Cerwin Vega LS-15 help

Sounds like something is loose. Possibly:

* a strand of wire (either + or -- ) on one of the speaker cables is touching something it shouldn't and shorting out the amplifier and sending the receiver into its protection mode, most likely the other speaker lead. Check carefully, this can be difficult to see.

* a loose connection causing a shorting condition, *inside* one of the speaker enclosures, not an impossibility considering the bass capabilities of this model.

* malfunctioning speaker on/off/protection relay in the receiver.

BTW: if you want to tame this speaker's sound so it's a bit more listenable for non-party situations, look around for a 10-band equalizer. It won't turn them into a Bowers & Wilkins 800D, but since EQs are so cheap now in thrift stores and such, it might be worth the trouble. EQs are almost always connected to a receiver via the receiver's tape monitor connections, so make sure the JVC has them. Edit! :D If this is the model of JVC receiver you own, which has a built-in 7 band EQ, never mind the previous advice....though the more bands, the easier it is to isolate any offending sonics, particularly in the bass region. Large speakers like these, no matter who builds them, can be tricky to set up properly so that their bass is powerful, deep & clean, rather than boomy and weak. Especially try to keep them away from corners (upper and mid bass can be negatively affected).

Edited by LanceJ - 8/4/2009 at 04:54 am GMT
Edited by LanceJ - 8/4/2009 at 04:57 am GMT

Dustin: while most CVs are very efficient, many of them that I have seen (and sold when I worked at a big-box store) have 4 ohm impedance ratings. A lower impedance (impedance = electrical resistance) does not mean they are lower quality than a speaker with a higher impedance, it just means that with the right amp i.e. a so-called "high-current" amp (nope that is not just a marketing term), that amp will produce more power when connected to a lower impedance speaker. Many speakers in the 70s and 80s were built that way, particularly speakers with sealed a.k.a. acoustic-suspension woofers which *weren't* very efficient and needed gutsy amps to sound their best.

Anyway, rather than 4 ohm designs with 12" woofers, most A/V receivers nowadays I am sure are designed with small satellite speakers in mind, sats that are equipped with little 4 and 5 inch midwoofers, with impedances no lower than 6 ohms. To keep such receivers from shutting down or frying an output transistor, many manufacturers usually include automatic current-limiting systems to control the amount of current reaching the speaker. The most audible effect of such a system is usually that the low-impedance speakers' bass output is reduced, since bass is what requires the most power to reproduce.

Also, make sure the Onkyo receiver is set up to send ALL the bass from a stereo source to the front main channels when playing CDs, iPods, etc - I've noticed many newer receivers have some rather complicated option menus for their LFE and subwoofer channels (an LFE signal and a subwoofer signal are *not* the same thing) & to be honest, I am not sure how they work so I cannot really give you any useful advice about them. For stereo sources my 8 year old Technics SA-DA8 receiver has only "subwoofer yes/no" and "front large/small"....that's it!

Lastly: most standalone high-current power amps usually can handle 4 ohm loads, and will probably cost around $200 to $300 for a basic model with 50 watts per channel, the minimum wattage I personally would use for those CVs (IMO the 50 watts generated by a decent brand of power amp is more potent than the 50 watts produced by the typical 16 pound $300 surround receiver).