PSW10 Issue

eman1091

Good morning. I purchased a PSW10 for my home theater in 2007. I have a periodic issue that creeps up every so often and unfortunately it has started up again. It hasn't done this in months and just started back up. The issue is the sub seems to randomly decide to just emit a constant bass hum. I don't mean some quiet, low level hum. It's like a constant bass note. I have the power switch set for auto. Again, it just randomly emits this constant bass note whether we are watching TV or not. I woke up in the middle of the night the other night to the sound of bass. Everything was turned off. Later that day, my wife and I were watching TV and it started to do it. It's plugged directly into the wall by itself on the other side of my room as the rest of my AV equipment. I have a single RCA cable running from the receiver to the sub. Turning the power off and then back on doesn't help. If I leave the power off on the sub for a longer period of time, say an hour, the sound goes away. If I disconnect the RCA cable, the sound goes away. I'd say it's possibly the receiver, but even when the receiver is turned off this happens. I'm thinking of swapping the RCA cable, but that's quite a bit of work running it down through the basement to the other side of the room.

Any thoughts?

jimbo1421

Hi eman,

You could just temporarily swap an RCA cable running across the living room to check the cable. to check the PSW10 you could try the speaker level inputs in parallel with the right & left front (set the fronts to large). Try setting the switch to the "on" position. If you can isolate the problem to the PSW10 rather than your AVR it should still be under warranty. Check with Polk CS.

Jim

eman1091

The problem with running a cable across the floor is the fact that the problem comes and goes unpredictably so I may have that cable running over the floor for potentially months...

jimbo1421

Then move the subwoofer close to the AVR until the problem is diagnosed.

Jim Shearer

I would try turning the sub off, then disconnecting the RCA cable from the sub. Turn the sub back on. If it exhibits the same random hum with no input connection, then it's the sub, not the cable, AVR, etc.

Cheers, Jim

McLoki

Sounds like a ground loop. it can happen when the correct sequence of things are turned on. (finding that sequence can be a pain though)

If you use a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter on the power cord for the sub, the sound may go away. Not the best long term solution, but you would not be the first (nor last) to do it. At least it will tell you if it is a ground issue.

Michael

Edit - if you try the adapter on your sub and it does not work - try it on your AVR next.