Low sound output when subwoofer is connected to reciever (LONG)

[her209]

First the setup:

Receiver: Yamaha RX-V663 (connection reference)

Subwoofer: Polk Audio PSW505 (connection reference)

Subwoofer cable: Belkin PureAV 25-foot (link)

I have 16 gauge speaker wires that connects to the front left, front right, center, surround back/bi-amp speaker posts that go to the respective speakers. The subwoofer cable connects to the Subwoofer 1 Pre-out connection and to the subwoofer's Line-In right input. The speaker setup has been specified as SMALL where possible in the receiver. The Low Pass knob on the subwoofer is set to about 90Hz, and the the crossover setting on the receiver is set to 120Hz. Phase is set to 0 degrees on the subwoofer and NRML on the receiver. When the subwoofer is in standby mode and the receiver is powered on, the subwoofer power light goes from red to green. But, there's barely any sound coming out of the subwoofer.

Things I have tried.

Connected a 3.5mm to stereo RCA connection from my laptop's headphone output to the subwoofer's Line-In inputs. Played a video with sound and got sound muffled but a lot of bass output. Gets clearer as you turn the Low Pass knob towards 120Hz. I disconnect the Line-In Left input and leave only the Right connect with similar results. I disconnected the Line-In Right and connect it to the LFE-In. The sound is much much clearer. You can actually make out the words of the video. From this, can I deduce that the subwoofer is not the problem?

I then used a female-to-female RCA adapter and connect the subwoofer cable to the end of the 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable. Repeated the the tests above with the same result. Can I deduce that the subwoofer cable is not the problem?

With the subwoofer cable connect to subwoofer's Line-In Right input and the receiver's Subwoofer 1 PRE-OUT connection, I have tried various connection combinations by moving the cable to the Line-In Left input and LFE-In connection and on the the receiver, moving the cable to the Subwoofer 2 PRE-OUT connection and even to the white Front PRE-OUT connection. All result in low sound output.

I have also tried connecting a mono RCA Y cable to "split" the subwoofer cable to both the subwoofer's Line-In inputs. And yes, I have tried adjusting the subwoofer's volume knob even to max volume.

I've read the manuals for both the subwoofer and the receiver.

For the subwoofer, the recommended hookup method is Figure 6, which is connecting the receiver's Front speaker posts to the sub's Speaker In posts and then connecting the speakers to the subwoofer's Speaker Out posts. But in Figure 8, they have a similar hookup pictured to mine, except on the receiver, it just says Sub-Out and not Sub Pre-Out, so I'm wondering if the signal to the Line-In and LFE-In input isn't getting amplified by the subwoofer.

Also of note, in the receiver manual, it states:
"When making connections to the PRE OUT jacks, do no make connections to the SPEAKER terminals."
But under the Subwoofer PRE OUT jacks, it states:
"Connect one or two subwoofers with a built-in amplifier."

Also, under the Troubleshooting Section, under the problem:
"No sound is heard from the subwoofer."
The remedy is to set the "LFE/BASS OUT" to "SWFR" or "BOTH" which I have tried.

Anyone want to take a crack at where I went wrong, especially if you own the same receiver?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Ok, it seems like you are doing everything right here.

The LFE vs. LINE-IN inputs on your subwoofer shouldn't make much of a difference.... I think the LFE in probably bypasses the low-pass filter, while the LINE-IN inputs do not. Other than that there should be no difference between those two inputs on your sub.

The sub1/sub2 and "front" pre-outs on your receiver are pretty much the same way... the sub outputs will have a filter applied so that only the bass frequencies go through, but you should be able to get decent sound levels from your subwoofer regardless of which one you use.

Reading through the manual.... have you used the "Auto Setup" feature to conduct the "YPAO" optimizer? With the microphone plugged in the front, etc.? (Page 32 of the manual) If not, then this is the first thing I would do, and it has a good chance of clearing up the problem.

