New subwoofer not turning on at low volume?

L

lithnights

Audioholic
I've googled this extensively and searched the forums here, but haven't really found an answer so I'm hoping someone can help. I have a new Def Tech Supercube 2000 sub. There is no on/off switch, just a light that turns red. I turned the sub to halfway as suggested and ran the YPAO for my new Yamaha 1050.

The sub doesn't seem to turn on unless volume gets quite loud. Is this something that would be impacted by the receiver settings? The current setting is -10db so would that be causing my issue?

I notice that if I play a blu ray or play SONOS or the tuner, the red power light will not be on, and there will be no bass. If I unplug the wire in the back of the sub and plug it back in, the red light goes on and I get bass. If I turn the volume up, sometimes that will get the red light on. Sometimes that light will stay on, but other times, within 15 or 30 minutes, the light will be off again. Sorry if these are dumb questions but...

1. Does it make sense what the sub is doing?
2. Should the red power light turn on and off based on volume of the movie/song? Should it turn off in the middle of a movie, regardless of volume? I guess I assumed the sub power light would always be on if the receiver is, but is this not the case?
3. How can I be sure to get the sub to turn on and give me bass all the time, using the settings on the receiver? Does it just involve manually changing that -10db to closer to -5db or 0db?

I plan to call Yamaha as well as Def Tech for help, but I wanted to get some background info from the gurus here, so I have an idea of what I'm talking about.

Thanks in advance!
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Yes. Turn the gain down on the sub, and rerun ypao. Usually-5 will activate most subs, but sometimes-3.
Normally it's like a 10 minute timer without signal to power off, so no, during a movie it shouldn't shut off. You can can manually change the settings if you have an spl meter.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yep, lowering gain on sub and rerunning YPAO would be my first step...
 
L

lithnights

Audioholic
Dumb question but when we say lower the "gain" on the sub, we're talking about putting the dial at something like 10:00 position, instead of the 12:00 position?

Thanks all.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Dumb question but when we say lower the "gain" on the sub, we're talking about putting the dial at something like 10:00 position, instead of the 12:00 position?

Thanks all.
Basically yes. The gain function, is just another way to say volume.
 
L

lithnights

Audioholic
This morning I reran YPAO again a few times.. leaving it at 12:00 (just as a test), YPAO got it down to -6db, so that was interesting since previously it had chosen -10db. Maybe the way i had the tripod on the couch..who knows. I lowered the dial a little, ran again, and got down to -5db. I lowered it more (to around 10:00 position) and ran YPAO again and got it to -1.5db, so I'm leaving it at that and will do some movie watching and music listening today to see if that fixes my issue.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
This morning I reran YPAO again a few times.. leaving it at 12:00 (just as a test), YPAO got it down to -6db, so that was interesting since previously it had chosen -10db. Maybe the way i had the tripod on the couch..who knows. I lowered the dial a little, ran again, and got down to -5db. I lowered it more (to around 10:00 position) and ran YPAO again and got it to -1.5db, so I'm leaving it at that and will do some movie watching and music listening today to see if that fixes my issue.
Nice job. I leave mine around -3 so I can bump the subs a little if I'm in the mood, but I calibrate them at 80 over 75 so I mostly just leave them.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Mine are trimmed to -8.5. I bumped it up 3db to -5.5. Haven't had any issues.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Some sub amps are more sensitive than others, and will turn on with trim levels really low. Some take higher voltages. Stay away from + values as that can introduce clipping into the signal.
 

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