Subwoofer settings/ more then one sub..

desijatt

Hi am a beginner i had the Polk audio system RM6750, for a while but didn't really bother using it. i hooked everything up today, and wanted to know the setting to setup the sub woofer and speaker. i am using a pioneer receiver.

I want the tv and the audio system to balance in appearance, is it possible if i can have more then one sub woofer, i have one on the right side and i want one on the left side to. what kind of an affect will this have on the system.

Thank You.

Pioneer receiver
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Polk+Audio+%26+Pioneer+Home+Theater+Audio+Package+with+550W+5.1-Channel+Receiver/9999112300050000.p?id=pcmprd112400050000&skuId=9999112300050000&st=receiver

KASR

I would go over the Pioneer manual for the recommended setting for the speakers - the manual that came with the Polk system will have some recommended settings for the subwoofer. For satellites, the general rule of thumb is setting the crossover to 120hz, and sub to YES or PRESENT.

Mon40CSMM10

Check these items to start with. (I'm using the menu items from a Pioneer VSX-517 but the options should be in similar locations on that other receiver.)

If you want to start with Quick Setup, press the Quick Setup button and do this:

* Is Subwoofer Used? Yes
* How many speakers? 5.1
* Room size? (select from Small, Mid, Large).
* Listening Position? (select from Fwd, Mid, Back)

Manually fine tuning the setup, either from the start or after a Quick Setup:

* Setup, Speaker Setup, Speaker Settings: Front set to Small, Center set to Small, Surround set to Small, Subwoofer should automatically be set to Yes when Front is set to Small.
* Setup, Speaker Setup, Crossover (X Over): Start with 80 Hz if the satellites will reproduce as low as 80 Hz and adjust up as needed based on the overall sound heard. (The selections available for crossover setting will probably be 50, 80, 100, 150, and 200 Hz.)
* Setup, Speaker Setup, Speaker Distance--set all speakers individually to their distance based on the listening position.
* Phase control: the manufacturer of the receiver recommends leaving the Phase Control set to On.
* Settings, Other, LFE: Start with this at 0 (no attenuation), adjust to 10 if needed (10 dB attenuation) but make sure this is not set to ** because that means No LFE.

Speaker channel levels--very loud test tone signal (sounds like a combination of white noise and pink noise) is used...
* Setup, Speaker Setup, Channel Level, Tone Manual: use the remote control to set each channel level, press the Setup button to end the speaker channel level setup.
* Press the Effect/Ch. Level button on the remote control to make finer adjustments to each channel without going through the channel level process using the test tone.

Also, if the receiver only supports one subwoofer (and it likely does since it is specified as a 5.1 receiver), then the functionality included with the receiver is intended for use with only one subwoofer.

danz1906

Welcome to the Club!

Crossover at 120hz and let the subwoofer handle most, if not all of the bass.

rallyshark

Yep, sub set to 120hz with those speakers. If you want to run dual subs, just get a Ycable(splitter) and split the LFE and run one to each sub. You should be rolling then:)

desijatt

where can i purchase just the sub for these speakers, because all of them come as a set.

desijatt

just did the quick setting for the pioneer receiver, and i also bought a blue ray player. Hooked it up and when i was playing a movie. The volume was at about -50, when i put it higher to -40, the thing shut off and it said overload. a bit confused how should i fix this.

thank you.

Mon40CSMM10

Check these first.

* Were bare twisted wires used to make the connection for the screw-on terminals? If so, make sure that the speaker wire is only in the securement space and is not contacting the metal back of the receiver. (Pioneer has a specific warning about this in the manual, but it's so tricky not to do that with all of the speaker wires that it's often better just to use something like twist-on banana plugs instead of securing twisted wire to the receiver speaker terminals.)

* Make sure the speakers are the proper Ohm rating for the receiver. If the receiver is rated for 8 ohms, make sure the speakers and also the subwoofer are not rated as 4 ohms.

rallyshark

The receiver should have no problem pushing those speakers. They are all 8ohm. Double check your wiring as thats likely where the problem is.

Knucklehead

Also, If you plan on running 2 subs make sure you get another PSW10. Nice AVR, I have the 816.

desijatt

hey, i tried to fix the upload problem, and got down to one thing. There are 3 wires that go from the receiver to the Sub woofer. 2 are speaker type wires, and one is black one, the problem is the speaker wires that go form the receiver to the sub, so when i take one wire off the thing works fine but when both are plugged in the sub woofer, the thing overloads by vol at -40.

wtf could he the reason for this thing? and plugging 1 wire insted of 2 cause any damage?

Mon40CSMM10

If I understand correctly, are you accidentally double-driving the subwoofer from the receiver? All three cables are being connected?

If you run the speaker wires from the receiver to the sub, then you'd also connect wires from the sub to the speakers but then you'd also leave the LFE/Subwoofer RCA type cable disconnected. Otherwise, it could very well be that both the speaker wire outputs and the LFE/Subwoofer RCA outputs are both driving the sub.

Or, if you run the LFE/Subwoofer RCA cable to the subwoofer, you'd also only connect the speaker cables from the receiver to the speakers. No additional cables would go to the subwoofer. (Except, if you did a dual sub setup, the Y-cable would connect to the LFE/Subwoofer and you'd run an RCA cable to each sub.)

Edited for clarification: LFE/Subwoofer is the single RCA connector on the receiver.

bigaudiofanatic

Only have one wire going to the sub. Only use the line in rca cable not the speaker wires.

Mon40CSMM10

If all of your wiring checks out then it could be that the Blu-ray disc is the cause of overloading your receiver. I did see at least two other references to a Blu-ray disc overloading a receiver in another discussion:

I have the Onkyo 805. Audio via hdmi to my diamond mit dlp. I had to crank it way up to hear the voices, and several times my receiver would shut off from overload.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15406968

My Pioneer VSX-D912 AVR has shut down & displayed “OVERLOAD” during very loud BD movie action scenes (Incredible Hulk, Dark Knight)

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/288222/avr-overload

desijatt

yea i did what you guys told me, and it works, the volume goes to maximum now with out the receiver going to overload. But i also noticed that the base had decreased. When all of the wires are in there is more base.

Mobius

If you had both the speaker wires and the RCA cables going to the sub, then the bass would be louder, since you were sending two separate full power signals to the sub. That would have killed the sub really fast if not for the protection circuitry. Regardless of how much you may or may not have like that volume, it was very bad for the sub.