Sony Strdg520 subwoofer problem

[dolphin_m70]

hi
I have Sony strdg520 A/V receiver.
i have done all the connectivity for the front and surround speakers and they work fine. but when i connected the subwoofer, it doesnt work. i tried everytg. And also the sw output is selected to Yes.
donno what am i doing wrong, when i do the tone chek all the other speakers are checked except the subwoofer.
pls any help will appreciated.


thx

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

Which subwoofer do you have, and how do you have it connected to your receiver?

 

[Adam]

The owner's manual covered almost everything on page 59 that I generally would mention. The one exception is setting your speakers to "small", but I don't think that would have anything effect on the test tones that you mentioned.

 

[dolphin_m70]

hi adam
thx for ur reply
the subwoofer im using is from my older dvd player (BUSH AVR )and so are the other speakers.
The subwoofer is a RCA (wire ) connecter, but the receiver has a phono connector, so i connected the wire to a phono plug
SW works fine in my dvd player
and also i have changed the other speaker to small

thx

 

[Adam]

Does your subwoofer have a built-in amplifier? If not, then we need to connect it differently.

Also - just so that I'm clear, you plugged the cable from the subwoofer into the "SUBWOOFER AUDIO OUT" jack on the back of the receiver?

 

[dolphin_m70]

ys adam, i have connected the subwoofer to sw audio out.bcz there is only one slot saying subwoofer
and the manual says u can connect the subwoofer , so i guess it has an in built amp.
the connection goes like this

im using my xbox as the blu-ray player. connect it with the dongle. connect it with a optical cable to the receiver. and hdmi cable for the video..
for the sat-box the same optical cable + hdmi cable.
the rest is the speaker cables.

 

[Adam]

The easiest way to know if your sub has a built-in amp is this - if you have to plug the sub into a power outlet, it has a built-in amp. If you can't plug your sub into a power outlet, it doesn't have a built-in amp.

The subwoofer connection that you have used requires that the sub have a built-in amp because there is very little power transferred out of that "SUBWOOFER AUDIO OUT" jack on the receiver.

If your sub doesn't have a power cord, let us know. I think that we can still get you set up.

 

[dolphin_m70]

yeah ., thts right
the subwoofer doesn't have a power cable. its just connected to the sw jack on the receiver. unfortunately it doesnt have a built in amp.

 

[Adam]

Okay, then. Before we start down the road of connecting that sub to your speaker terminals, do you have an amplifier (or old receiver) around the house that you aren't using?

 

[dolphin_m70]

unforutnately no...bcoz this is the first time im using this sort of thg. bcoz recently only i bought a hd tv so wanted to connect all this sat and xbox together. just had a dvd player till now.

 

[Adam]

You say "dvd player", but it was what you had your speakers and sub connected to, correct? Do you still have that? If so, does it have any analog audio inputs on it?

If you let me know the model number, then I might be able to look that up for you.

 

[Adam]

Do you have the Bush DVD AV11K?

 

[dolphin_m70]

Sorry had to go to work, came bak just now

Mine is a BUSH DVDAVR12 dvd player with radio tuner and dolby digital AC-3 decoder, i bought it as a whole system with speakers and all. the speakers were connected to it and i still have it.

 

[alexwakelin]

I couldn't find any information on your system, but I did find one that might be similar:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bush-DVDAVR11XI-Cinema-System-Silver/dp/B000L0HQZG/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

1 x 75W Passive Subwoofer, 5 x 50W Satellite Surround Speakers

It sounds like the amp for your subwoofer is built into the cd player of your old system. You will need some type of amp to drive the subwoofer, or try leaving it connected to the cd player.

 

[dolphin_m70]

acc to the manal

subwoofer:- output power-30W
impedance- 4 ohms

speakers:-system:1 way shielded
impedance - 4 to 16 ohms
speaker driverss: 3" full range


but if i leave it connected to the dvd player, how im going to use the xbox
to watch the dvd's, thts the whole idea

 

[dolphin_m70]

is this speaker worth buying instead of one i have right now
i thnk this has got the inbuilt power system and amp
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=228935

 

[Adam]

...or try leaving it connected to the [DVD] player.

That's what I was starting to get at, and it might be a solution.

Dolphin - I asked if your original Bush DVD system had analog inputs because you could then use it as the amp for your sub. It looks like that unit has microphone inputs that we could use for this, but I haven't found any pictures of the back panel, so I don't know if it has a set of analog RCA-type inputs. You would connect the subwoofer output from your new Sony receiver to the analog inputs on the Bush, and connect the subwoofer to the Bush (like you did before you got the Sony receiver). The volume dial on the Bush would act just like the volume dial on a powered subwoofer.

Does that make sense? If you'll let us know what types of audio inputs that Bush system has, we could get you set up with this.

As for those PC speakers that you asked about, I'll bet that they won't work with your system - either in general or the way that you'd want. I didn't see the connections listed on that page (but I might have missed them), but most everyone of those systems connects to a system using either three analog cables or a single digital cable. They are also self-powered, so wouldn't use the speaker terminals on the Sony. I can explain that it more detail, but my suggestion is that you pass on PC speaker systems.

 

[dolphin_m70]

hi
the bush has the following connections

speaker connections (RCA for all the speaker)
video outputs
component video output
2 audio input channels(L1,R1,L2,R2)
2 audio output channels(L1,R1,L2,R2)
coaxial and optical audio outputs
FM antenna connection
MW loop Antenna connections
Mains
Scart connections

 

[Adam]

Cool. Sounds like you can power that sub using the Bush, if you want to do that. It's the cheapest solution right now. Ultimately, you will probably want to upgrade your speakers and get a powered sub, but we'll cross that bridge later.

To do what I'm thinking, you'll do the following:

1. Connect the Sony receiver's subwoofer output to one set of the analog inputs (e.g. L1,R1) on the Bush. You'll want an RCA y-splitter (either a cable or an adapter). Ideally it would have one male RCA plug on one end and two RCA plugs on the other, but I just haven't found one this morning (but I'm confident that they exist). You could use an adapter like this one here and connect that to a regular RCA patch cable like this one here. You can get those at a lot of stores, I believe.
2. Connect the subwoofer to the Bush like it was before.
3. Turn on the Bush unit.
4. Select the input source on the Bush that corresponds to the analog inputs that you used.
5. Initially, set the volume on the Bush to be low.
6. Turn on the Sony receiver.
7. Play the test tones and adjust the volume on the Bush unit until the sub volume sounds good to you.

When you use your system like this, you'll need to have the Bush unit on for the sub to work. The big picture here is that your Sony isn't powering the sub - it's just sending out a low-level audio signal for the sub that needs to be amplified. So, you need to amplify it to hear it. The Bush unit can do that for you (as could another amp, or a new powered subwoofer).

As a note, if the Bush system has settings for the speakers such as "large" or "small", you'd want to set them all to "small".

 

[dolphin_m70]

thx very much adam for such a detailed help
the shops are closed for today
i'll get them first thing in the morning and give a try
and as soon as i finish, i'll post a message
hopefully with a picture
thx once again
and i'll make sure to upgrade the system