Help Please - Sub works for video but not audio! (1 Viewer)

First, great forum and thanks in advance for any assistance.


I recently set up a new 5.1 home theater system with a bang for the buck approach consisting of a Samsung 60" sceen, Yamaha RX-A380 AVR, Klipsch RF-42 front and rear speakers and a Klipsch SW-311 sub (w/wireless connection) and a Sony Blue ray player with wifi. Lastly, because I spend more time enjoying just listening to music (usually Pandora) I included installed an Emotive UPA-200 amplifier hooked from the pre-amp out of the receiver. I use the Sony blue ray player net interface to connect to Pandora, Amazon, etc. For movies the system works flawlessly and sounds great, however when listening to audio (net audio like Pandora), the subwoofer doesn't get a signal unless the receiver is switched to full pass-through. This prevents being able to listen to audio through any of the various processing schemes of the amplifier. Can anyone tell me... is this normal and to be expected or have I configured something incorrctly.


Am gratefull for any comments or suggestions.

Have you set the crossover?
Are the speakers set "small"?

Thanks for your reply... confirm crossover has been set (many different points attempting to resolve the issue) and the main front speakers are set to Large.... do you suggest setting them to small?


Thanks again

Small is not the size of the speakers - it means bass managed (small yes, large no). Set them to small if you want the lower frequencies to be sent to the sub.


Also, don't expect much when streaming from services like Pandora. Its like the worst compressed garbage mp3 you can find and then it is compressed even more.

To add to what Sam and Dave said, the reason you are hearing the sub when watching movies is that many/most movies have a distinct sub channel, so that channel is always sent to the sub; music doesn't have a sub channel. When you set the speakers to small, anything below the crossover is sent to the sub. That occurs for both movies and music and is generally a good thing, because the sub is better at handling the low end; plus, it take some of the load off the main amp.

Folks... great information! Thank you so much, I have resolved the issue by setting the speaker size to small and managing the cross-over appropriately. Many thanks for your time and expertise.

If your Yamaha has the Pure Direct mode, I dont think it will ever use the Sub ... the mode bypasses any circuitry that would redirect freqs to a sub.

Al is right, on my 663 and 775, teh "small" setting allows the amp to redirect freqs below the crossover point to L & R (or Sub; I don't have one in my current setup) which are presumed to be Large, and can handle the lowest freqs that are generally non-directional. I'd say if your Center can't do < 60Hz, set it to small.