Brand New PSW505 Not Working

whitefish01

Hi, hopefully I am just missing something simple. Trying to get my new 505 going and I am having trouble. I am running stereo with monitor 70's. My receiver is an onkyo 603. I started using the sub out to the LFE, nothing. Then tried wiring through the 505 and back to my speakers. Well my speakers work fine but nothing from the sub. Light is on and green. If I turn the crossover all the way up and the volume all the way up, I get slight SLIGHT noise from the sub. If I turn the volume up, the bass volume on my speakers goes up. Any ideas if I am doing something wrong or should I call?

Thanks!

Regalscenter7

i currently have my subs (2 psw505) hooked up to the speaker level input with banana plugs and they sound great. had slight problem with LFE. make sure you have them hooked up right
if you could post a picture of how you have it wired i could try to help you out

also see if you can check your crossover settings on your 603 and if you have it wired like i do which IMO is the best for 2ch and make sure your xOver is set to full range

jbooker82

Hook the sub up with a single sub cable. Use the sub LFE. Also make sure you cable is going the right way. My monter sub cable has arrows on it to point the direction of flow. It is almost like the cable has a diod in it where it only allows signal to flow one way.

Yea check the cross over setting of your main speakers. Try setting them at around 80hz. If they are too low then the sub will only play what is below them. If they are set to full band then your probably getting next to nothing or nothing at all. The LFE setting in the AVR for should be set at 120hz.

Regalscenter7

yes LFE is the best way to go.....for 5.1 codecs. but if your just using a 2ch setup your onkyo isnt actually getting a LFE signal its only getting a stereo signal from the source ie. cd player. if its just 2ch hook it up how i said and set the front speakers to large and full bandwith within the onkyo
i know this subwoofer like the back of my hand
PM me if you have any other questions

jbooker82

Regalscenter7 wrote: »

yes LFE is the best way to go.....for 5.1 codecs. but if your just using a 2ch setup your onkyo isnt actually getting a LFE signal its only getting a stereo signal from the source ie. cd player.

When listening to sources that do not have a .1 LFE track it sends bass to the sub at freq under the cross over point that is set in the avr for the main two speakers. The sub still works if there is no .1 LFE


So what happens when you listen to a source that has .1 LFE you do not even get to hear it because the sound was specificaly recorded for the .1 LFE

phocion

+1 jbooker82, it will work in stereo mode. Set the speakers to large, run a LFE cable to the 505, and make sure the sub is turned on in the setup.

The only Onkyo stereo mode that does not support subs is "pure audio", and it is not available on the 603.

whitefish01

Hi thanks everyone! OK I should have explained more. I did turn on the sub in the receiver and set the crossover to 80. I used the "pre out" sub woofer connection and went into the LFE input. Is that correct? I got no sound with that, except for a loud hum when I accidentally touched the cable to one of the line inputs. I then tried using a splitter and going from the pre out to the line level inputs, and still nothing. That is when I changed it to the wired setup, running the speakers through the sub and then out, and using the sub's crossover. That is when I got sound only if I turned the crossover all the way up and the volume to max, and it was still very quiet. This morning after reading your posts, I switched back to the subwoofer out and LFE input, set the crossover all the way up to 150. I do not see a way to change the LFE setting in this receiver. I get no sound. I put the sub on standby and it stayed red during transformers. When I had the speaker wire setup, at least it did turn on when in standby. I am at a total loss here, any ideas? Could it be a bad amp?

Oh and I did check the monster cable, the arrows are pointing out from the receiver and toward the sub.

Thanks!

quadzilla

Go back to the line from the sub out to the LFE in on the sub, then go into the level test section of the AVR, and use that to send pink noise to the sub. If you still get no output from the sub and the level is set on 0 db, then you probably got one that was damaged in shipping. Call polk customer service and they can help you out.

whitefish01

So I went into the receiver menu and turned on the center and surround speakers, even though I have none, set the receiver to stereo, and the sub did receive a signal through the LFE and turned on. Problem now is with the volume on the sub turned halfway, I can not notice it is on. I can notice it when it is turned to max, and it is barely acceptable. From what I have read about the 505, this does not seem right.

When I bought the M70's, they needed about 2 weeks to break in on the low end, so I suppose it could be that, but I can't believe the sub would hardly work out of the box at 50% volume?

