Getting my sub in sinq with my system? (1 Viewer)

[Brian McL]

I am pretty new to this so I'll start off with my setup.

Denon AVR-1603

Front: Polk RTi38
Center: Polk CSi30
Rear: Polk RTi28
Sub: PSW303

I have the sub hooked up to the unfiltered in. Speakers set to small except for the fronts. Sub cut off frequency is at 80 on the reciiever.

I have absolutely no idea how to get the sub in sync with the other speakers! There is so many options...

You can turn up the decibles for the speakers and sub. Best to be all the same or at 0?

What about the dials on the back of the sub? Where should I put those at? And what does the 0 and 180 switch do?

I have been fidling with everything and I can't get it to work right. The bass is either great on movies or non existent on music. Also on movies the center channel is hard to hear? Should I turn it up more or would that ruin the imaging?

 

[Darren Mortensen]

In Sinq or "synch" is not a relative term here in your situation. "Balance" would be more appropriate. First thing to optimize your audio is to purchase a demo disc such as Audio/Video Essentials or AVIA's disc. These discs will provide various audio sweeps, phase checks to precisely adjust your speakers to audio nirvana. Next you need to also purchase a Sound Pressure Meter, available at Radio Shack...this is tool used in conjunction with the set up/demo discs to tweak the system to "perfection".

The 0/180 switch on the subwoofer is the PHASE SWITCH. This may or not be used during the subwoofer setup and phase test on the set-up disc.

Read. Read. Read. All your manuals concerning your equipment and speakers prior to making ANY adjustments...once you FULLY understand your system then enjoy the hours you will spend with your Raio Shack SPL meter and AVIA disc.

 

[Allan Jayne]

One of the first and most important things is speaker phasing. The most common cause of weak bass is incorrect speaker phasing. Normally it should be correct if you are consistent about connecting the cables to the various speakers, for example if you use the gold or ribbed conductor to connect the red terminal of the amp to the red terminal of one speaker and the silver or smooth conductor to connect the black to the black, it should be the same for all speakers.

With the subwoofer disconnected and all the other speakers on, play a low hum tone of say 50 to 75 Hz to all speakers. From your favorite seating position listen as somebody else exchanges the leads to each speaker in turn. If the hum gets softer, change it back. If the hum gets louder, leave them exchanged.

Then hook up the subwoofer. Have the other person flip the 180/0 switch for the louder sound.

Now the speakers should be properly phased.

The phasing is not guaranteed to be correct for all seating positions in the room.

Once in awhile some source material, even a DVD, has the audio tracks encoded with phase reversed. With five or six speakers plus the subwoofer in your system, it is almost impractical to exchange speaker wires to re-phase the system for each movie, although you may feel free to flip the 0/180 switch on the subwoofer.

Video hints:
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