Problem with Athena P2 Subwoofers

[redito]

I have had 6 Athena S2 speakers and 2 Athena P2 subwoofers connected to my Onkyo TX-SR700 for a couple of years. Following a recent renovation, I can't seem to get the subwoofers to work at all.

The connections are all exactly the same as they were before but no sound comes from the subs. They are linked to the front left and right speakers using the Athena SCT technology which connects them directly to the subs, eliminating the need for additional wiring from sub to speaker. The subs are connected to the receiver properly, at least according to Onkyo.

All the other speakers work fine - great sound - so I know the connections are good. I contacted Onkyo and they weren't much help. Since they don't make Athena speakers I don't think they quite understood how the speaker and sub connect without wires. Their suggestion was to wire the speaker to the sub in the traditional manner. I contacted Athena but didn't get a response.

Has anyone had a similar problem? What am I missing? I doubt that both subs would have died at exactly the same time and they are definitely drawing power since the green light is on underneath the cover panel. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[3db]

You need to do some trouble shooting

I have had 6 Athena S2 speakers and 2 Athena P2 subwoofers connected to my Onkyo TX-SR700 for a couple of years. Following a recent renovation, I can't seem to get the subwoofers to work at all.

The connections are all exactly the same as they were before but no sound comes from the subs. They are linked to the front left and right speakers using the Athena SCT technology which connects them directly to the subs, eliminating the need for additional wiring from sub to speaker. The subs are connected to the receiver properly, at least according to Onkyo.

All the other speakers work fine - great sound - so I know the connections are good. I contacted Onkyo and they weren't much help. Since they don't make Athena speakers I don't think they quite understood how the speaker and sub connect without wires. Their suggestion was to wire the speaker to the sub in the traditional manner. I contacted Athena but didn't get a response.

Has anyone had a similar problem? What am I missing? I doubt that both subs would have died at exactly the same time and they are definitely drawing power since the green light is on underneath the cover panel. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

first thing I would do is to see whether or not the sub is at fault is to disconnect their proprierty cable and hook it up to the LFE output of the receiver.making sure that the receiver knows that a sub is hooked up. If that works, then you can eliminate the sub and start looking at either the cable or the speaker size settings on your receiver. Good luck

 

[ducker]

have you had any LFE sound come from this Onkyo receiver? If not you can't rule out it being the receiver (dispite Onkyo wanting to say it's not their receiver.)

Otherwise, it sounds as if it's your sub(s?) Have you had either of these subs connected to a different receiver before? I'd think that there is some cust. server number for Athena you could call. Or perhaps where you purchased the subs that you could contact and discuss the problems you're having with the vender.

 

[redito]

Thanks for the replies.

3DB - there isn't really a proprietary cable. The speaker sits on top of the sub, connected to it by small metal strips that match the bottom of the speaker to the top of the sub. No cables to detach. The sub is then connected to the receiver. There are no cables connecting the speaker to the receiver at all but the speaker still works fine. That's why I'm sure the cables are good, the power is good and the connection is OK. If any of these were the problem, the speaker wouldn't work. Also, I did check the settings on my receiver. It had to reset them since the system was disconnected throughout the renovation but I'm sure I set them the same. However, since it obviously wasn't working right, I did try a variety of settings on the receiver to try and fix it. So far, no deal.

Ducker - I'm not really sure what LFE sound is. I can tell you all 6 regular speakers are working fine (a front and back left & right and a front & back center). It seems odd to me that both subs (yes, I have 2) would die at exactly the same time. Too weird. Neither have been attached to any other receiver. They were bought at the same time as the Onkyo and worked great until now.

I'm sure I can call Athena somehow but my vendor might not be of much help. I bought the whole package through Visions - primarily because a family member worked there and I got an exceptional deal. However, he has since moved to Alberta to run his own store and I've generally found that staffers in these places know less than I do (and that ain't much!).

 

[colin.p]

Just a guess?

I looked in the athena website but couldn't find that sub listed, but I know I remember seeing them listed in the "classic" section. Basically, they were a powered sub that you connected a speaker to the top of it (think of attaching a flash to a connector on a camera).
I would think that either the connectors are dirty (unlikely for two speakers), or that your receiver is now playing the front speakers as "small". Since the sub is connected to the main speakers via the connector, then the sub/speaker system is hooked to the receiver via speaker wires, I would think that the sub/speaker setup would have to be played as "large".
I don't know, but am guessing at this stage.

Colin

 

[3db]

Good call Colin

I looked in the athena website but couldn't find that sub listed, but I know I remember seeing them listed in the "classic" section. Basically, they were a powered sub that you connected a speaker to the top of it (think of attaching a flash to a connector on a camera).
I would think that either the connectors are dirty (unlikely for two speakers), or that your receiver is now playing the front speakers as "small". Since the sub is connected to the main speakers via the connector, then the sub/speaker system is hooked to the receiver via speaker wires, I would think that the sub/speaker setup would have to be played as "large".
I don't know, but am guessing at this stage.

Colin

If he's feeding the sub thru the main speaker A terminals and then running his speakers from the low pass filtered sub output, his main speakers better be set to large. If the main speakers are set to small, then all bass will be channeled to the LFE output. That may explain why hes' not hearing any bass.


Dumb question..Is the sub receiving power? Just wanna make sure we covered off all the dumb simple things

 

[redito]

OK, Colin makes a good point. The end result of a renovation is always dust and a mess so I'm going to clean the connectors just in case. Although I agree that it would be odd for both to be affected the same way.

3DB - Yes the subs are getting power. They have a small green light underneath a front cover and it's only on when the power is on. And if they weren't, then power wouldn't be transferred to the speakers connected to them. But the speakers work fine, making this all the stranger. And yes, the front speakers are set to large. When you tell the Onkyo receiver that yes, you do have a subwoofer, it automatically changes the front speakers to large. I did actually try changing it to small to see if that helped. It didn't and I changed it back. Still no good.

I'm going to have a go at cleaning the connectors since it's the one remaining obvious thing I think I've missed. Failing that I guess I'll have to hunt down someone at Athena for help.

 

[dm_4u]

I have had 6 Athena S2 speakers and 2 Athena P2 subwoofers connected to my Onkyo TX-SR700 for a couple of years. Following a recent renovation, I can't seem to get the subwoofers to work at all.

The connections are all exactly the same as they were before but no sound comes from the subs. They are linked to the front left and right speakers using the Athena SCT technology which connects them directly to the subs, eliminating the need for additional wiring from sub to speaker. The subs are connected to the receiver properly, at least according to Onkyo.

All the other speakers work fine - great sound - so I know the connections are good. I contacted Onkyo and they weren't much help. Since they don't make Athena speakers I don't think they quite understood how the speaker and sub connect without wires. Their suggestion was to wire the speaker to the sub in the traditional manner. I contacted Athena but didn't get a response.

Has anyone had a similar problem? What am I missing? I doubt that both subs would have died at exactly the same time and they are definitely drawing power since the green light is on underneath the cover panel. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

You probably have found out by now that if you are using the Athena SCT series together you just have to hook up ONE cable to the LEFT SUB IN, (yes on both sides), and then toggle the sub to the S2 position for them to work.

They work like a charm and have outstanding performance.