Atrium Sub100 Hookup

Need advice.
Devices:
Yamaha TSR-7850 A/V Receiver
Crown XLS 1002 Amp
Atrium Sub100
Not using any satellite speakers. Crown amp is solely to power the subwoofer.
Currently, since there are 4 leads coming from the Sub100, (Duel Coils), I have them wired in parallel and joined to a standard, 2 lead speaker wire.
Said speaker wire is connected to Channel 1 of the Crown Amp.
The Crown Amp (CH1) Input is connected to the Yamaha Receiver (Pre-Out Front) via RCA cable.
Result is a very weak signal on the Crown signal strength meter and very low volume on the Atrium Sub100. Increasing the gain of CH1 on the Crown has no visible or audible effect.
Can anyone provide guidance and/or expertise with properly setting up this system? I am clearly a novice.
Thanks.
Devices:
Yamaha TSR-7850 A/V Receiver
Crown XLS 1002 Amp
Atrium Sub100
Not using any satellite speakers. Crown amp is solely to power the subwoofer.
Currently, since there are 4 leads coming from the Sub100, (Duel Coils), I have them wired in parallel and joined to a standard, 2 lead speaker wire.
Said speaker wire is connected to Channel 1 of the Crown Amp.
The Crown Amp (CH1) Input is connected to the Yamaha Receiver (Pre-Out Front) via RCA cable.
Result is a very weak signal on the Crown signal strength meter and very low volume on the Atrium Sub100. Increasing the gain of CH1 on the Crown has no visible or audible effect.
Can anyone provide guidance and/or expertise with properly setting up this system? I am clearly a novice.
Thanks.
Comments
Welcome to the forum. As a test try wiring either the right or left channel of the amplifier to one pair of speaker wire connections on the sub. In other words, don't combine left and right wires at the sub. Just connect the left channel of the amp to the left channel of the sub and see what happens.
Are you using the bass management/crossover on the Yamaha?
Why not use the sub outputs on the Yamaha?
If so, try a different pair of RCA cables from Yamaha.
How do you have the Klipsch speakers connected to the Yamaha? If you're trying to use the front preouts on the Yamaha, I'm not sure the front speaker terminals you're probably using for the Klipsches can be engaged at the same time. Understood. You would only be using the sub output(s) to get signal to the Crown This would be looking at the Crown/Atrium combination as a powered sub.
Check your AVR's configuration, and probably execute a factory reset for good measure if it was previously used elsewhere.
You don't normally use the speaker channel preouts for a sub signal, but if you're going to do that, you need to make sure the AVR isn't set up to use a subwoofer with the crossover set to send the low frequencies to the sub output channels. You'll get practically no low frequency at the front preouts if it's set this way.
If you want to use the front preouts to get signal to the Crown, your AVR would be set with front speakers available and set Large, and no subwoofer in the system. But not sure why you'd want to do that when there's a subwoofer option on the AVR. Just configure the AVR to use them. There are even two, so you might be able to use two channels of the Crown to power the Sub100.
Page 113 of the Manual talks about speaker and subwoofer setup.
https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/3/1188333/web_AV17-0350_TSR-7850_om_U_En_D0.pdf
Atrium Sub100 Manual
https://pdf.crutchfieldonline.com/ImageBank/v20181023104400/Manuals/107/107ATST300.PDF
I do not have a way to test the Crown as described above.
The only reason I am using the Front Pre Out is because that is the only Pre Out connection that lit the Crown gain meter and provided sound to the Sub100, though weak.
I could not find anything in the AVR settings that even referred to the Sub Preout. I too thought the sub Preout would be the logical choice for the Crown/Atrium connection but it didn’t work. If there is a Yamaha setting to turn this Preout on, I haven’t found it.
Once you confirm that the Crown is working, I'd take a look at these pages in your manual, and, in short, try this:
Here are a couple of screenshots from your manual. Start here. In your setup, if it's outdoors and not in an enclosed patio, you might also want to see whether there's an option for "double-bass" or "extra-bass" or something like that. I couldn't find anything. But if it's an available option, it's away to run your Klipsch speakers full range as well as using the Crown/Sub. The benefit here would be fuller sound from the Klipsch, but if this setup is wide open outside, I'm not sure what kind of results you'll see.
You can right-click, Open Image In New Tab to view this full size, or just ref your manual. I pulled these pages from the link above and highlighted the sections for you to check out.
I'd also start with a factory reset of this device, too.
What's this unit's history? Was it used somewhere else before?
