Help me identify what this is....

[Bukemdanno]

Hi Audioholics,
I was wondering if you could help me diagnose what may be causing this sound,I can't tell is its a sound clipping or its a hardware fault with the subwoofer.
My setup is as follows:
Yamaha 3080 connected to Rotel 1572 power amp.
REL 212SE connected via both high level and LFE.
I get this sound/issue at random on both bass heavy music and today I got it in a scene on the film TENET.
I'd be intriged to hear peoples views....

I've put the video on onedrive for you to see as I couldn't seem to attach anything but an image:

IMG_2305.MOV

MOV File

1drv.ms

Dan

 

[lovinthehd]

I use a laptop to surf so lousy at detecting any sort of bass in a video but yours seems to be high enough in frequency where I can hear those ugly sounds! Certainly would seem its the Rel making the noises but what they are particularly can't tell ya based on that tho. Have you tried just using the line level connection or just the high level to rule something out there (I'd just use the line level connection myself)? What volume level is the avr at when this happens? While never been impressed by Rel subs, this model should be capable of lower frequencies better than some of their smaller models.

ps might tell us more about how you set up the sub initially and settings etc.

 

[flippo]

You use the sub with both lfe and speaker level?

 

[lovinthehd]

You use the sub with both lfe and speaker level?

That's the "Rel" method.

 

[flippo]

Use at same time? or am I reading it wrong

 

[Bukemdanno]

You do use them both at the same time, that's by design.

 

[Bukemdanno]

Btw I sent this to REL to give you further context.

I wanted to write this up after some extensive testing yesterday before I forget the detail.

This is how I have it connected after I could not get the ground hum to fully go if my power amp went into standby.

Yamaha 3080 <RCA Interconnect > Rotel 1572 Power Amp (always on) > High level input (using original REL cable) and LFE (via Van-Damme Interconnect).

I played TENET in UHD and there is a scene 46 minutes in that I can repeat the distortion over and over.

Here is an interesting point, when I first put the scene on, it doesn’t do it, after I repeat the scene, on the 5th time it does it and every time after that point it will do it.

It leads me to believe, its something that gets warm then after it gets warm it does it, it sounds like it comes from both active drivers too, not the passive ones.

I can also repeat it in Interstellar too when they land on the water planet.

Its like the Sub has an issue with a certain frequency of sound but I cannot pinpoint what it is.

So, I decided to remove the Power AMP completely by process of elimination.

So I connected as follows:

Yamaha 3080 > High level input (using original REL cable) and LFE (via Van-Damme Interconnect).

It was exactly the same, both the scene in Interstellar and TENET exhibit the same distortion.

So it cannot be the Power AMP as that was taken completely out of the equation.

Whilst I was re-wiring my connections the REL was off for about 30-40 minutes and that didn’t prevent it from distorting.

Therefore, I wired it back again to include the power AMP as I did notice a substantial drop in sound quality running it from the AVR.

I also as a test, unplugged the high level connection whilst I was running the scene in TENET, so the only connection to the REL was the LFE, it was exactly the same in the scene in TENET.

Its like to me, the glue or adhesive on the back of the active cones comes loose, its a really loud noticeable rattle, I have taken a new video from it doing it in the scene in TENET, the video makes it sound quiet but I can assure you if you heard it yourself, you would hear how audible it is.

None of my other speakers exhibit any form of distortion.

So, in summary:

* It happens in Movies and music
* It happens with and without the Power AMP in the mix
* It seems to happen after a few bass heavy scenes
* It sounds like its coming from both of the active drivers.

 

[lovinthehd]

Can you return the subs still? I'd simply get better subs myself...