I think my problem with the receiver is probably a topic for another forum, but if any of you have tips on how I should best run 2.1, it would be appriciated! I can't beleive that the only way to get the sub pre out to work is to turn on the center and surrounds...

Thanks!

quadzilla

What is the sub level set to in the AVR menu?

nguyendot

jbooker82 wrote: »

Hook the sub up with a single sub cable. Use the sub LFE. Also make sure you cable is going the right way. My monter sub cable has arrows on it to point the direction of flow. It is almost like the cable has a diod in it where it only allows signal to flow one way.

Yea check the cross over setting of your main speakers. Try setting them at around 80hz. If they are too low then the sub will only play what is below them. If they are set to full band then your probably getting next to nothing or nothing at all. The LFE setting in the AVR for should be set at 120hz.

Incorrect sir.. It has nothing to do with a diode. It just has to do with shielding. It's only terminated at one end.

It can, and will work both ways but the wrong way may have more noise. No company is going to stick a diode in the signal stream of a cable like that, it will reduce sound quality. FYI almost all shielded cables are this way, monster just capitalizes on it and sticks an arrow on the cable sheath.

whitefish01

Sorry but my knowledge on a/v setup is much stronger on the visual side. I thought I had a acceptable level of knowledge on the audio side but this is proving me wrong. That being said, not sure what you mean by sub level? Or maybe my AVR is just not new enough for this... I did increase the db level a bit if that is what you are asking to +3, didn't notice much difference from 0. SHould I try to crank that up or were you referring to something else?

Thanks everyone for the help, I really am trying to learn more about audio so I appriciate all the help.

phocion

Did you read through the manual?

http://www.ch.onkyo.com/files.download/tx-sr603_manual_e.pdf

In speaker setup, there is a subwoofer setting that you need to turn to "yes". On your remote, press receiver, setup, speaker config, and make sure subwoofer is set to "yes". (p47-48), and speakers are set to large.

Set double bass to "on", which will feed bass signals from your front large speakers to the sub.

Then set the level of the sub to 0dB, in setup, speaker config, level calibration.

On the back of the sub, set both the gain and crossover knobs to 12:00 for now, and tweak later.

Report back

Trev123

I have a Onkyo 608 and you can select yes and no in the speaker configuration menu to till your amp you have a sub connected or not.

Regalscenter7

it sounds like when you had the sub setup with the speaker wire that you had the crossover in avr for the FRONTS set to about 100 or 80hz, that would explain why you are only geting bass when you have the crossover on the sub all the way up and the bass is still weak. if you have it wired like that you need to have the fronts set to full bandwith because the subwoofer is useing the signals sent to the fronts.

whitefish01

phocion wrote: »

Did you read through the manual?

http://www.ch.onkyo.com/files.download/tx-sr603_manual_e.pdf

In speaker setup, there is a subwoofer setting that you need to turn to "yes". On your remote, press receiver, setup, speaker config, and make sure subwoofer is set to "yes". (p47-48), and speakers are set to large.

Set double bass to "on", which will feed bass signals from your front large speakers to the sub.

Then set the level of the sub to 0dB, in setup, speaker config, level calibration.

On the back of the sub, set both the gain and crossover knobs to 12:00 for now, and tweak later.

Report back

Oh yes, I have poured through the manual. First thing I did was set the sub to "Yes", speakers to "Large" and I wasn't sure about double bass but after fiddling with it so much, I like the double bass setting better. In level calibration, I had it at 0, then up to +3, now I have it all the way up. This has helped as the sub is now responding more like I had anticipated. Volume dial on the sub is at 12 o'clock and it is now blending in nicely with the M70's. I wonder if my whole issue has been more on the receiver side? Another thought was the sub had been sitting out in the cold, would that lower the initial performance?

Regalscenter7 wrote:

it sounds like when you had the sub setup with the speaker wire that you had the crossover in avr for the FRONTS set to about 100 or 80hz, that would explain why you are only geting bass when you have the crossover on the sub all the way up and the bass is still weak. if you have it wired like that you need to have the fronts set to full bandwith because the subwoofer is useing the signals sent to the fronts.

I had the sub turned to "no" when I did this, so I thought crossover is irrelevant at that point and the AVR is supposed to send full bandwidth to the mains?

Thanks for all the help, I don't think what I have going now with the level cranked up is ideal but it is at least satisfactory right now. This is my first sub so I can't really comment on how it sounds except I like the overall sound more with than without the sub, and I appriciate the guidance.