Sub-woofer question........>>> (1 Viewer)

[Cam McFarland]

I have a question/dilemma that I hope you can help me with.
I came across the Onkyo 660 HTIB at Fry’s for $299.00 new, & I could not pass it up.
The room I have it in is about 22’x20’ (could be larger) with a vaulted ceiling. When the volume is at 50-55 out of (I think) 72, watching DVDs is acceptable without noticeable distortion (to me at least), but there is no
bass to speak of.
I have the sub turned all the way up, & set to have bass come only from it.
If I remember correctly, I set the crossover at like 100 as the instructions suggested this for more bass(don’t give me a hard time, I have no idea what
I am talking about…lol).
I don’t have the speakers located where they will stay, but I am sitting probably 14’ from the TV, & the sub is sitting beside it for now.
Maybe I am just expecting too much from the sub.

My question would be, for a room this size is the 150w Sub just too
small, or did I hook up something wrong ?
At the price I paid for the 660, I have no problem moving it into my
bedroom, or giving to the kids, but would like to keep it for a while
if I just had more bass.


Suggestions greatly appreciated……

Thanks in advance,

- Cam

 

[JohnGil]

Thats a pretty big room for such a small sub. At best even if its working properly you still wont get high output levels of bass from a HTB system sorry.

Also is "anything coming from the sub"(sound that is)?

 

[Cam McFarland]

Yep, thats pretty much what I was figuring.
It will still make a decent stereo for the bedroom, lol.

 

[Chuck_W]

Hi Cam,

I have an Onkyo HT speaker set that includes the 150W sub in my family room. My room is about 18 by 30 and I sit about 12-14 feet from the sub. I'm running a Pioneer 912 receiver, so I don't know how your receiver is set up, but I was just watching 'We Were Soldiers' and that little sub was blasting my face with a lot of air and rumbling the windows pretty well. I don't have a vaulted ceiling here, but I think you should be getting more bass than you are describing....it's not a bad little subwoofer. Is the light on the front of the sub green while you are using it (it is an amber color when in standby mode or not in use)?

 

[Cam McFarland]

Hey Chuck,

I will feel pretty stupid if I get home & find out it was in standby. It was putting out some bass, but nothing like
you describe & Blackhawk Down was one of the first movies
I watched. Only watched 2 since I have had it.
I will check it out when i get home.

One more thing if anybody else happens to read this post,
I tried to turn on my reciever after not using it for
about a week (in standby mode it says) & I had to unplug
it & plug it back in to get it to come on. Pushing the
faceplate button or remote did nothing. The standby light
was on the whole time, but it would not come on.
Any ideas...???

 

[Jesse Sharrow]

Would it be a major pain to move it up to the bedroom? Because it will proably sound alot better in a smaller room.

 

[Chuck_W]

I just plugged in Blackhawk Down...chapter 4 (Irene) and can definitely "feel" the helicopters throbbing in my sofa. Like you I bought this system with plans of moving it to a bedroom some day, but for now I'm pleased with the bass-for-the-buck factor I received (paid $179 for the 6 speaker and sub package).

Hope it works out for you...good luck...I'm goin back to Blackhawk....

 

[Cam McFarland]

I'll keep ya posted, thanks....















and the entire forum waits with bated breath......

 

[Cam McFarland]

Well, luckily I am not as stupid as I look. Yes, the green
light on the sub comes on when it is supposed to, & I
watched part of "The Hitcher 2", & maybe the sub is not as
bad as I was thinking it was.


Still, when on standby, I cant turn the reciever on without
uplugging & then plugging it back in, if anybody could
shed some light on this problem.

 

[Joe Blech]

I don't know about the receiver, but I outfitted a friends theater with a system and he had a room about the same size as yours and also had vaulted ceilings. I had an extremely hard time getting a sub to sound good in that room. It was almost impossible. I was not using the best quality sub, I think it was a Klipsch KSW-12, but it was nearly non-existant bass. Unfortunatley, in order to have in your face rumble your chest bass you will have to get something with a little more umph that also requires a little more dough. But, try the usual things as well. If you can get that thing into a corner it will usually maximize its output. Try other places in the room as well until you find the loudest spot.

 

[Cam McFarland]

Thanks for the suggestion, Joe.

 

[Cam McFarland]

Does anybody know what the 150 watt rating for the Onkyo (HT-S660) sub, means?
Is that going to be “peak” power, “dynamic”, or what?

 

[Chuck_W]

Sorry Cam, don't know about the rating. All I know is that I was fairly satisfied with my little Onkyo sub until this thread started and got me thinking too much. Now I want more! Thinkin about an SVS...probably the PB1-ISD .

 

[Chuck_W]

Hey Cam...you ever get the bugs worked out on this one?

 

[Cam McFarland]

Hey Chuck,

Actually, yes I have gotten things cleared up. I am such a
newbie to all this that I pretty much posted after watching
my first movie with the system. I am not sure if it was just
the movie or what, but I have actually turned the
sub-woofer down a bit now & it works great (in my uneducated
opinion, lol).

I have to say that considering the price I paid for the Onkyo
system ($299.00, on sale, new, at Fry’s), that it cant be beat.