HK 3490 + Polk T15 - Barely any sound at volume 10

jansensan
jansensan Posts: 3
in Speakers
I recently bought T15 to replace my lovely Fostex active studio monitors.

This is the first time I use speakers that use banana plugs (as opposed to 1/4" jacks or RCA).

So I connected the speakers to the receiver, but barely anything comes out. Like I have to stick my face to the speaker to hear anything.

Any tips? So far I am not satisfied...
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Comments

  • msg
    msg Posts: 9,995
    What/where is volume 10 on your HK3490? Is that -10dB? like almost full reference?

    Something's off. You should be hearing audio without having to crank your volume.

    Can you post some photos? The speaker connections and the receiver speaker connections?

    I don't recall if the 3490 has custom gain settings for source inputs, but definitely sounds like something simple's not right.

    Are you using banana plug connectors or just the bare wire?
    Both sides, speaker and receiver?

    The binding posts on the T15 will accept banana plug connectors, or you can use bare wire by backing out the wire nut to reveal the hole in the binding post. You can put the wire through here, and snug down the nut. Be sure to observe polarity between the receiver and speaker.

    I disabled signatures.
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  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 28,611
    So just making sure you are using an amplifier because your prior active monitors had their own
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,499
    Post photos of how you have the speakers connected to the receiver and how the speaker cable is connected to the speakers.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • msg
    msg Posts: 9,995
    I missed that the previous speakers were powered monitors.

    Yeah, @jansensan - you're using speaker cable now, right? Not still trying to use RCAs from the HK3490's preout? (outlined in yellow on the image below)

    You should now be using 2-conductor speaker wire connected to the speaker output terminals, outlined in green below.

    Each +/- speaker wire coming from the HK3490 should be connected to the respective +/- binding post on the T15 speakers.

    ddzw2yht1ba1.png

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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    edited December 2023
    Does he need jumpers for Preamp Out to MainAmp in ??? That HK is a beast. 120wpc with 2 subwoofer outs. Had one years ago. Nice unitjzhdzvfvmfg7.png
    ..
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    cl9kix1r2rsg.png
    ..
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    edited December 2023
    If your using jumpers & (speaker wire OR cables) to speakers. If your still not getting sound you need to go into your settings & turn something On or Off. Probably because you were using active monitors
    . EDIT . What ever you do keep the volume level down once you play with settings. That receiver has power & will destroy those speakers
    ..
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  • msg
    msg Posts: 9,995
    Ah, good catch R!

    Indeed, from the Owner's Manual, the jumpers are required if an "external amp" is not used.

    With the previous speakers, the jumpers would have been removed to use the preout to the powered Fostex inputs.

    shop0riwzes4.png
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,499
    Don't you love it when someone asks for help, then disappears.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • billbillw
    billbillw Posts: 6,745
    F1nut wrote: »
    Don't you love it when someone asks for help, then disappears.

    Seeing that a lot here lately...
    For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore...
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  • jansensan
    jansensan Posts: 3
    Sorry I didn't disappear but I was doing all sorts of things this weekend. Also, I am used to forums not answering for weeks on end there was no way I could predict so many answers.

    I was connecting speaker wires (as suggested by the people of addison-electronique.com), and yes connected to the banana output highlighted in green by @msg

    As for the jumpers i dont have anything like that.

    In all sadness though, I have returned the speakers, they seemed awesome but failed to deliver what I needed with simplicity. Maybe my failure, maybe theirs.

    I appreciate all the responses, even if I noticed them too late.
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    Use RCA cables.
    ..
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,499
    boston1450 wrote: »
    Use RCA cables in place of the missing jumpers.
    Fixed it B)

    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,499
    Maybe my failure
    Yours for sure.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    Yeah. I was responding to his "I don't have any jumpers"
    ..
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  • jansensan
    jansensan Posts: 3
    Ok so for those who are (still) interested, I followed up on the comments. As I understood them, connecting the preamp OUT to the main IN was the way to amplify the sound, which I was not doing. I did that, and lo and behold, sound!

    And yea, you were not exaggerating, that amp packs more power than I thought. Since I keep my active monitors with a low volume usually, I had to set the volume between -20db and -40db depending on the source (computer, video game, Sonos). Now that the volume is controlled directly and only from the amp/receiver, I have to keep the volume between -40db and -50db for the equivalent loudness!

    As a side note: I had mentioned I had returned the speakers, but since I ordered them on Amazon, I only initialized the return process when I wrote that. After following the help from the comments, and getting the speakers to work as intended, I canceled the return. Only (my) time was lost.

    Thanks y'all for helping out!
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,499
    We appreciate the follow up. B)
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    edited December 2023
    Wonderful. Out of all the HK units I had sold thru my shop/garage the 3490 2channel & the 525avr were killer units & I wish I kept the 3490. It sounded better than the other models I'd sold off. Definitely worth every penny spent. If you ever decide to hook up bigger speakers & a decent powered subwoofer you won't be disappointed.. You have option to use 2 sub outs. But 1 decent subwoofer is all you would ever need.. When I played around with the 3490 I hooked them to Paradigm 7mkse7 ( cant remember vs ).. My brother is still using the 525avr 8 years later.. HK is good quality IMO.. ENJOY your new to you set up.. EDIT. 7seMK3 Paradigms
    ..
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  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 8,121
    edited January 14
    thanks fellas...bought one of these to simplify/downsize the bedroom setup and futzed around with it off and on for a couple hours before I thought to check here...sure enough, the guy had sent it to me with the jumpers in the wrong position. this is a great sounding unit for a simpel two channel rig!
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
    Game Room 5.1.4:     Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
    Bedroom 2.1     Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,630
    edited January 14
    Congrats.. IMO if you can get one cheap, you won't be disappointed.
    IIRC the 3490 is a little easier to set up then the AVR units. The AVR units you had to learn each & every setting to make it work properly.
    ..
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