Home Theatre Subwoofer Advice

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#2426218 24-Feb-2020 11:40

networkn:

I hurt my back over the weekend so wasn't up to trying the multi-positional thing and wasn't able to look for my tripod, however, having played with it generally over the weekend, I am very underwhelmed. I am getting WAY more bass from my center speaker, than the subwoofer even with it set nearly at max volume (-10 to -15). The sub is working, and I can hear it making some sound (I can feel it if I touch the cover). If I play something bass heavy-ish, and then alternate between sub on or sub off, I can barely tell the difference. My wife said the same thing.

I would wait until you are fit and able to spend a bit of time to properly set it up. I would be very surprised if it performed worse than your old sub and the difference that poor setup can make is huge. Make sure that it is connected and set to the default settings as recommended by the quick-start guide ie. gain at 1/2, phase at zero, low pass filter at disable/LFE. Set all speakers to small on your AVR, crossovers to 80hz, and the low pass filter to 120hz.

If your MLP is in a big null, then it will sound like poos at that location. Does it sound louder/clearer when you sit in different places around the room? Best way I have found to isolate issues is to disconnect all of your speakers (easiest way is to unplug the negative terminal and push it out of the way so it can't contact any ground), and play a song/movie/sound file that actually features good quality bass ie. loud and has <20hz - 80hz reaching/sweeps. If it sounds better at some locations, do the sub-crawl mentioned earlier. If you hear nothing at all, you probably have a connection or crossover setting issue.

Once you have the approximate location right, then re-run YPAO, then mess around with fine-tuning gain/phase/crossover levels.

I have also heard Yamaha AVR's have issues with low sub pre-out voltage that leads to volume issues, but if you are already using a Y cable plugged into both LFE IN L/R RCA ports on the sub, it shouldn't be an issue.

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jonathan18

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#2426258 24-Feb-2020 11:47

To add: I wouldn't worry at this point about specific placement of the sub; the problems you currently have need to be sorted before you worry about finding the best location.

First off try the suggestions above of setting all speaker sizes to 'small' and setting appropriately high crossover. Once you've done that try boosting the LFE channel volume. What impact does that have, if any, on the sub's output?

Also, if you are going to run the auto-calibration again, dig out your tripod; but, I'd suggest fiddling with the settings manually as suggested above to ensure things are generally set up correctly before going back to do this.

In terms of information to post here, once you've done the above, perhaps follow Dunersfella's earlier suggestion re posting the specific settings of the speaker setup - eg, the relative settings for each channel (eg, 'centre +2...) and the current crossover figures. Photos probably won't add much, assuming you've got the cable set up correctly (see post above...).

networkn

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#2426260 24-Feb-2020 11:47

Hi.

All speakers except the rears are already set to small and 80hz (or 60hz, I can't quite recall and I am not home right now).

As per this picture of the rear (not mine).

https://connectedmag.com.au/svs-launches-2000-pro-series-reference-subwoofer/

I assume the LFE Rear RED plug, is the one that a single cable should be connected to?

I'll have a play tonight, I should be able to have a proper play now that I can move a bit :)

jonathan18

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#2426263 24-Feb-2020 11:54

Yep, that LFE input's the correct one.

networkn

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#2426267 24-Feb-2020 12:05

I am not worried about my placement yet either.

Dunnersfella

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#2426274 24-Feb-2020 12:41

If there's more bass from the centre channel than from the sub... then you'd excuse me for thinking the subwoofer isn't connected to the correct pre-out? Is it in subwoofer 1 or subwoofer 2 on the back of the AVR?

ShinyChrome

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#2426279 24-Feb-2020 12:58

networkn:

I am not worried about my placement yet either.

It's less about finding the optimum placement than starting from a solid baseline that you can then make good assumptions from and work your way through isolating out the things its not ie. connections are right, settings are at recommended default, room acoustics aren't terrible.

