Subwoofer has bass but no sound?

[which_doctor]

I just moved to a new apartment and I have set up my subwoofer. For some reason it outputs bass but no sound. FYI It does not have a switch for turning off the satellite speakers.

I tried using another subwoofer with the same satellites, connected to the same power outlet and using the same line-in cable, and it can play sound and bass. Unfortunately this subwoofer is much cheaper and does not have good bass. Is it possible that the audio-out ports suddenly stopped working? The subwoofer is 15 years old.

Thanks a lot for any help provided!

 

[jsmithepa]

All indications points to faulty satellite-out. BUT...

What is your player source? if u can do crossover here, u can feed HFE only directly to sub and F+R directly to the satellites. The sub doesn't do any amplification to the satellites, it only makes them go through the internal crossover(?). These satellites are self-powered I assume?

 

[which_doctor]

It is connected with 3.5mm coming from my PC.

On the subwoofer it says that the model is "A 5.100/00", I found a picture: https/img.2ememain.be/f/normal/258044020-philips-5-1-systeem-met-subwoofer.jpg

I always assumed that satellites were passive so i don't know if they are self-powered. Audio equipment is not my area.

 

[jsmithepa]

Is very simple, when people says something is self-powered, or active, it has its own power supply and needs to be plugged in to the wall.

I digress, I don't know if your sub is feeding line-level signal to your satellites.

The sub feeds line-level (unamplified) signals to your satellite if they are active speakers.

If satellites are not active when the sub does amplification for the satellites and in this case said amplifier is broke.

 

[which_doctor]

Thank you. Do you have any idea why it could have broken?

 

[jsmithepa]

In the olden days, solid state lasted forever, but these days, unfortunately, throw-away.

 

[which_doctor]

I was looking for a more technical answer but that about sums it up i guess

Built-in obsolesence maybe...

 

[jsmithepa]

I was looking for a more technical answer

What I learned in engineering school is, all tech problem have solutions, what stifle things are human/political (aka Management).

U been following the airbag brooh-haha? They used a cheaper propellant that couldn't take humidity and inflate with over-force. These days electronics components are from China, need I say more? Your USA/Japan/German-made capacitor used to last for the life of the equipment, Chinese capacitor, who knows what chemical formulation they use but you can bet their concern is selling them as cheap as possible, something gotta give, there is no magic.

 

[which_doctor]

I heard about that one yeah

I actually have other speakers that are Philips too, which were manufactured in Hungary. One of them has started to crap out, we'll see how long they last!

 

[americanaudiophile]

You can get it all to work.
Connect the bad sound sub and sats to the green stereo out of the PC.
Connect the good sounding subs to the sub out of the PC. Set the PC for 2.1 output.
If you don't have sub out then split the output you have and connect both the good sub and bad sub/sats.
Turn the bass down on the bad sub or disconnect one wire from the speaker itself to stop it playing.
Adjust the levels to get the bass balanced.

 

[which_doctor]

You can get it all to work.
Connect the bad sound sub and sats to the green stereo out of the PC.
Connect the good sounding subs to the sub out of the PC. Set the PC for 2.1 output.
If you don't have sub out then split the output you have and connect both the good sub and bad sub/sats.
Turn the bass down on the bad sub or disconnect one wire from the speaker itself to stop it playing.
Adjust the levels to get the bass balanced.

Don't you mean the other way around? Or am I reading you wrong?

i.e I can use the good sub as a sub alone (since satellite outputs aren't working), and then use the cheap sub (with bass turned off) to relay the sound to the satellites.

It's a good idea!