 

[her209]

Reading through the manual.... have you used the "Auto Setup" feature to conduct the "YPAO" optimizer? With the microphone plugged in the front, etc.? (Page 32 of the manual) If not, then this is the first thing I would do, and it has a good chance of clearing up the problem.

During the Pre-Check, it fails because I don't have any surround sound speakers. There's no way around this (at least from what I tell).

 

[Smoove910]

What about the sub output on the 'multichannel' area? I have an Onkyo which I have my sub hooked up to the LFE via the multichannel output. I also have a splitter which splits the LFE RCA to the left and right input on the sub.

Pretty crazy problem you have, which I doubt any of your problems are hardware related. I'm thinking it's either a connection issue or a setting on the receiver. After looking at your manual, I would suggest looking at Page 84 and Page 85 in an attempt to manually setup your receiver.


EDIT* Ok, I feel retarded, you're Multichannel is an 'input', rather than an 'output'. Stumped...

 

[JonathanYoung]

There are some other subwoofer settings on page 87, regarding the sub phase and level. Have you tried messing with those settings? It does say if sub volume is low that changing the phase might correct it.

 

[her209]

There are some other subwoofer settings on page 87, regarding the sub phase and level. Have you tried messing with those settings? It does say if sub volume is low that changing the phase might correct it.

Yeah, I've tried changing the phase on the receiver and the subwoofer.

 

[her209]

Update:

I bought a brand new PSW505 subwoofer from Amazon (not a third party seller) and hooked it up... same deal as before.

But before I bought the subwoofer, what I did was took the pair of the speaker wires going to the right front speakers (which I know is working) and connected it to the right input terminal on the subwoofer and disconnected the subwoofer cable. Still came back with a low output.

 

[CubanlB]

Connect it to LFE input on the sub, that is the correct way. That didn't fix the problem so I'm a little stumped...

swap put cable? Tried sub out 2 on the receiver?

Do you have tape outs on the receiver? (or something similar)

Some subs line ins require the left and right inputs to both be connected to produce full volume. Having L/R rca connections is really only to connect to legacy components that only have left and right out and no LFE out.

The settings in the receiver just tell the receiver what sound to output to the LFE output. E.G. if you are listening to radio, and have you fronts set to large setting the sub out to normal will send no signal out of the LFE , but LFE + MAIN (thaty what the setting is for denon, I forgot what it is on yamaha) it sends low frequencies Out the LFE and to my main speakers.

I should go play with my PSW12 to see if I can reproduce this on my polk sub. But it's in the basement, and not connected, so I most likely wont...

You could try a 2male -> 1Female rca adapter and connect both sub preouts at the receiver and run that to the LFE in on the sub.

I think you are correct and the issue is with the receiver.

What sources are you playing?

 

[her209]

Connect it to LFE input on the sub, that is the correct way. That didn't fix the problem so I'm a little stumped...

swap put cable? Tried sub out 2 on the receiver?

Do you have tape outs on the receiver? (or something similar)

Some subs line ins require the left and right inputs to both be connected to produce full volume. Having L/R rca connections is really only to connect to legacy components that only have left and right out and no LFE out.

The settings in the receiver just tell the receiver what sound to output to the LFE output. E.G. if you are listening to radio, and have you fronts set to large setting the sub out to normal will send no signal out of the LFE , but LFE + MAIN (thaty what the setting is for denon, I forgot what it is on yamaha) it sends low frequencies Out the LFE and to my main speakers.

I should go play with my PSW12 to see if I can reproduce this on my polk sub. But it's in the basement, and not connected, so I most likely wont...

You could try a 2male -> 1Female rca adapter and connect both sub preouts at the receiver and run that to the LFE in on the sub.

I think you are correct and the issue is with the receiver.

What sources are you playing?

I've tried connecting the subwoofer cable to the L RCA, R RCA, and LFE input.