I would post up pictures of your connections and settings on both the AVR and sub to make sure both of those are set correctly.

networkn

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#2426285 24-Feb-2020 13:22

I am about 99% sure it's into one of those two plugs as indicated by the red arrow, and I am about 75% sure that of those two, it's the bottom one that is plugged into. I'll double check tonight.

Given that the YPAO was able to detect the Sub, and sent test tones I could hear to it, doesn't that indicate it's connected and working properly as far as the amp is concerned?

ShinyChrome

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#2426299 24-Feb-2020 13:37

networkn:

I am about 99% sure it's into one of those two plugs as indicated by the red arrow, and I am about 75% sure that of those two, it's the bottom one that is plugged into. I'll double check tonight.

Given that the YPAO was able to detect the Sub, and sent test tones I could hear to it, doesn't that indicate it's connected and working properly as far as the amp is concerned?

Dunnersfella can give you a more concrete answer I'm sure, but it looks like Yamaha AVRs can be set up to deliver bass a number of ways, so it would probably pay to post up a picture of the configuration page from your AVR.

Yes and no, there is still a lot of lee-way in between 'it works' and 'it works well'. If nothing else, it serves as a confirmation that it is all g

networkn

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#2426346 24-Feb-2020 14:47

Those numbers for the distances seem very wrong to me. 3M from my seating position to the Sub is probably out by 1-1.5m but again, I doubt that is the reason for the sub not working properly.

I'll find a different cable for the sub tonight. The Y cable I have is very high quality, I don't think I have a similar quality rca-rca cable, but I assume most cables should work?

jonathan18

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#2426379 24-Feb-2020 15:45

I assume these figures are all generated by the auto-calibration setup? If so, have you tried re-doing it as suggested using a tripod? How many different positions did you measure from? Clearly the distance measurements make no sense - assuming even a single point of reference in the middle seat (ie, in the prime location) it should be much more balanced than that. (I've generally found the distance measurements from my Yamaha receiver - a pretty old one now- are surprisingly accurate, so something's up there.) Similarly, the rear speakers are still showing as 'large', which again makes no sense.

Also, have you tried simply manually amending the distances, speaker sizes and crossovers?

allio

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#2426433 24-Feb-2020 16:18

Forget what the auto calibration is telling you. Set all of your speakers to 'small' and all of your crossovers to 120Hz (or higher) while you are troubleshooting this issue. Once you start getting appropriate volume out of the sub you can start lowering crossovers to find the sweet spot.

jonathan18

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#2426442 24-Feb-2020 16:24

allio:

Forget what the auto calibration is telling you. Set all of your speakers to 'small' and all of your crossovers to 120Hz (or higher) while you are troubleshooting this issue. Once you start getting appropriate volume out of the sub you can start lowering crossovers to find the sweet spot.

Yep, exactly as I advised back here.

networkn

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#2426627 24-Feb-2020 20:55

Ok Tonight I measured things and changed them manually so they are approximately the actual distance from where I sit. I also double checked where the sub was plugged in (into Sub 1 from picture above) and changed the cable for a single RCA.

None of those things made a significant difference, nor did changing the rear surrounds or down firing ones to small @ 80hz

I suspect this is the issue:

If I move the sub toward 0 or +10 things get a LOT more boomy.

Can someone who knows, provide me with a recommended number for those speakers and sub in that picture?

Cheers

ShinyChrome

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#2426657 24-Feb-2020 21:46

Looks like the YPAO is not getting good measurements. It is trying to turn your sub down though, so it is measuring sufficient output apparently.

Each speaker pair should be evenly matched, the only differences should be between different speaker types to match sound output, not L/R. As others have said, you should try running YPAO again with a tripod for the mike.

It's hard to say exactly what your sub should be set to without hearing it, but if you are not satisfied, I would try 0. I would avoid any positive setting as it is artificially boosting output relative to the volume setting of your AVR and a good way to hit the limiter in particularly loud sounds.

If you still need more output, you could try raising the gain on the sub to 2/3 but I wouldn't go any higher than that.

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