Subwoofer not woofing! Help (1 Viewer)

I have a kenwood powered sub, old (SW-32HT), that will turn on but the sound is beyond weak. I took it apart and all the fuses are ok, all connections are good. There are no tears in the speaker material. Thats the extint of my knowledge of home theatre powered subwoofers. Any ideas or options I can try to fix this. My guess is maybe the amplifier isnt working that is attached to the unit but not sure how to test that.

Try another driver.If the amp is dead, time for a new one. Not sure if the driver in that one is worth turning the sub passive(ie, bypassing that amp, buying another amp. HTD sells sub specific amps)

cbrown3301 said:

I have a kenwood powered sub, old (SW-32HT), that will turn on but the sound is beyond weak. I took it apart and all the fuses are ok, all connections are good. There are no tears in the speaker material. Thats the extint of my knowledge of home theatre powered subwoofers. Any ideas or options I can try to fix this. My guess is maybe the amplifier isnt working that is attached to the unit but not sure how to test that.

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What type of receiver / processor are you using and how do you have it connected to the subwoofer?

Tom V.

A kenwood vr-407. the sub is a powered sub and plugs into the reciever

Try another driver.....sorry i am not sure what you mean. I am a novice at best but very DYI so if there is a way to fix it I want to try. Thanks for any help you can pass my way.

New, to you?Or been in use awhile...and the sub not working Is a new occurrence?

cbrown3301 said:

Try another driver.....sorry i am not sure what you mean. I am a novice at best but very DYI so if there is a way to fix it I want to try. Thanks for any help you can pass my way.

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He is saying to try replacing the speaker, because you may have a weak or bad voice coil in it. If a new speaker does not improve the sound then it is most likely a tired amp. This is assuming that you have eliminated any possibility of a bad cable or receiver problem. Do you have another receiver you can try to make sure that your subwoofer output on your current receiver hasn't turtled? I'd eliminate those possibilities before starting to buy parts.

I bought it original, long time ago. Just noticed that the sub was not banging very hard anymore so decided to see if I could get it to work again.

I dont have another reciever to hook the sub up to. The reciever seems to work fine with the other speakers it powers( two side, one center, and two surround). when I set the reciever to put out just to the sub, the sub speaker will produce some muffled bass sound and move some air but thats it. Reminds me of when a car sub acted when i didnt have an amp powering it so thought the subs amp might have craped out. So speaker might be ok but not sure how to hook another amp to it.

The speaker coil may be worn out. Might be worth trying another speaker like he mentioned.

So with the speaker responding even though it is weak means the amp is probably ok but the sub speaker coil is shot, is that correct.

It's possible, but I'm not going to say that that is the only answer. It could still be an amp issue. Replacing the speaker driver would help you pinpoint the problem. If the problem disappears with a new driver then it was most likely a coil problem. If not, then there is a problem in the amp. Doing it that way could get expensive, because if you spring for a new driver and it turns out to be the amp then you are stuck deciding to buy a new amp as well or throwing in the towel and just replacing the entire unit.

Do you have a local stereo shop or electronics repair shop? Might pay to take it in and have them check the output of the amp with an oscilloscope. If the output is good then you would know that it has to be the speaker driver. Either way, it would probably be cheaper to have the amp checked out at an electronics shop than to buy a new driver, only to find out that the amp really was the problem.

Take one of your other 5(preferably not the center)...Set the sub crossover in the Kenwood to 200hz. Take speaker wire. Connect to the amp. One of your other 5 speakers will siffice for 10 seconds.

Ha ha. I'll have to try to remember that if I ever have a problem with my subwoofer amp.

I will have to change the hook up for one of the other speakers. The sub is a three prong plug in that goes to the amp im guessing then the other end clips onto the sub speaker, where as the other speakers the wires just clip in, one positive one negitive on the back of the speaker


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The bottom pick...Are those the leads pulled off the driver?If yes, hook the speaker wire from your closest speaker. The two there is irrelevant(all you are doing is 10 seconds to know if the coil is dead, or the amp is.

The bottom pick.... are off the driver. Any idea which the positve terminal is, orange or grey?

cbrown3301 said:

The bottom pick.... are off the driver. Any idea which the positve terminal is, orange or grey?

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The double is positive, but is irrelevant for this 10 second test.

Not sure i understand, you want me to hook another speakers wire, ie my left front, to the orange and grey from the amp to see if it powers my left front....?

Ok this is what i did, i just took my front Left wires and put them onto my sub and the sub worked better then it did with the powered amp so i guess the amp is fried does that sound right?