I haven't tried swapping the subwoofer cable as I only have one. I did test to make sure there is connectivity by connecting it to one side of a RCA to 3.5mm cable and connecting the 3.5" to my laptop's headphone output.

There's no tape outs on the receiver.

I bought a mono RCA Y splitter which splits the subwoofer cable to two male RCA connection from Radio Shack. Didn't do anything.

I've tried setting the size of the Front speakers to Large and also Small. I've set the crossover settings in the receiver and specified sending the bass out to the Subwoofer and to Both (Subwoofer+Front).

Source is a Sony PS3 that is connected to the receiver via optical cable. The receiver is set to Surround Decode. It displays "Pro Logic" on the receiver display. I haven't tried playing a Blu-ray disc, but I tested with Modern Warfare 2 game disk.

 

[darkswordsman17]

What mode do you have the PS3 outputting? Make sure its sending a 5.1 or 2.1 signal, otherwise there's no .1 channel for the receiver to be handling. Set it to something non-Pro-Logic as well to see if that gets the LFE/Pre-out working.

Wait, when connecting to the Line-In on the sub, did you do line out from the receiver, or did you split the LFE/Pre-Out of the sub? If you didn't do line out (stereo RCA) then that could be the culprit, you've got a bad Pre-Out jack (or something is going on with it at least).

I have a receiver that does the same thing you're talking about. I can actually get it to output if I plug in the sub cable while the sub and receiver are on (makes the sub rumble). Its an older Sherwood, and the sub out has worked before, but its like if you don't have 5 speakers connected it refuses to even acknowledge the subwoofer. Even when I had 5 speakers connected it would sometimes not use the sub (would have to unplug it and plug it in while the movie was playing and then it'd start working. I still haven't figured out what the deal with it is.

 

[Ross Ridge]

There's no tape outs on the receiver.
...
Source is a Sony PS3 that is connected to the receiver via optical cable. The receiver is set to Surround Decode. It displays "Pro Logic" on the receiver display. I haven't tried playing a Blu-ray disc, but I tested with Modern Warfare 2 game disk.

The MD/CD-R, DVR and VCR outs are the functional equivilent of a tape out on your receiver.

Try just using the receiver's built-in AM/FM tuner and fiddle around with that.

 

[cheritoga]

Hi everyone

nice to meet you

. I have a very similar problem, yet none of the solutions seen on the net worked for me. Here's the deal:

Yamaha rx-v675 receiver
Dali Zensor 1 fronts
Dali Zensor center
BK XLS-200 subwoofer

I set sub cross-over at max, low gain mid-way, LFE filter out to let receiver drive the bass (as per manual), phase to 0. Ran YPAO, it found the speakers large, found the subwoofer, set cross-over to 40 Hz, level to 0db for all, distances correct. Subwoofer volume was barely audible. I changed speakers to small, cross-over at 80hz. No change. Moved it a bit in the room back and forth - no change.
Ran test tones - speakers audible, sub barely a very discreet rumble.
Turned level up to +10db, the sub became audible, but not sure it's "healthy", and not sure it's a correct sound (have no experience with this stuff). Shouldn't it work with the level at 0db?

Did a factory reset, ran another YPAO, same results as before. Then ran another YPAO with sub gain know down around a quarter, it set the sub at +10db and speakers at -6.5db. Odd.

Tried different sources, net radio, HDTV via HDMI, PS3 movie, no big difference. Tried pure direct (although i know that has no sub, just to see the difference), tried 7.1, tried all PEQ options, all pre-set sound options - nothing. I even switched the power cable in the socket 180 degrees as I saw on one thread. Nothing. Connections as in the image below. Light on the back of the sub is red - does that have to be green?

Tried Sub 2 from the receiver, tried Left connection on the sub, to no avail.

To see if the sub works with another source I hooked it to a media player, white audio out - my ears hurt from the sound, 'cause i forgot to turn the volume down - it works, very loud.

