Problem with Monoprice Monolith 10 THX Select?

[paulzhere]

Hi all

I ordered a Monoprice Monolith 10 THX Select subwoofer last Thursday from Monoprice Europe and received the delivery the following Monday. On connecting the sub to a power socket and turning it on, I noticed a strange behavior. If I turned it on with the auto on/off toggle on "always on" then the LED would blink red (slowly first and then rapidly) for a while before settling down. After a while, the LED would go off and would start blinking green. The green LED would stabilize only after I started playing audio on the LFE input. On the other hand if I turned on the sub with the toggle on "auto on/off", the LED would blink red for a while before stabilizing. Then, after I would play some audio through the LFE input, the LED would start blinking green for a while before stablizing to green. The subwoofer otherwise worked fine (it seems) and frankly I was mighty impressed with its performance - extremely deep and tight bass. However, the behavior worried me and I contacted Monoprice Europe rightaway. The contact person told me that it was unusual and asked me so send a video of demonstrating the behavior so that their technical team could analyze the issue. I complied and within a day received a response that the technical team had determined that I had received a faulty unit and was eligible for a replacement. They quickly went ahead and shipped me a replacement subwoofer and I received it today - not even a week from when I received the first one. Needless to say I was mighty impressed with their customer service.

So I plugged the new one to the power socket and turned it on and guess what... it showed the exact same behavior! Now what are the chances that two brand new subs are faulty back to back with the exact same fault? Also none of the two packages was damaged in transit (or so it seems). I am wondering if the behavior that the subs are showing is just them working normally and perfectly (although the manual does not mention it). Have any of you experienced the same with a Monolith sub? I am curious to know before writing them again. Any help or inputs would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation
Paul

 

[shadyJ]

Hi all

I ordered a Monoprice Monolith 10 THX Select subwoofer last Thursday from Monoprice Europe and received the delivery the following Monday. On connecting the sub to a power socket and turning it on, I noticed a strange behavior. If I turned it on with the auto on/off toggle on "always on" then the LED would blink red (slowly first and then rapidly) for a while before settling down. After a while, the LED would go off and would start blinking green. The green LED would stabilize only after I started playing audio on the LFE input. On the other hand if I turned on the sub with the toggle on "auto on/off", the LED would blink red for a while before stabilizing. Then, after I would play some audio through the LFE input, the LED would start blinking green for a while before stablizing to green. The subwoofer otherwise worked fine (it seems) and frankly I was mighty impressed with its performance - extremely deep and tight bass. However, the behavior worried me and I contacted Monoprice Europe rightaway. The contact person told me that it was unusual and asked me so send a video of demonstrating the behavior so that their technical team could analyze the issue. I complied and within a day received a response that the technical team had determined that I had received a faulty unit and was eligible for a replacement. They quickly went ahead and shipped me a replacement subwoofer and I received it today - not even a week from when I received the first one. Needless to say I was mighty impressed with their customer service.

So I plugged the new one to the power socket and turned it on and guess what... it showed the exact same behavior! Now what are the chances that two brand new subs are faulty back to back with the exact same fault? Also none of the two packages was damaged in transit (or so it seems). I am wondering if the behavior that the subs are showing is just them working normally and perfectly (although the manual does not mention it). Have any of you experienced the same with a Monolith sub? I am curious to know before writing them again. Any help or inputs would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation
Paul

I think that the blinking red was a diagnostic self-test that always happens when you turn it on. It is normal behavior, I believe, always happens when it is turned on from a cold state. And then when it starts blinking green, that means it doesn't sense a signal. Solid green means it senses a signal. I think the subwoofer is acting normally. This should all be made more clear in the user manual, but sadly it isn't in there. Maybe I can bring it up to the product manager when I talk to him next.

 

[paulzhere]

Thanks @shadyJ for the clarification. Puts my mind at ease. But the thing is, I’ve ended up with 2 monolith 10s and I’m extremely tempted to keep them both. But these have quite low WAF and I’ve already had a few strict looks since yesterday :-/

 

[ryanosaur]

Thanks @shadyJ for the clarification. Puts my mind at ease. But the thing is, I’ve ended up with 2 monolith 10s and I’m extremely tempted to keep them both. But these have quite low WAF and I’ve already had a few strict looks since yesterday :-/

Time to buy her a new phone, tablet, or computer!

 

[paulzhere]

That means even more expense

 

[lovinthehd]

That means even more expense

Necessary expense for some (I'm single so no justifications needed ). Sure would be nice to keep both subs, tho

 

[ryanosaur]

That means even more expense

Gots t’ pay to play sometimes!

 

[Kleinst]

Indeed! It’s the way it works in this house

FYI my M-215 did something like that when I first got it. Haven’t had any problems since so must be something in those TI amps

 

[paulzhere]

Hi guys

Thanks for your insights and suggestions. I think I will keep both the subs. But now I have question about the setup. I listen to music most of the time (all genres) and very rarely watch movies. First, here is my equipment:
Fronts: Focal Chorus 786
Center: Focal Chorus CC700
Surrounds: Some shady Canton satellites (needed them to blend in with the background wall)
Receiver: Anthem MRX 500
Amp: Emotiva BasX A-300 (to drive the fronts)

Now my Anthem can support two independent setup profiles, one called "Movie" and the other called "Music". So I am thinking connecting the subs as follows.

Music profile: I set the subs as stereo. So I connect them from the RCA front outs of the receiver, set the speaker type in the receiver to "large full range" and set the subwoofer to "none". I then use the crossover of the subs to blend them with the fronts.

Movie profile: I connect the sub to the LFE out of the receiver, splitting the output to send to both the subs. Note that each sub at this point has an extra unused LFE input. I set the speaker type in the receiver to "small" and set the subwoofer to "yes". I then disable the crossover of the subs and use the receiver to set the appropriate crossover (perhaps 80Hz... to be seen).

That way I am hoping to get the best of both the worlds, LFE for movies and stereo subs for music. Note that the connections would exist all the time. When switching back and forth between movies and music, I just need to change the crossover toggles in both the subs.

I know it will be extremely hard to get the right blend given so many parameters but I hope to get something that I like for both the settings gradually.

Do you guys think this could work and whether this is a good/bad idea? Any insights would be highly welcome

Thanks