Audio

[tennyis]

Hey guys,

Tonight I picked up the Energy EW-100 10" down firing subwoofer. I also got 2 x 12' rocket fish sub woofer connection and an adapter to connect them together as I needed a 24' run.

I have a Pioneer VSX-521 AVR with the energy 5.0 speaker set, everything from Future Shop.

Thus far I was really happy with the setup, but thought I'd get a sub to see what I am missing for movies and music!

The sub is awful, my wife cannot even tell the difference when its turned on lol. I thought it was the settings so I tried changing the phase, it made no difference. I then set the level on the sub to max, the crossover on the sub down to 40 (then up to the max at 120). I set the speaker level to +15 max for the sub and I set teh distance to max setting. Even after doing all of that the performance of the sub seems really sub par... I can barely even notice it is on. I tried several sound modes, some made it slightly better but still nothing great.

Is this a problem with the cable? or a setting? or is it the sub? it's only 55 watts, so I am debating on returning it and getting the Klipsch or Polk PSW125 sub. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Yoda13]

connect your sub cabale to the L/LFE connection to the sub preout of your receiver.  Set your gain or volume behind your sub at 5 or halfway.  Set the crossover knob all the way up to 120hz.  Rerun MCACC to set the distance and level.  In your menu, find where it says "crossover" and set this at 120hz because your speakers are only rated to go down to 110Hz.  Also in the Pioneer's menu, find where you can set your speaker to "small" as they are probably set to "large".

Sit back and enjoy.

[tennyis]

I have done all of that and the sub is barely even audible, even during the mic setup when it goes to the sub you can barely hear it. I think I either have a faulty sub or a bad cable.

[Yoda13]

try this.  Make sure your sub volume is at the 12:00 position (half) and disconect your sub cable from the back of the sub while leaving it connected to the back of the receiver.  With the receiver ON, touch the sub cable on the metal part of the sub's L/LFE input (or just slightly inside the input), if it makes a descent loud hum, your sub is fine.

cheers

[sonimax]

Seems to be a faulty cable. Try another one to be sure.

[sonimax]

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Yoda13 wrote:

try this.  Make sure your sub volume is at the 12:00 position (half) and disconect your sub cable from the back of the sub while leaving it connected to the back of the receiver.  With the receiver ON, touch the sub cable on the metal part of the sub's L/LFE input (or just slightly inside the input), if it makes a descent loud hum, your sub is fine.

cheers

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If you disconnect the cable from the back of the sub, how can it make a sound when you touch the cable???

[Atomic]

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sonimax wrote:

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Yoda13 wrote:

try this.  Make sure your sub volume is at the 12:00 position (half) and disconect your sub cable from the back of the sub while leaving it connected to the back of the receiver.  With the receiver ON, touch the sub cable on the metal part of the sub's L/LFE input (or just slightly inside the input), if it makes a descent loud hum, your sub is fine.

cheers

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If you disconnect the cable from the back of the sub, how can it make a sound when you touch the cable???

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I think he is suggesting that you just touch the input port on the back of the sub with the live cable to hear it on and off intermittently.

It's hard to say without seeing (or hearing) the sub in-person.  You should be able to hear the sub if you turn off your mains and surrounds and just play music (or whatever) through your sub.

Some DVDs and blu-rays also have setup routines.  You can run through them to hear your sub in isolation.  Many receivers and blu-ray players also have these routines built-in to the menu systems too.  I also have an LFE Test CD used for testing subs at different frequencies.  These can be purchased from retailers.

It may come down to having to test out different subwoofers in your house.  Some retailers will allow you to take home a sub to listen to it in your home.  I did that for 2 or 3 subs before I decided on the one I wanted.  One big factor of the sub is also the room it is in.

The same sub will sound radically different inside a closet than it would inside a gymnasium.