There MUST be something in the receiver settings, I refuse to believe the receiver is faulty - 3 months old, bought new. But I have no more ideas, and Tom from BK doesn't either - he's been very helpful but we couldn't crack it. The sub needs only 0.01V to be driven, Yamahas are supposed to give 0.7V. Sub doesn't have "auto on" as far as I can tell.

What to do? I haven't come to terms with leaving the sub at +10db, even so it is not too loud. I'll do a sub crawl but placement can't be the issue, I don't hear much of an improvement regardless where I stand in the room.

Room is rectangular, closed, speakers by the short wall, subwoofer at the right, long wall around the middle, close to the receiver (don't have a long enough cable just yet to move it to the corner). Listening position against the glass window and door - i know it's not an ideal arrangement, but it will have to do. Approximate layout here:

Has any of you had a similar combination sorted out?
Thank you so much in advance for any ideas!

 

[Raduque]

YPAO is known to have issues with subwoofers. If it actually hears your subwoofer, and sets a distance, you're doing pretty good.

Leave it at 0db in the AVR settings, and use the gain on the sub.

You would have much better luck discussing this at the AVS forums.

 

[jayesh]

Hi everyone

nice to meet you

. I have a very similar problem, yet none of the solutions seen on the net worked for me. Here's the deal:

Yamaha rx-v675 receiver
Dali Zensor 1 fronts
Dali Zensor center
BK XLS-200 subwoofer

I set sub cross-over at max, low gain mid-way, LFE filter out to let receiver drive the bass (as per manual), phase to 0. Ran YPAO, it found the speakers large, found the subwoofer, set cross-over to 40 Hz, level to 0db for all, distances correct. Subwoofer volume was barely audible. I changed speakers to small, cross-over at 80hz. No change. Moved it a bit in the room back and forth - no change.
Ran test tones - speakers audible, sub barely a very discreet rumble.
Turned level up to +10db, the sub became audible, but not sure it's "healthy", and not sure it's a correct sound (have no experience with this stuff). Shouldn't it work with the level at 0db?

Did a factory reset, ran another YPAO, same results as before. Then ran another YPAO with sub gain know down around a quarter, it set the sub at +10db and speakers at -6.5db. Odd.

Tried different sources, net radio, HDTV via HDMI, PS3 movie, no big difference. Tried pure direct (although i know that has no sub, just to see the difference), tried 7.1, tried all PEQ options, all pre-set sound options - nothing. I even switched the power cable in the socket 180 degrees as I saw on one thread. Nothing. Connections as in the image below. Light on the back of the sub is red - does that have to be green?

Tried Sub 2 from the receiver, tried Left connection on the sub, to no avail.

To see if the sub works with another source I hooked it to a media player, white audio out - my ears hurt from the sound, 'cause i forgot to turn the volume down - it works, very loud.

There MUST be something in the receiver settings, I refuse to believe the receiver is faulty - 3 months old, bought new. But I have no more ideas, and Tom from BK doesn't either - he's been very helpful but we couldn't crack it. The sub needs only 0.01V to be driven, Yamahas are supposed to give 0.7V. Sub doesn't have "auto on" as far as I can tell.

What to do? I haven't come to terms with leaving the sub at +10db, even so it is not too loud. I'll do a sub crawl but placement can't be the issue, I don't hear much of an improvement regardless where I stand in the room.

Room is rectangular, closed, speakers by the short wall, subwoofer at the right, long wall around the middle, close to the receiver (don't have a long enough cable just yet to move it to the corner). Listening position against the glass window and door - i know it's not an ideal arrangement, but it will have to do. Approximate layout here:

Has any of you had a similar combination sorted out?
Thank you so much in advance for any ideas!

Hi, I too have Yamaha v675 and I'm facing similar issues, my subwoofer (Polk PSW505) is producing very low output. Did you find any solution to this problem?