Subwoofer and Reciever

AlanSchr · 02-20-2004, 09:05 PM

I have and AudioSource SW 50 8" sub and an Onkyo TX-SR601. I am trying to get that sub to work on the reciever, but everything I have tried has failed. The sub has the Red and White RCA inputs and the Red and Black wire inputs. The reviever has a Subwoofer Preout which is purple, and a Sub out in the DVD section of the reciever which is also purple. Someone told me to get a Sub cable. So I got one from radio shack which has the one connection at the end for the reciever and splits into two down at the sub end. That didn't seem to work. But when the split end was hooked to the sub and I touch the end of the cable on the reciever side to the silver coating on the outside of the purple Sub Preout input I get sound from the sub. When I fully connect it I get minimal to almost no sound, even at full volume. Anyone have any ideas why I am not getting sound from the sub? I know it works perfectly connected directly to my DVD player. But I would rather have it hooked up to the reciever with the rest of my speakers.

Mike_Skeway · 02-20-2004, 09:44 PM

How is your BM set on your receiver? Speakers set to small? Crossover? Have you tried calibrating the speakers and sub? What are the levels set to on the sub? The sub (LFE) level on the receiver?

If I read this right, you have the LFE (sub preout) on the receiver connected to the sub RCA inputs with a y-cable? If so, that connection will work.

My guess is that it is a setting that is not right.

AlanSchr · 02-20-2004, 10:27 PM

I went through a speaker test on the reciever and the sub is set at the max + 12dB. Crossover is set to 60Hz. All my speakers are set to large except the rear speakers. I don't know what you mean by BM. And yes you are correct it is connected by a Y-Cable.

Mike_Skeway · 02-21-2004, 12:08 AM

Ah, BM = Bass Management.

Is that sub level on the receiver or on the sub itself? If it is the receiver, check the level on the sub. It should not need to be that high on the receiver.

With the receiver crossed over at 60Hz, make sure to set the crossover on the sub up as high as you can (140Hz-160Hz) or disable it. Due to your speakers all set to large except for the rear, only LFE and bass from the rears will be produced from the sub. What do you have for speakers? If they are not true full range, you may want to set them to small as well.

You also may want to get an SPL meter and a calibration disc, if you do not already have them. Unless your receiver has an auto set-up feature, you could use that.

Is it movies, music, or both, that you are not getting anything out of the sub? With your set up 2-channel will not use the sub at all. For movies it will depend on how much LFE is on the track.

AlanSchr · 02-21-2004, 12:58 AM

I have been fiddling with the level calibration, and what I found that is if I move all the speakers to small and lower the levels on all of them but keep the sub up, I get more sound out of the sub. I can acctually see it beating now. I tryed it on a few movies, Pirates of the Carribean and The Core but it still didn't give the rumble I was looking for. The sound from the speakers is worse, and I have to crank the volume a lot higher, both on the reciever and the sub. It still sounds a lot better coming directly from the DvD player and I dont have to raise the volume on the sub to almost max to hear it at the level I like. Do you think it would be better to just go out and buy a new sub, more than 50 watts? If so, could you give me some recomendations. I don't need anything that special, nothing that will knock the pictures off the wall. Just enough to feel it in your feet when your watching a good movie. Somewhere around in the price range of $100-$250

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Mike_Skeway · 02-21-2004, 01:28 AM

I do not think you should be losing anything from running the sub off the DVD vs. the receiver.

How big is your room? Length/Width/Height? What are the rest of your speakers?

It is very possible that your whole speaker/sub setup is too small for your room to achieve your desired listening levels.

Where is the sub located? You might try putting it much closer to the listening position.

Sure a ‘bigger’ sub will give you more output. However, if you can get reasonable levels from hooking it up to the DVD player, I do not see why you ca not get that same level from the receiver. I looked at the manual for your receiver, but I did not see anything that stood out to try.

AlanSchr · 02-21-2004, 11:05 AM

I have two old Technics SB-k476 three way speakers, which are my front L/R I think these run at 150 watts. A 150 Watt Pioneer Center. And two 75 Watt Pioneer speakers which run in the Rear L/R. The room is not that big, the couch only sits about 10ft from the tv. Same with the sub

Mike_Skeway · 02-21-2004, 04:24 PM

Hmmm. You really should not be seeing a huge difference from when the sub is connected to the DVD vs. the receiver. Some settings are the only thing I can think of.

I am at a loss.

Did you try moving it closer to you?

Mitch_J · 02-22-2004, 02:16 AM

I'm thinking that you will indeed have to upgrade your sub.
I had a 75 watt AWAI I had picked up used for about $45 dollars and it really didn't put out "anything" in the way of bass no matter the settings on my AVR (H/K 225). I say anything in quotes cuz, it did reproduce bass notes and I could hear some port "chuffing" when I got close to it when it was really cranked. If I shut off the sub I could hear the lowest bass drop off a bit. I was using it with some fairly tall KLH floorstanders with 4 woofers (2 front-2 rear) plus it had two tuned ports too. So they really gave me a lot off bass to begin with. I've recently upgraded to a 250 watt 12" Aperion S-12. WOW