SW CrossOver Frequency Function

[ttibsen]

I have a Sony AV Receiver STR-DA3300ES and I'm not getting any output from the SubWoofer in my surround sound setup. Here are the instructions for setting up the SubWoofer

and here is a picture of the SubWoofer that I have.

The question is - "is the Crossover Frequency Function referred to in the instructions the same as the SubWoofer Cut-Off Frequency button on the back of the SubWoofer?

Thanks

John

 

[Adam]

The question is - "is the Crossover Frequency Function referred to in the instructions the same as the SubWoofer Cut-Off Frequency button on the back of the SubWoofer?

I'll bet it is. The Sony manual is saying to turn the knob on the subwoofer itself to the highest value (150Hz on your sub) so that the subwoofer isn't filtering out any of the signal being sent to it.

 

[Adam]

As for you not getting any sound out of the sub, have you set your speakers to "SMALL"?

 

[ttibsen]

Which speakers exactly am I to set to the Small setting Adam

Front R and L
Centre
Rear R and L

some of them? All of them? As you can see, even the largest speakers which are the Front L and R aren't all that large so I guess I wouldn't be wrong in designating ALL the speakers as small.

 

[Adam]

You can always experiment and find out what you like the best. If the subwoofer is more capable of playing the frequencies below the crossover setting than a speaker is, then you'd want to redirect the bass to the sub by setting the speaker to small.

I have all of my speakers set to small and use a crossover frequency of 80Hz. That works well with my system. Yours may work better with a different setting or crossover, but I'd recommend starting with that and seeing what you think.

That's a nice looking system, btw! Normally you'd want the front speakers to be symmetric around the TV, but I can see why you don't have it that way.

 

[ttibsen]

Thanks for the tips Adam - I'll try the settings and hopefully I'll be able to coax sound out of the SW. I had sound coming out of it before when we had the old tube TV and a Pioneer AV receiver, but with this incredibly sophisticated - too much so if you ask me - Sony receiver, it's been silent thus far. And that's a shame because I love the vibrations in the floor that only a SW can produce.

John

 

[Adam]

John, just let us know if that doesn't get it the way that you like it. We'll keep trying until we get you set up.

Have fun with it!

 

[lsiberian]

Thanks for the tips Adam - I'll try the settings and hopefully I'll be able to coax sound out of the SW. I had sound coming out of it before when we had the old tube TV and a Pioneer AV receiver, but with this incredibly sophisticated - too much so if you ask me - Sony receiver, it's been silent thus far. And that's a shame because I love the vibrations in the floor that only a SW can produce.

John

Honestly I would try having the receiver cut-off and then trying the other.

Just to see what sounds best. I know it wasn't brought up, but you center is not properly setup. I recommend you angle it toward your sitting ear level. Otherwise it will not be able to keep up with your other speakers.

Basically off-axis of the tweeter suffers from a huge drop in sound. and at the current angle you are loosing some of that form your center channel. So tilt it up a bit. Even putting a nice small stand would help and get it more on axis with your ears.

 

[ttibsen]

I haven't looked back there (meaning the back of the Sony receiver) since it is almost inaccessible but I'm on the verge of getting the mirror and flashlight out so I can see what is plugged in where. I have set all the speakers to the Small setting and have dialed the SW CutOff Frequency to 150Hz. When I run the test tones I get a white sound from all the speakers but from the SW - nothing! So I am thinking that perhaps I have the SW plugged into the wrong place in the back of the AV receiver. Which of the 2 possible outlets should it be plugged into?

Thanks

John

 

[Adam]

John - you want it plugged into the "PRE OUT" section.

 

[ttibsen]

OK - I am going to run down there to see what is where. I hope that I have it plugged into the wrong place - because if I have it in the PreOut - I guess I'm out of luck. I'll report back shortly.

John

 

[ttibsen]

It WAS plugged into the PreOut - so much for a quick fix. I thought that perhaps this setting was responsible - it's the closest that I could come to 5.1 which is what I have but strangely 5.1 is not an available option in the setup. Certainly the 3/4.1 setting that I have it on does not yield sound from the SW.

John

 

[ttibsen]

Could one of these settings be tweaked to get sound from the SW?

 

[Adam]

...strangely 5.1 is not an available option in the setup.

