDMI cable (video) to TV / digital coaxial (6ch audio) to VR–509 DVD coaxial input.
My PC - HDMI cable (video) to TV / HDMI AudioExtractor's RCA jacks (audio L+R output) to VR–509 video 1 input.

Depending on what I want to watch, I switch the TV to the correct HDMI video input, and I switch the VR-509 audio inputs to either Video 1 (my PC), Video 2 (cable TV), or DVD.
This has all worked perfectly for years. But now I don't get any sound out of my rear surround speakers anymore!
I'm not sure if the subwoofer is working now either!
And barely any sound out of my 2 front L+R tower speakers.
And, on the 509's display, in the little boxes showing the speaker outputs, the 2 rear surround sound speakers show no output!
Also, when I activate the test tones, I DO get test tones coming from the center speaker and the 2 front speakers, but NOT the 2 rear surround speakers or the subwoofer!
I only have the speaker A button turned on, just like I've always done.
I'm afraid that something has gone wrong with my VR-509!
The thing that makes me think that, is because there are no test tones on the rear speakers or subwoofer, and the display does not show the 2 rear speakers turned on in the boxes.
Otherwise I might think it is just a wiring or speaker issue. Am I correct in thinking this way?
No matter which input mode I select on the video 1, video 2, or DVD inputs, I cannot get the rear speakers to work.
I have not changed any of my wiring or anything else to make this happen.

I don't know what could be wrong. Can someone help me quickly please!?
I'm really suffering here without getting the full audio experience! LOL
Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thank you!

 

[Dave Upton]

Hi Bruce,

It's possible you pressed a button accidentally that turned on a different mode. Can you confirm if the speaker A/B button has been pressed on the front of the unit perhaps?

What listening mode is the unit in?

As a first troubleshooting step, check all your speaker buttons on the unit front, then perform a reset using the below procedure:

 

[Movie Addict]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for replying. Yesterday after an entire day of extensive testing, I discovered that there is nothing wrong with my VR-509. The problem is with my Rocketfish wireless rear speaker kit, and also my subwoofer volume was set unusually low. I think that because my wireless transmitter unit is defective, my 509 was not detecting it as speakers that were connected, so the display was not showing them as being turned on in the boxes. Without going into too much detail, the various symptoms led me to believe it was the VR-509 and not the wireless surround speakers link, otherwise I would've checked that first.

I disassembled the wireless Bluetooth transmitter and because of the micro miniaturization of the circuit boards, I am unable to actually repair it myself. So I just ordered a new Amphony model 1700 wireless rear speaker kit from Amazon for $99.
It's actually a lot more powerful (40 watts/channel) than the Rocketfish wireless rear speaker kit (25 watts/channel) that I have now. And from the reviews it seems like it's of much better quality. The only bummer is there's no power switch on the receiver (important) or transmitter (not too important because it's powered by the switched outlet on my VR-509)!

Thank you for your help. And please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad I found out what it was without having to resort to your first troubleshooting step of setting everything back to the way it was when it left the factory and losing all of my settings and presets. Somehow that sounded a little excessively aggressive as a first troubleshooting step.

It is such a load off my mind knowing that my AV receiver is still working fine!
And once again, I do thank you very much for responding!