Why is my surround speaker sounds muted ?

[kyutip]

I have Polk M3 Series for rear speaker and Pioneer VSX-D850S receiver.
On the test tone, it sounded pretty loud. I've even adjust the db to +10.
When I play the Matrix, on the lobby shooting spree, the sound from the rear is really low and muted (muzzled).
Any idea why ?

 

[kyutip]

Anyone ?

 

[Anubis]

make sure you dont have the (+) and (-) cross wired. that can eaisily do what you described

 

[Zim Hosein]

Does your receiver have sounds fields that you might have adjusted by accident?

edit: VSX-D850S Click on the link to the lower left of the PIC for your manual

 

[Anubis]

also are you sorrunds teh same size as your frint speakers or not?? min has a setting to adjust for this

 

[deftron]

YOu sure you've got the receiver set to Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS?

Maybe you're in Stereo mode

 

[kyutip]

Front speaker Polk RM3000 w/ passive sub and Center CS200.
I set the speaker to all small (FS-CS-SS).
I've check the wire and it is correct.
I don't know about the soundsfield thing but the receiver sound output show DTS w/ Action DSP.
Front and Center sound clear.
How loud are surround speakers supposed to be ?
Do they output sound only when needed ? (like copter in the back, bullet zing, etc?)

I still have the manual and I adjusted the speaker base on the manual.
Although I'm not sure about crossover thing or attenuator stuff.

 

[Anubis]

they arnt going to be as lous as your frint speaks unless they are HUGE and/or if you power them with an amp. rear speaks usially get signifigeltly less power. depending on your receiver this can be as low as 20wpc. mine have constant sound but its at low vol. and you only "Really" hear them when something happens back there

 

[rudeguy]

1.make sure that you have all the speakers on the same a/b selector
2.make sure that you have the settings set for 5.1 and not 6.1
3.check which eq setting that you have it set to, play with those
4.if none of those work, unplug everything from the back of the receiver and start over...including unplugging it...then walk through it with the manual (I know but even A/V people have to break out the manual sometimes)...chances are its just a setting on the receiver

 

[deftron]

You only supposed to hear from the rear speaker when the
encoded soundtrack calls for their use..

Like airplane flying over, bullets, crowd laughter.

If you want to make sure they are working correctly, change the DSP to
something else like (Concert Hall or something that will reverb everything into the back speakers)

 

[kyutip]

Thx deftron, that is really good explanation.
After listening to it again closely, it did work.
Especially when the part where Neo was evading the bullet, I can hear the bullet pass by in the rear speaker clearly.
I though the speaker was broken since it was in the storage for a while.

So basically, if there is no rear effect needed then there will be almost no sound to rear/surround speaker ?