Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Getting my subwoofer to "kick in"

I have a general issue where my sub does not turn on unless the volume is turned up pretty loud. Any suggestions like, turning up the sub output on receiver and turning the sub volume down or vise versa?

Thanks Tom.

Can you provide what sub your using? Adjusting the levels as you mentioned may help, but my experience is there is not much difference as long as the two combined get you the same SPL as your other speakers.

The new 350's have a switch to leave them active all the time or on standby when they recognize a signal. I turned that feature off.

Tom, that's exactly it: if the sub amp isn't getting enough voltage to keep it "awake", increase the sub trim level on the receiver to output more voltage. Then to keep the overall volume level the same, reduce the setting on the volume control on the sub itself.

I have hsu vtf2, denon 2803, I did as JohnK suggest, to no avail, I looked at my sub does not appear to have an always on feature.. thanks for all your help!

Tom,

Is this the first time you've connected a sub up to your system? Are you using the same cable as before? Do you have the sub turned on in the Denon's menu?

Hi TomJ,

Here's a quick method to test if your Hsu's auto wake-up feature is not working or perhaps working erratically.

First, disconnect all cables from your subwoofer except the AC power cord.
Use any portable music player--CD, iPod, MP3 and run an adaptor cable from the headphone output (stereo mini-plug) to an RCA male plug, and connect it to the line-level input of your subwoofer. Make sure the sub isn't totally off, then play any music with the output volume on the music player at half to 3/4 output. Your sub should "wake up" and you'll hear deep muffled bass.

You can use one channel of any audio CD player or the analog audio output from a DVD player.

If the sub doesn't wake up even when you increase the output level of your music player to maximum, then there's something wrong with the sub's auto-wakeup circuit.

Regards,

To reply to Mojo: I have had the sub attached and turned on via Denon for a few years. It has always been the same issue... today I put in Diana Krall... its wonderful... and it took to about 62 db (via radio shack meter 8 feet away from vp150, m22's) before the sub kicked in... maybe this is normal... when in doubt I guess I should email the offending group...hsu/denon ;-) Thanks for everyones input.

To reply to the Master (Alan), I hooked my cd player up as suggested and it kicked in fine...

Sounds like the subwoofer level in the receiver needs to be increased. I had the same problem with an older sub of mine and it took much more SPL for it to be activated than 62db from the mains, which is actually quite low. I had to have the level set to +10 in the Denon for the sub to be activated at lower volumes, about 70db from the mains, if I remember right. 62 db is actually a pretty low volume level. I will have to check if my SVS sub comes on at that low of a level.

I'm a little worried about that with the new EP350v3 coming (based on nothing). Anyone have any feedback on how well those turn on?

Mine comes on pretty much right away when playing music waaayyy below comfortable listening levels. For movies it usually kicks in by the time the menu comes up. I've never noticed it turning off at any point in a movie or CD; usually stays on several minutes after powering down all the other components.