After resetting it, run the Crown full-range. The Yamaha is going to be controlling the bass management/crossover. If you set the high-pass and low-pass filters on the Crown as well, you may have unexpected results since you'll be running one crossover into another. Use only the gain controls on the Crown.
https://www.crownaudio.com/en/product_documents/5055568_xlsdc2_mnl_print_050615-pdf
And here's a link to the specs for the Atrium Sub100 for anyone following along. I've never used one of these before, but looks like it's meant to be driven with the same speaker outputs as mains/satellites. I don't see any reason you can't power it with the Crown, though, with the subwoofer output(s) of your Yamaha. Just watch the setup and levels on the Crown. Start low.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_107ASB100T/Polk-Audio-Atrium-Sub100-Terracotta.html
Thanks for all the info. It will take a week to digest it all with my pea brain, I think. Crown tech had me set the Crown’s crossover as close as possible to match the specs of the Sub100 so as not to damage it with too much power.
I just wanted to make a good thing better. Sit with a beer and enjoy the music. Why so complicated? Ha!
Oh, open air deck by the way.
The Crown tech probably had you set the crossover because you would have been sending full-range signal to it the way you were trying to do it before. Yes, it would have been too "vocal" and trying to work like a regular speaker, not a sub. If you use the subwoofer output(s) on the Yamaha, you won't be doing that.
This'll all make sense after after it sinks in. It's overwhelming at first.
Gotta put in the work if you want the best sound! If you're not losing sleep for a couple of nights from obsessing over it, you're doing it wrong
With the frequency response of those speakers (70Hz-20kHz (±3dB)) and the Sub100 (50Hz-110Hz (±3dB)), I'd say start by setting the crossover on your Yamaha at 80Hz, and experiment with it up to 100Hz. IF you use the subwoofer out on it.
As far as the Klipsch AW650's, the Yamaha tech helped me in the early going, pre Crown/Sub100 and they actually sound very good as things sit now.
I know you have spent a great deal of time on this for me and I really appreciate it, but I am going to need a step by step guide on what to do here. I do not want to jump into the Yamaha settings and end up losing what I already have. Hope you understand.
I am all for getting an education and trying to fix this, I just don't want to mess things up.
Yes, you do need to connect both voice coils.
You might be able to connect them in parallel to a single channel of the Crown, but the manual for the Sub100 shows preference for connecting each voice coil to a separate channel. If you connect two speakers in parallel, it halves the impedance. In this case, you'd go from 8ohm to 4ohm. The Crown is rated for it, apparently according to its specs.
Some of the other guys can chime in here, but from what I'm seeing from the documentation, you have two options with the Sub100:
I say go option 2.
Or, possibly wire both of the Sub100's voice coils in parallel to a single channel of the Crown, observing polarity, and use one sub out cable from the Yamaha to the single channel of the Crown. This is getting a bit beyond my own experience so someone else will have to weigh in in this specific option of parallel wiring of the Sub100 to a single channel on the Crown.
Someone check my math.
I am using the TV to view the setup menu but Advanced doesn't appear.
Update:
1) Ran a second speaker wire through the wall of the house and connected it to the pair of Right (+/-) leads from the Atrium Sub100. Connected it to Ch2 of the Crown Amp. Now both coils (Left & Right) are individually connected to Ch1 & 2 of the Crown Amp.
2) Ran a second RCA cable from the Yamaha Preout, Sub 2 to Ch2 Input of the Crown Amp. So, now Yamaha Sub1 & 2 are connected to Crown Inputs Ch1 & 2.
3) Factory reset Crown Amp.
4) Factory reset Yamaha AVR. (Yuk! Lost all my presets)
Result:
Started some music and the first positive was the meters on both channels of the Crown lit up. A first!
However, no sound from the Sub100. The meters on the Crown were responding properly to the music tones, dying off when there was no bass and bouncing up and down with the music when there was.
I kept inching up the gain setting for both channels. Still no sound from the Sub100. I finally got brave and set the Gain of both Crown channels to the max. That gave me sound from the Sub100! Yay!!
However, the sound is very week and I can't turn it up, manually, any more.
Conclusion:
I am sooooo close but not quite there yet. What am I missing?
That makes sense for the gain on the Crown. Levels are going to be controlled from the Yamaha.
Some questions and notes:
I might take some doing getting this stuff set, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly the more you mess with the menus. Reference the screenshots above, and get your manuals out.
After you get this in the ballpark, you could try using the setup mic to automate the levels setup, or you can manually adjust them in the AVR to bump up or down presence of the Klipsch or Sub. Don't go crazy with levels.