More Bass Man. ?'s

gmorris

I got my new Onkyo TX-SR601 this past Friday. Got it all hooked up, but I have some questions. Please help.

First ?: I currently do not have my subwoofer installed, still need to purchase the plate amp. So, in the setup menu, I've set subwoofer to OFF, front L&R to LARGE, and center & surrounds to small. While watching DVD's, there is plenty of bass & LFE sounds. My R30's do I good job of making bass. My problem is with music. I get no bass. It seems there is no bass signal. I don't think it is a problem of speaker placement, because with DVD movies, the bass is abundant. But with music, no bass. I've tried turning the bass level (bass, treble) under the audio adjust up, which helps a little, but I'd rather not use the bass/treble adjustments. What I am doing wrong?

Second ?: On the "Signs" DVD, there is a THX optomizer, which I tried out. It sends a test signal to front L, center, front R, surround L, sur. center, sur. R, then subwoofer. Again, I don't have the subwoofer on. When the test tone reaches the subwoofer, I hear nothing. I would have expected to hear the subwoofer signal through the front L&R's since I have them set to large. Why am I not hearing the subwoofer test tone?

Frank Z

Each tone is sent to the individual channel, hence no sub - no sub test tone. Remember that the idea is to set the output level of each channel individually.

PolkThug

Which mode are you listening to music in? Should be stereo, or all channel stereo. If you're trying to listen to it in a 5.1 mode, you're gonna lose your bass.

Side note: After you get your dedicated subwoofer built, all of your perceptions about good bass are gonna change.

Regards,
PolkThug

gmorris

Polk Thug,

I'm listening to music in Stereo. I've also tried Direct, but there is even less bass than Stereo.

I've turned up the bass adjustment, but it only helps alittle. It also makes the upper bass & mids a little muddy, which is why I'd rather leave the bass adjustment at or near 0.

I suspected someone would say that when I get my sub, I'll be fine. But I still don't understand why it sounds like there is no bass in the stereo signal.

gatemplin

Gmorris,
I checked out your showcase, it looks like you have the same DVD player as I. Hitachi DVP415 I think? Anyway in the DVD setup menu it was defaulted to dynamic compression on. This would cut off the low frequencies. If you do have this DVD player then you want to use coax or optical out, set it to bitstream, DTS on and dynamic compression off. Hope this helps.

gmorris

gatemplin,

actually I have a Sharp DVD player, but that is very useful info. all those settings you mentioned are there expect compression. (i've never found it anyway) But I will look at these setttings just to be sure.

But, I only play DVD's in the DVD player. I've been using the Pioneer 25 disc CD changer to play music CD's.

Last night I came up with a brilliant idea. I will take my old receiver, run the sub out from the Onkyo to the old receiver, and connect the sub to it. This should solve all my bass problems until I can get a proper sub amp.

gatemplin

That will work no problem, your DIY sub looks great. It's hard to get a nice finish like that. Is the sub 4 ohms because you will not want to push the amp too hard if it is not rated for 4 Ohms.

gmorris

Thanks for the compliment on the sub.

The sub is actually 8 ohms, so the receiver will be fine. When I get my plate amp in a few weeks, it is rated for 4 ohms, but I will unfortunatly only be able to run it at 8 ohms. The 8 ohm power rating is 180 watts, so I'm sure that will be plenty of power.


http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12462

walk

That's really strange though.

With sub=off the "Direct" and "Stereo" modes should be IDENTICAL!

Stereo = Left and Right channels with Bass Management (output to the subwoofer IF present)

Direct = Left and Right ONLY.

In fact I just tried it on my 700. With sub=off all three modes, Pure Audio, Direct, and Stereo sound pretty much identical. Are you sure you have sub=off?? With sub=off it should automatically set Front=Large and not let you change it at all. Wierd!!

gmorris

Yes, I'm sure the sub was set to off. The 601 must behave differently, as Direct & Stereo are vastly different.

Last night I tried my idea. I connected the old Pioneer rec. to the sub out from the Onkyo. I then connected the sub to the Pioneer. After some tweaking, I settled on ALL speakers set to small, with the 80 Hz crossover. It took a while to get all the levels set right. I ended up turning the Pioneer rec. volume almost all the way up, & turned the subout level of the Onkyo to +4.

I should have the plate amp on the 1'st of Febuary. This should solve all these silly problems once and for all.

walk

Oh well if you're using the pre-outs I'm not sure how it behaives. It could be that it pre-outs a full-range signal in Stereo mode but none/nothing in Direct mode.