Receiver Creating Distortion from Toy Placed in the sub woofer

jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
So I'll start off with saying that I have this system. My son, poor boy, put a toy through the hole in the sub woofer, I wasn't home when my wife removed it, but after that, the whole system started producing distortions at all volumes and frequencies. I attached an old Sony receiver I had to see if it was the receiver and the sound seemed clear, however it is an old receiver. How should I proceed? I know very little about sound systems and am curious whether I should ignore the sunk cost fallacy and get a whole new system? Try to get the receiver repaired? Replace the receiver? I can probably swing around 200 bucks.
 
L

Leemix

Audioholic General
Have you tried unplugging it from the power for a good 10 mins?
 
L

Leemix

Audioholic General
and checked all connections?

Was the toy just in the tube or through it inside the sub innards?
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
You need to get that toy out of there. It may be rubbing up against the driver and that can damage the driver. Is there any panel on the sub that is help in with screws that you can remove? Is the woofer exposed somewhere on the surface of the sub that you can remove by unscrewing it?
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
Check your RCA connections. A connector might have come half way off the jack on the back of the sub when your wife fished out the toy and that does make a for some serious noise.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
So I'll start off with saying that I have this system. My son, poor boy, put a toy through the hole in the sub woofer, I wasn't home when my wife removed it, but after that, the whole system started producing distortions at all volumes and frequencies. I attached an old Sony receiver I had to see if it was the receiver and the sound seemed clear, however it is an old receiver. How should I proceed? I know very little about sound systems and am curious whether I should ignore the sunk cost fallacy and get a whole new system? Try to get the receiver repaired? Replace the receiver? I can probably swing around 200 bucks.
You say your wife removed the toy? Take the sub out of the mix altogether and see if you're still having trouble.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
and checked all connections?

Was the toy just in the tube or through it inside the sub innards?
I checked all the connections on the back of the receiver, the center speaker, one of the two wires had come unplugged, not sure how that happened, maybe when my wife was trying to get the toy out, but I reconnected it and it still made the distortion sound.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
You need to get that toy out of there. It may be rubbing up against the driver and that can damage the driver. Is there any panel on the sub that is help in with screws that you can remove? Is the woofer exposed somewhere on the surface of the sub that you can remove by unscrewing it?
She said that she got the toy out, but I will open it up tonight, You can take the bottom tweeter off.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
You say your wife removed the toy? Take the sub out of the mix altogether and see if you're still having trouble.
I did that and it didn't help. The only thing that helped was hooking up another receiver.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
Check your RCA connections. A connector might have come half way off the jack on the back of the sub when your wife fished out the toy and that does make a for some serious noise.
One of the two wires, not sure what polarity, came out of the receiver from the center speaker, I reconnected it still had distortion.
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
One of the two wires, not sure what polarity, came out of the receiver from the center speaker, I reconnected it still had distortion.
I caught that in the post above but it's the subwoofer connection I would be eyeballing as that's what The Mrs. was working on.

The loose speaker wire might have shorted something out in the rec'r. Take a real close look to make sure you don't have a loose strand of speaker wire touching anything. Test the system without the sub to see if that is the culprit. Otherwise you may have to order a new wife and son.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
I caught that in the post above but it's the subwoofer connection I would be eyeballing as that's what The Mrs. was working on.

The loose speaker wire might have shorted something out in the rec'r. Take a real close look to make sure you don't have a loose strand of speaker wire touching anything. Test the system without the sub to see if that is the culprit. Otherwise you may have to order a new wife and son.
I did a common sense diagnostic as I have had trouble with sound systems in the past and know a little about resistance, etc. First thing I did was unhook and unplug the sub and it still made the distortion... Any recommendations on where to go from here?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'd try a soft reset first, if you haven't already (i.e. unplug the avr for a while), if no help then a full microprocessor reset.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
I can confirm a soft and hard reset, hooked up the center and it sounds like bad reception on a radio station.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I can confirm a soft and hard reset, hooked up the center and it sounds like bad reception on a radio station.
I'm not clear about what is going on here.

Putting a toy in the port of a sub and retrieving it might just damage the sub driver, but I doubt it. There is no way that event could damage the receiver. The connection is a line level connection.

Now the loose center speaker connection could have done damage. However I doubt it would damage every channel. In any event it would blow the power transistors and make the receiver go into protection.

I think you are trying to tell us that every speaker is distorting. But your last post suggests it may be just the center speaker that is distorting. Which is it?

If every channel is distorting then most likely there is a failure in the power supply and that would be that you have lost either the +ve or -ve rail voltage, so you are getting either only the positive or negative deflections over or under the zero line.

If that is the case then repair might well be worth it, as the most likely cause would be the failure of a voltage regulator in the power supply.

One thing I can be certain of that the toy episode is a complete "red herring" and nothing to do with this.

What is he receiver and how old is it? You are not going to replace a receiver for $200.00.
 
jcrowde3

jcrowde3

Junior Audioholic
I'm not clear about what is going on here.

Putting a toy in the port of a sub and retrieving it might just damage the sub driver, but I doubt it. There is no way that event could damage the receiver. The connection is a line level connection.

Now the loose center speaker connection could have done damage. However I doubt it would damage every channel. In any event it would blow the power transistors and make the receiver go into protection.

I think you are trying to tell us that every speaker is distorting. But your last post suggests it may be just the center speaker that is distorting. Which is it?

If every channel is distorting then most likely there is a failure in the power supply and that would be that you have lost either the +ve or -ve rail voltage, so you are getting either only the positive or negative deflections over or under the zero line.

If that is the case then repair might well be worth it, as the most likely cause would be the failure of a voltage regulator in the power supply.

One thing I can be certain of that the toy episode is a complete "red herring" and nothing to do with this.

What is he receiver and how old is it? You are not going to replace a receiver for $200.00.

I think you are trying to tell us that every speaker is distorting. But your last post suggests it may be just the center speaker that is distorting. Which is it? All speakers are distorted, I have unhooked the receiver and hooked up an old one so that I can keep watching TV. I hooked up the center speaker to test whether a soft and hard reset would correct the distortion problem.

What is the receiver and how old is it? The receiver is part of the package I purchased Onkyo HT-S5800, but the model of it is Onkyo HT-R494.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I think you are trying to tell us that every speaker is distorting. But your last post suggests it may be just the center speaker that is distorting. Which is it? All speakers are distorted, I have unhooked the receiver and hooked up an old one so that I can keep watching TV. I hooked up the center speaker to test whether a soft and hard reset would correct the distortion problem.

What is the receiver and how old is it? The receiver is part of the package I purchased Onkyo HT-S5800, but the model of it is Onkyo HT-R494.
So there we have it. This is NOT your son's fault. The problem is that you bought this Onkyblow for $699.00 The problem is that you can't build and sell something like that for $700.00 and expect it to work for very long. So they are guilty of a con. Unfortunately you fell for the con.

So advice for the future avoid packages like that, like the plague. This is a con as old as the hills. I remember cons like that when I was a kid when stereo first appeared. The junk that proliferated was a wonder to behold.

I remember this one led the way in a half life to destruction, about 6 months.



That was 62 years ago and things have only got worse.

That unit is not worth repair. It would be good money after bad. It does not even earn a decent burial, but it will have to have one at your local recycling center.
 
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