Subwoofer Testing With Alternative Inputs

schkotty

Honorable
Dec 31, 2013
4
0
10,510
My receiver went bad and I purchased a new Sony STR-DH540 receiver. Everything is working except for my active subwoofer. I'm not sure if it has been bad for a while or if there might be a problem with the new receiver.

My subwoofer has an auto on feature, and I do see the light come on sometimes but never any sound.

To test, I hooked up a cable to the headphone output on my IPhone with 2 RCA jacks on the other end and plugged them into the subwoofer. I am thinking that anything that makes it through the low pass filter on my subwoofer should get amplified and come out of the subwoofer.

However, I still can't get any sound out. I am thinking the subwoofer is just bad. Any suggestions to help me make sure?

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Solution
Hi schkotty, more than likely best place to ask is at audioholics as they're all into that stuff more so there - http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/forum.php

I have a receiver and couple active subs myself so i'll see if i can help any.

At the back of your sub, do you have speaker wire inputs as well as outputs? If you do, and haven't attached speaker wires to the inputs from the receiver you wont get any sound through your headphones with just using the subwoofer auxiliary cable.

Also depending on the gain levels on your sub, if set too low, will need to adjust the receivers subwoofer output volume.

Receivers nowadays can be hooked up to a display like a tv for additional options, have you done this and checked out the subwoofer...

boju

Distinguished
Hi schkotty, more than likely best place to ask is at audioholics as they're all into that stuff more so there - http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/forum.php

I have a receiver and couple active subs myself so i'll see if i can help any.

At the back of your sub, do you have speaker wire inputs as well as outputs? If you do, and haven't attached speaker wires to the inputs from the receiver you wont get any sound through your headphones with just using the subwoofer auxiliary cable.

Also depending on the gain levels on your sub, if set too low, will need to adjust the receivers subwoofer output volume.

Receivers nowadays can be hooked up to a display like a tv for additional options, have you done this and checked out the subwoofer volume?
 
Solution

schkotty

Honorable
Dec 31, 2013
4
0
10,510
My subwoofer has a L and R RCA input as well as speaker wire inputs. The subwoofer manual says that ideally if a receiver has a subwoofer RCA output, to connect that to the subwoofer instead of speaker wires.

I am connecting the output of my IPhone to the subwoofer RCA inputs.

When I connect my IPhone to my receiver using this same RCA cable, it works great so I was hoping this would work when I connect my phone to the subwoofer.

I have tried adjusting the gain level on the subwoofer but it doesn't help.

I do have the receiver connected to the tv. After running the auto-config on the receiver, I had to manually tell it that I have a subwoofer as it didn't auto detect it. The subwoofer level is set to +10 dB on the receiver.

Thanks.
 

boju

Distinguished
The low phase is only passed through the rca for the sub, not the speaker wire. The reason your sub has speaker wire inputs is so you can have the sub act as a central speaker hub or use it's additional amplifier similar to how logitech or 2.1 pc speakers are setup using the sub as the central unit etc for other speakers.

The auto correction will set the distance, usually would need the sub a good volume so the sensor can pick it up. After that i set the receiver volume to almost 0 and use the volume nob on the sub itself to control the volume, otherwise you run the risk of blowing your sub.

 

boju

Distinguished
Its possible the receiver isn't sending the .1 signal yet, although when its testing does the sub light turn on? just the sensor cant sense the sub. Have you tried changing the receiver settings to play multi channel stereo and listen to some music?
 

schkotty

Honorable
Dec 31, 2013
4
0
10,510
I felt like I went through enough testing to feel confident that some part of the subwoofer had gone bad. I went ahead and replaced it today and all is well with the new subwoofer. Thanks.