Hearing bass only in 5.1 DVDs but not in audio CDs

[dartsound]

hey guys, i hav a pioneer dvd player plugged to a Yamaha RX-V795a and (dont hate me for this..) a bose 5 speaker system with a passive sub and an active Yamaha sub. When this was installed, i had a guy from the store do it for me as i was a total newbie... now tht i moved, i installed the sys with the help of some manuals and some common sense, i loved it. this was done, of course,with a few glitches... previously i cud get bass on my yamaha active sub with both conventional audio cds and 5.1 encoded DVDs but now i can only get bass when im playing the DVD and no bass when im playing the cd, - i'm getting bass on my passive sub all throughout while my active sits wasted while playing audio cds. help, please...

 

[mfabien]

I assume you play your CDs in the DVD player.

Your DVDs playing with 5.1 audio use 6 tracks for sound including the track for LFE and low frequency sounds which are directed to the subs subject to your Crossover setting (80 Hz, 100 Hz?).

As for your CD playbacks, even though CDs are in stereo, whether the connection between the DVD player and the Yamaha receiver, is digital cable (optical or coaxial) or 5.1 multichannel analogs, the low frequencies should still go to the sub except that low frequencies, when using multichannel analogs, are 10 dB lower in sound volume compared to other tracks. To compensate, you can increase the GAIN at the sub by 2.5 o'clock setting on the GAIN dial. So if the normal GAIN setting is "12 noon", increase this to "2.5". Or you can toggle from multichannel analogs to digital and play them either in stereo or use the following DSPs: either Pro Logic II: Music or (DTS) Neo6: Music and in both cases all speakers will be used although stereo effects are unaltered.

 

[edmcanuck]

You have to set the A/V Receiver to output sound from the main speakers to the sub below a certain frequency. To do that, you need to set all the speakers to small and define your crossover frequency (usually 80Hz, who knows what's appropriate with BOSE). There's probably a setting in your speaker setup for the sub where you set it from "LFE" to "Main+LFE" as well... select the latter.

With your active sub, the sub is only intended to play .1 material on 5.1 sources. You have to do these things separately to tell it to route low sounds from the main speakers to the sub.

Read this to learn more.

 

[dartsound]

Heyyyy thankss mannn, edmcanuck, u hit the spot.. i did wat u suggested and voila! I have my bass back !!! lemme get back to u after i toy around with it for a bit, my yamaha amp has a gain and a high cut control knob, the high cut has a range of 40 to 140 Hz, any suggestions or tips ? for cinema or for music ? i know i can screw around with it, but i am not sure wats the ideal high cut setting for, lets say, a block buster like the matrix or die hard ?

 

[J.Grimmerink]

I use 80Hz, works fine for me (I have the Klipsch RSW-12). But I only use it for LFE channel in movies.