Reminder: Discuss All Things A/V On The Soundboard

"Jcarr" (jcarr) 06/16/2015 at 12:46 • Filed to: The Soundboard, A/V, Audio, Stereo

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MarquetteLa > Jcarr 06/16/2015 at 12:57

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Can I get authorship? Thanks!

Jcarr > MarquetteLa 06/16/2015 at 12:59

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Sure thing!

JGrabowMSt > Jcarr 06/16/2015 at 13:10

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Can I have authorship? I work in AV and help make the magic happen.

Jcarr > JGrabowMSt 06/16/2015 at 13:16

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No problem!

Frank Grimes > Jcarr 06/16/2015 at 15:01

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I have a pioneer 5.1 surround receiver I have it hooked up to the sub pre out with a single rca that has a janky rca y splitter to hook up to the back of the powered sub which has two rcs inputs I have tried every combination of volumn and crossover and it still only kicks on at the loudest bassiest parts. how might I remedy this?

DrJohannVegas > Frank Grimes 06/16/2015 at 15:31

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Frank: Two questions. First, does your sub have a mono input? If your amp is sending out a single subwoofer channel, you can just run a mono connection to a single SW input on the amplifer on the woofer box. (I am guessing at your setup here.) The dual-RCA inputs are usually for line-level inputs where the crossover within the box is doing additional high-pass filtering on the signal. The splitter may (although I suspect isn’t) be lowering the input volume on the SW channel signal. But, I suspect that’s not really the problem. Second question: In the many menus (Pioneers seem to have lots of crappy menus...) on your reciever (you might need to go into the on-screen display), is there an option to adjust the cutoff frequency for your SW output?

I’d need more info to help more, and I am more a keen hobbyist than a pro, but I think you are not that far from getting more out of your equipment. Probably just a setting off somewhere.

DrJohannVegas > Jcarr 06/16/2015 at 15:33

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Insert vague promise of more equipment teardowns and repairs, as soon as work hell passes, here. My bench overfloweth with goodness.

Jcarr > DrJohannVegas 06/16/2015 at 15:37

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Sounds good. I feel bad that there doesn’t seem to be much activity.

Frank Grimes > DrJohannVegas 06/16/2015 at 15:51

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I have a higher quality subwoofer cable but it is only single rca on each end. the sub inputs are two rca with red and white there is no mono option. this is a new reciever and all the menus are confusing I basically just hooked up all the speakers and ran the auto calibration.

I will try using just one of the sub inputs and try to see if there is a sub cutoff and report back. thanks for your help :)

DrJohannVegas > Frank Grimes 06/16/2015 at 15:53

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Yea, the cable shouldn’t matter too much, but I should have asked one more question: Is there a switch to turn off the crossover on your subwoofer? Running mono shouldn’t matter either, as the amp is just going to combine the signals after the crossover. One woofer, one channel.

Ok, two questions: Could you just mention which amp and which woofer you have?

Frank Grimes > DrJohannVegas 06/17/2015 at 12:32

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the amp is pioneer vsx523k woofer is audiosource mcsw1

I can adjust crossover.

DrJohannVegas > Frank Grimes 06/17/2015 at 13:37

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Ok, off-the-cuff recommendation (you may have already tried this combo, if so...sorry)

Keep your y-splitter in there for now

Go to manual speaker settings

Front, Center, and Rear speakers to Small, Subwoofer to Yes

Raise the crossover setting to 180Hz or higher (since it seems you can’t cut out the crossover on the subwoofer amp)

Adjust your subwoofer amp crossover level to the desired cutoff frequency (100Hz is a standard, but not universal)

Test once, see if that is better. If not to your liking: go back into the manual speaker settings, go to channel level and start playing with the subwoofer level.

If, however, your main speakers are pretty big (they also have decently-sized woofers and can drive lower frequencies):

Front, Center, and Rear to Large, Subwoofer to Plus

Do the rest again as above.

Hope this helps some, if not, you may have an issue with the amplifier in the subwoofer itself.

Frank Grimes > DrJohannVegas 06/17/2015 at 15:52

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I raised crossover in reciever setup to 150hz.

the auto setup had the sub channel at -15db. I put it to zero and playing some music the sub immediatley came on. I think the amp wasnt even activating the auto on feature of the sub.

I used my new cable in mono

and reset crossover of reciver to sub back to 100 and it sounds better than 150.

this crap is so confusing. and the manual is crap at describing stuff in detail.

DrJohannVegas > Frank Grimes 06/17/2015 at 15:57

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Ah, no wonder. Well, glad it all worked out. One note: the lower of the setting on your receiver and the knob on your subwoofer amp is gonna be your cutoff frequency. I agree with your suspicion on the auto-on feature. Happy listening!

Frank Grimes > DrJohannVegas 06/17/2015 at 16:33

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Thats good to know I had a question about that. I have the sub cranked to max crossover which I think is 120hz and the volume knob on sub cranked as well since the receiver has control over all this.

Thanks for your help!