Center and subwoofer are not working?

8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
Hello, I am a total noob at home theater, this is my first purchase. I have a Yamaha RX-V471 connected to two Polk Monitor 70 Series II floor speakers (left & right), a Polk CS2 Series II center speaker and a Polk PSW10 subwoofer. I am pretty sure all is connected properly, except maybe the sub. There is a left & right plug input on the sub and I only have one output for the sub from the receiver. I was all excited to try the system out so I played the Transformers movie, something with a lot of action. I thought the sound was OK, nothing more. I played a few more movies before I noticed that there is no sound whatsoever coming from the center or the sub! On the front of the receiver I can see that only the left and right speakers are lit up. I used the YPAO microphone thing to calibrate the sound and when I test for sound through the GUI, each speaker and the sub makes noise, but that is all, nothing during playback....very frustrating and I don't know what the problem is. Is it because I have no rear speakers that I am not getting any sound?
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Welcome to the forum!

The issue could be in your settings on the receiver, or the settings on whatever you used to play Transformers. So, two questions:
1. What were you using to play Transformers (e.g. blu-ray player, streaming from Netflix)?
2. How do you have whatever you were using to play Transformers connected to the Yamaha (e.g. HDMI, optical cable, RCA cables)?
 
8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
Hi Adam, well I have a Western Digital Live media player hooked up to the Yamaha receiver with an HDMI cable. I figured out how to get the center channel working by fooling around with the settings on the receiver like you said. I pressed the "MOVIE" button on the remote and I can select different sound settings (action, drama, sci-fi, etc...) But the subwoofer is still not working. It is connected by a single monoaural cable form the sub output on the receiver. In the configuration screen on the receiver, it tests each speaker and sub and I can hear it work when it is tested, but it will not work during playback of anything, movie or music. I just tried out my Xbox 360 on it and the subwoofer light on the receiver front is illuminated, but I don't have any sound coming from it still. My DVD is similar to the WD live media player, no sub light on. I've just looked over the Polk PSW10 subwoofer user manual online http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/manual/PSW10_12_MN.pdf and I seem to have done everything correctly. Stumped!
 
8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
Also forgot to mention that in the setting menu, Subwoofer is selected to "use".
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
Welcome! Can you return the sub and get your money back? If yes I can recommend a better sub for 160 shipped.
 
8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
I don't know, I bought it on Amazon on December 5th...I know it is not the greatest out there, but regardless, it still does not work...or rather I can gear sound coming from it when I test it either through the Yamaha onscreen menu or on my computer which is hooked up to it and I configure the sound for 5.1, I can test the sub sound and it does not work...it is just that it never works when I play back anything. And I don't think a better sub will solve anything right now, I just want it to work.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Hi Adam, well I have a Western Digital Live media player hooked up to the Yamaha receiver with an HDMI cable. I figured out how to get the center channel working by fooling around with the settings on the receiver like you said. I pressed the "MOVIE" button on the remote and I can select different sound settings (action, drama, sci-fi, etc...) But the subwoofer is still not working. It is connected by a single monoaural cable form the sub output on the receiver. In the configuration screen on the receiver, it tests each speaker and sub and I can hear it work when it is tested, but it will not work during playback of anything, movie or music. I just tried out my Xbox 360 on it and the subwoofer light on the receiver front is illuminated, but I don't have any sound coming from it still. My DVD is similar to the WD live media player, no sub light on. I've just looked over the Polk PSW10 subwoofer user manual online http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/manual/PSW10_12_MN.pdf and I seem to have done everything correctly. Stumped!
Also forgot to mention that in the setting menu, Subwoofer is selected to "use".
Gotcha. Here are some notes, but maybe not all in the best order.

Audio Sources
When audio is called X.Y (such as 2.0 or 5.1), the "X" is for how many full-range channels of audio there are, and the "Y" is for the subwoofer-specific channel known as the low frequency effects ("LFE") channel that only contains low frequencies. For example, a 2.0 source would contain audio for the front speakers and wouldn't contain any information for the center channel or sub. Whether the sub gets used in that case is base on your receiver settings (see below).

If the Western Digital player is set to output in stereo (2.0), then you'd have to have the Yamaha create the extra audio (like using the "MOVIE" setting). I'd say look in the settings for that player to see if you can set it to output surround sound. You might also need to select the surround sound audio track from the movie that you're playing.

Receiver Settings
The way to send low frequency audio to the sub instead of the speakers is to set the speakers to "Small." YPAO, like a lot of the auto setup systems, tends to set speakers to "Large" even when they aren't great at playing low frequencies. If speakers are set to "Large," then none of their low frequency information is sent to the sub. The one exception is for the front speakers if you set "Extra Bass" to "On."

So, if your speakers are set to "Large" and "Extra Bass" is to set to Off (which is the default setting), then the only audio that would be sent to your sub would be something in the LFE channel (the .1 channel). Just because that channel is present and recognized, which will light up the "SW" on the front panel of the Yamaha, doesn't mean that there is any audio being sent over it. So, it's possible that whatever you were playing on the Xbox just didn't have sound for it. RECOMMENDATION: At least set your center channel to "Small" with a crossover around 60-80 Hz. Your front speakers are actually pretty good down low compared to that sub, so I'd say experiment with them set to Large and Small.


That's to get the ball rolling. We'll keep at it until you're all set up. :)
 
G

Grador

Audioholic Field Marshall
Go into the receiver's menus, in audio settings, find where the speaker levels are set and see how far up the sub level is.

Double check the switch on the back of the sub is set to Auto and not off.

The correct setting on the receiver for unadulterated multichannel is "straight." This use all the speakers that are available but only if the source you are using is multichannel and calls for them. Any of the other modes are applying some form of signal processing which most people agree generally sounds awful, though its all up to your ears to decide.
 
G

Grador

Audioholic Field Marshall
Plus it was only $89 shipped and tax free..I just tested out this Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMh_zvCw6us and this one as well : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt6fXa60Y8A , everything works fine through the PC. I don't understand why my movies and XBOX don't do the same. I guess I would have to play a BluRay disc to see if it works, but I don't have a BD player. All my movies are on my hard drive played through my WD media player...
Are these downloaded? Most every movie that I've seen someone download has been encoded with a stereo soundtrack.
 
8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
Yes they are...embarrassing..could that be the reason? I said I was a noob :) But shouldn't the sub work with the XBOX?
 
8

88turborx7

Audiophyte
Oh wow, I'm sorry Adam, I didn't see it at all...strange. Great info and suggestions. I changed the audio settings in the WD media player, put the front and center speakers to small, can't find the "extra bass" setting in the menu though, even with the owner's manual, I see where they mention it, just don't know how to get there with the remote. But, everything seems to be working fantastic now! Thanks for all the help and explanation, I feel a little silly since it seems so simple now. One thing though, on the back of my sub is a small switch for "phase", I can select either 0 degrees or 180, I don't know which to use and I don't hear any difference when I switch it?
 
G

Grador

Audioholic Field Marshall
For phase, play something very bass heavy and try it both ways, one probably sounds better than the other. If not it's irreverent.

Edit: make sure you're listening from where you normally sit when testing the switch. Standing right next to the subwoofer will not work.
 
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