Need help with some subs that power on, but no longer produce sound.

[spoonTRex]

A friend's mother just moved to town, and brought with her two Sonance Sub 10-150's. I'm told they were working before the move, and now are not making any sound. Aesthetically, they look fantastic, just dusty. They have good fuses, they light up when you plug them in, and, if providing no signal to them, the green light goes red on standby. Opening this thing up, visually all capacitors look fine. Everything feels very firmly attached (and is all pretty much glued down on all connectors).

So things I feel like I know is: 1) power works; and 2) it's able to sense a connection over the RCA left input.

I've tried splitting the sub in-cable to hit both Left/Right inputs. I've tried just going into the speaker terminals. No luck.

Any ideas? Thanks heaps!

 

[everettT]

What's feeding them the signal?

 

[spoonTRex]

What's feeding them the signal?

An AV sub line out. It's powering another sub, so I know the signal is fine. These subs have been attached to four different AV units on their sub line, and hasn't worked on any of them, and all AV units do send a signal as confirmed by other powered subwoofers.

 

[everettT]

Are the speakers set to small in the AVRs?

 

[spoonTRex]

Are the speakers set to small in the AVRs?

Yes. I have a working 7.1 setup of other speakers/sub than these Sonance subs. I'm disconnecting a known working sub, and disconnecting its line from the AVR (so the working sub receives no signal), and then connecting up either Sonance sub, and neither of them make sound.

 

[everettT]

Yes. I have a working 7.1 setup of other speakers/sub than these Sonance subs. I'm disconnecting a known working sub, and disconnecting its line from the AVR (so the working sub receives no signal), and then connecting up either Sonance sub, and neither of them make sound.

Do you have main preouts on your setup? If you can you try those instead of sub output? Or a phone directly into them?

If none of those provide any sound, maybe contact sonos to see if they have a thought because I think you have covered most all options.

 

[spoonTRex]

Do you have main preouts on your setup? If you can you try those instead of sub output? Or a phone directly into them?

If none of those provide any sound, maybe contact sonos to see if they have a thought because I think you have covered most all options.

Yeah, it's almost certainly something inside the sub. These are from 2009 (I believe, could be older), so are outside Sonance's 5 year warranty. My friend was ready to throw them out, but they're beautiful in-wall subs and I'd hate to just get rid of them without a fight to get them back up and going.

 

[everettT]

Yeah, it's almost certainly something inside the sub. These are from 2009 (I believe, could be older),so are outside Sonance's 5 year warranty. My friend was ready to throw them out, but they're beautiful in-wall subs and I'd hate to just get rid of them without a fight to get them back up and going.

Even out of warranty, I'd still contact them as I can see no troubleshooting in their manual, says call for assistance.

If the amps are shot for some reason, you can always turn them into a project and power them with an external amp that has DSP/EQ to get the correct response.

 

[spoonTRex]

Okay, I removed the back plate and plugged the sub up to a (weak) external amp. It works.

My friend made a comment that there's no "click" when this sub powers on. Thinks it may be an issue with the relay on it. This may explain why we see a green light, but still have no sound.

 

[everettT]

Okay, I removed the back plate and plugged the sub up to a (weak) external amp. It works.

My friend made a comment that there's no "click" when this sub powers on. Thinks it may be an issue with the relay on it. This may explain why we see a green light, but still have no sound.

Well that's promising at least to salvage it. If the manufacturer specs are true, they definitely would make nice stereo subs.

I had amp failure on one of my two home theater subs, and used two external amps on them and a Minidsp to keep them going. the result ended with more performance than I had with the manufacturer plate amps.