Onkyo TX-SR608 and Nvidia GTX560 Subwoofer Issue

[dlbass93]

I have had this receiver for a couple of years, and have never had any trouble with it. I recently moved and have setup the same equipment in my new home. It has been about eight weeks, and I still have not been able to get the subwoofer to work properly. As best I can tell, the receiver is able to make the subwoofer work, but only when you directly send a signal to the subwoofer from the PC, otherwise there is nothing from the sub.

The main output source is my PC, which outputs to the receiver directly via HDMI through the EVGA GTX560. I then output from the receiver via HDMI to my monitor, which is a Sony television, but that part is working flawlessly for now. I have tried a long list of things, I will try to get them all written down correctly.

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  ■ Windows detects that the receiver accepts up to 24-bit 192KHz audio
  ■ Audio works properly at 24-bit 192KHz, but I do not have access to most of the Onkyo listening ■ modes. Only Direct, Stereo, Multichannel, All-Channel Stereo, and Mono are available at 192KHz.
  ■ If I use 24-bit 96KHz, I gain back all of my listening modes, NEO:6, THX, Pro-Logic...
  ■ Using the Windows audio configure tool, I can test the subwoofer, and it works as expected. (this also works in Elementary OS)
  ■ Playing a 5.1 test track, the receiver works.
  ■ Playing a 2.0 song through All-Channel Stereo, everything but the sub works.
  ■ Playing a 2.0 song through Direct, only the front-left and front-right work.
  ■ In Elementary OS the same things happen, except that all normal speakers work even in Direct when listening to a 2.0 song (the subwoofer still doesn't work in 2.0 mode).
  ■ Testing the subwoofer through the receiver at the output levels menu, the subwoofer works very well.
  ■ In Tuner mode (FM radio), all channels except the subwoofer will work in various listening modes.
  ■ Occassionally have to turn off and then on again the receiver to get the PC to notice it, haven't determined if this is the receiver or the PC.
  ■ Once, VLC did something strange and the audio was all messed up on a video, the subwoofer was rumbling like crazy during this. Stopped VLC, tried the file again, same thing. Played the file in Windows Media Player without a catch, and of course, the subwoofer didn't work.

Has anyone experienced this? Is my receiver dying? Thanks,

 

[Pinhedd]

I own a TX-SR606, your receiver is fine so don't worry. Audio is quite nasty to configure properly.

Make sure that your speakers are configured as 5.1/7.1 as appropriate and not-full-range. If any of your speakers are configured as full range Windows will not low pass the audio to the subwoofer channel when it mixes the audio. If your speakers are configured as full range, but are not full range capable, the low frequency elements will be lost. If your speakers are full range capable, it may be hard to tell if your subwoofer is even turned on as the speakers will substitute for it.

Audio that is premixed (Dolby Digital / DTS) won't be put through this filter at all and will be passed to your receiver where it is decoded into the 6 channels and then low-passed at the receiver if this is turned on. Wherever possible you should tell your audio application to use S/PDIF passthrough, or that you have an AC3/DTS capable receiver. Contrary to popular belief, AC3 and DTS are not multi-channel sources, they are bitstreams which decode to multi-channel sources. This can be done by a number of software applications (which is necessary for surround systems that do not support AC3/DTS decoding) or by the receivers themselves (most common).

Most PC audio sources are not going to be AC3/DTS, only prerecorded videos will have these. Almost all other sources will be stereo, or multichannel. Your PC can upmix stereo to 5.1/7.1 which will show up as multi-channel on the receiver. How you do this may require some research or tweaking of your audio application.

Multi-Channel is what you want to see most of the time on the receiver. This means that it is receiving 6 or 8 channels from the PC and is playing them back exactly as it receives them. If the PC upmixes stereo to 6/8 channel audio then this will almost never need to be changed unless the stream switches to an AC3/DTS source; the switch should happen automatically and go back automatically once that stream ends.

There are bandwidth limitations to audio passed along HDMI. I suggest that you set it to 24bps/96Khz and leave it there as anything above 16bps/48Khz is indistinguishable to the human ear. We're homo sapiens, not german shepards.

I hope that this helps somewhat!

 

[dlbass93]

Pinhedd, thank you so much! In the receiver OSD setup, I changed my speakers from full-range to 40Hz, and the subwoofer kicked in. I tried to lookup what the correct setting for my speakers is, but I was unable to find the proper crossover rating. I'm not sure that is the right term, but it is what the OSD shows.

My speakers are Polk Audio. Monitor 50 fronts, CS1 center, Monitor 40 Series II rears, and PSW10 sub. My research shows it should be 2.3KHz, but that can't be right because the receiver only accepts 40-200Hz.

Even if I can't get that perfectly set, I'm ecstatic that the sub is now working. And it is interesting how different it sounds with the sub playing the lows. Everything sounds better, but the lows are now more 'felt' than heard. I like this better for movies.

Thanks again!

 

[Pinhedd]

Pinhedd, thank you so much! In the receiver OSD setup, I changed my speakers from full-range to 40Hz, and the subwoofer kicked in. I tried to lookup what the correct setting for my speakers is, but I was unable to find the proper crossover rating. I'm not sure that is the right term, but it is what the OSD shows.

My speakers are Polk Audio. Monitor 50 fronts, CS1 center, Monitor 40 Series II rears, and PSW10 sub. My research shows it should be 2.3KHz, but that can't be right because the receiver only accepts 40-200Hz.

Even if I can't get that perfectly set, I'm ecstatic that the sub is now working. And it is interesting how different it sounds with the sub playing the lows. Everything sounds better, but the lows are now more 'felt' than heard. I like this better for movies.

Thanks again!

Glad to hear it. You should enable the crossover in both the receiver's OSD and Windows to be thorough. 80Hz and 100Hz are relatively common crossover frequencies, but feel free to play with it. If it's too low, LFE will be lost. If it's too high, it will sound somewhat distorted.

Good luck!