I'm looking through your manual now. I can't believe that receiver won't do 5.1. There's got to be a menu pick somewhere for the surround back speakers. I'll let you know.

Could one of these settings be tweaked to get sound from the SW?

The crossover frequency is the only thing that comes to mind, but you should get sound from it anyway. What is the crossover set to?

 

[MDS]

It WAS plugged into the PreOut - so much for a quick fix. I thought that perhaps this setting was responsible - it's the closest that I could come to 5.1 which is what I have but strangely 5.1 is not an available option in the setup. Certainly the 3/4.1 setting that I have it on does not yield sound from the SW.

John

A setting like that is probably the culprit. Most receivers allow you to individually set each speaker to 'on' or 'off' so that if you set the left/right/center/left surround/right surround to 'on' and subwoofer to 'off' you'd have a 5.0 configuration.

3/4.1 would mean 7 channels plus a subwoofer. The setting you'd need would be 3/2.1.

 

[ttibsen]

The crossover is set to the maximum - 150Hz.

<< 3/4.1 would mean 7 channels plus a subwoofer. The setting you'd need would be 3/2.1. >>

I'll try this and report back but in the meantime if 3/4.1 includes the SW, then why doesn't this setting give you sound from the SW? And I know what 2.1 means (L and R speakers + SW) and ditto for 4.1 (Front L and R, Rear L and R, + SW) but what does the 3 in both fractions represent?

Thanks

John

 

[Adam]

The setting you'd need would be 3/2.1.

I think that MDS cracked the code for 5.1. Definitely check if that option is listed.

I don't see how the 3/4.1 setting would cause the sub to not work, though, given that the speakers were set to small.

What is the subwoofer output level set to on the receiver? Because your sub uses an auto on sensor, it's possible that the receiver isn't sending a signal that is high enough to trigger that sensor. Try jacking the level on the receiver up (it's discussed on page 68 of the manual). If that works, then you'd turn the volume knob on the sub down to compensate.

If that doesn't work, are you sure that the sub (a) is plugged in to a working outlet and (b) works? I ask about the outlet because some outlets are connected to light switches and it might have been turned off - not trying to sound insulting at all! That stuff happens. You could plug a source directly into the sub to see if it turns on when the receiver is removed from the system.

EDIT: I just saw your post above, John. Sony appears to name their settings as FRONT/SURROUND. So, 3/4.1 means three front speakers (left/right/center), four rear speakers, and a sub. 3/2.1 should be the 5.1 setting that you want.

 

[ttibsen]

Thanks so much for your patience with all this. The original level on the SW was 0.0dB and as you can see from the above test run, I cranked it up to the max at 10.0dB but to no avail. I not only had the Receiver output for the SW set at the max but I also set the SW level to the max on the speaker itself.

Setting the speaker pattern to 3 / 2.1 also did not do the trick.

Finally, the outlet into which the SW was plugged into, was definitely a live source so I can't blame a lack of power for the lack of sound from the SW.

There seems to be a whole bunch of other AV receiver settings that I can experiment with such as the sound field so I can play with those and if I still can't get sound out of the SW, I'll get one of the staff from the electronics store out to the house. After all, I bought the whole shebang from one source so I figure it's the least they can do to ensure that all the components that I bought are working.

Stay tuned! The story is not quite over yet and I'll post on future efforts and results

Again, thanks for all the valuable input Adam, I now know more than I think I wanted to about AV receivers but it's actually made me feel a bit more accomplished about the finer points of operating a modern entertainment system.

John

 

[Adam]

Thanks for the update, John! If the store is willing to send someone out, that's the way to go. If not, let us know. There are some other things that we can do.

BTW, have you tried listening to anything with the sub except for the test tones? I would expect that receiver to output a tone, but some don't send a tone to the sub.

Also, I'd recommend turning the volume down on the sub - having that volume knob cranked is probably going to be loud (and possibly bad for the sub) once you get it working.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

That AVR seems to have a really nice GUI.

By the looks of this picture, it looks like you may be in the wrong set up section. The multi channel menu may only refer to an analog set up such as a BR system.

Just a thought as my Denon has a section like this.

Adam is the user manual guru so he probably has already looked into this.

Let us know what you find out.

Could one of these settings be tweaked to get sound from the SW?