Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Hooking up the sub

I just received my system including the R872 7.1 AV. I'm tring to hook up the sub but apparently I'm not doing it right. I'm connecting to the pre-out SWOOFER and the male end fits only the XLR/1/4phone in. If I pull the 1/4 out it doesn't fit??? Need assistance to make sure I'm doing this right. Any one up for providing assistance tonight?

What kind of cable are you using (RCA or XLR)? What type of sub?

Its not an RCA type plug. It is a rather thin cable, I would have to say it is more like 3.5 mm, it has a small center male plug and a surrounding shield that would say fit over a female plug. Make sense?

Can you take a picture of the pieces for us?

OK it is the RCA sub woofer cable on the web page under cables sub woofer coax cable.

EP350 Sub

Anyone have an answer?

I don't have an Axiom sub but there will someone along to help.

From the manual:


RCA LINE IN: Your subwoofer is shipped with a supplied 1/4” Phone-to-RCA-jack adapter already installed in the XLR female input. Connect a shielded coaxial cable, with male RCA plugs on each end, from the A/V receiver or A/V preamp processor’s Subwoofer Output jack to the RCA female jack on the 1/4” Phone-to-RCA adapter.

I would say use the adapter that was supplied and the coax cable, sub cable, you have.

With the sub cable plugged into the sub out of the receiver to the sub in, using the adapter, to the sub.

Thanks Rick, that is what I did and I'm not getting any sound. System is on, all of the rest of the system is working. I'll check it out again.

First, are you unable to connect the “SWOOFER” pre-out to the subwoofer or are you just not getting any sound of the sub?

Basically you want to connect from the “SWOOFER” pre-out to the subwoofer (probably called “Line in”) with the RCA terminated cable you have described. (like Rick posted ). If that isn’t an option then:

What type of subwoofer do you have?

How are the connectors on the subwoofer labeled, if they aren’t labeled what do they look like?

What other controls are on the subwoofer?

Did you go into the receivers menu to make sure the sub is receiving a signal?

You probably have to “tell” the receiver that you have the sub hooked up if you didn’t run some sort of Auto-setup that does it for you.

Not sure how those menus are arranged but it’s probably in “Speaker Setup” or something like that. Likely it’s just a simple “Subwoofer” = “yes” or “no” type of option

Always one step ahead Rick.

I've got one of those EP350 amps. I had a similar problem until I twiddled with the adapter to some degree.

Double check it with a portable player of some kind directly connected (headphone out->sub in) or with your CD player (same deal, right channel out directly the sub) to verify that it makes noise.

I wonder why Axiom doesn't use the industry standard connection on their subs?

What Alan/Ian/Peter said awhile back was that the most returns/repairs they get on subs are with replacing those RCA jacks, since they get broken off all the time. So they replaced it with the 1/4 adapter.

1/4" jacks are very sturdy, I don't blame them. RCA is still better than the 1/8" jacks, those things get eaten alive with an accidental tug.

Hi KSTx,

Be sure you shove the 1/4-inch phone-to-RCA female adaptor all the way in and make certain it makes good contact. It should sort of click when it's properly seated. Rotate the 1/4-inch adaptor to ensure it's not loose.

Go into the AV receiver's menu and be sure the subwoofer output is "ON". INcrease the sub output level to +2 dB. Turn the subwoofer's own volume control to about halfway.

You can verify if the subwoofer amplifier is working by inserting just the tip of the 1/4-inch phone adaptor--you should hear a loud buzz from the subwoofer.

Regards,
Alan

And it's a little frightening, too!

Alan,
I went through exactly what you said. The RCA cable is hooked in the adaptor and it is solidly plugged in. I then went through the set up procedure and was not getting any sound through the subw. I've checked and said yes to subw in setup, set to +2 and nothing. I guess my next question is, do I have it plugged in right on the back of the AV unit..R872? Connected to the Pre Out SubWoofer? By the way the was it is set now there was no loud noise like you would get hooking up a jack to an electric guitar for example to its amp.

That's the right output. Did you try hooking up an MP3 player or CD player like I recommended?

I had the same problem with one of my EP350's. Call Axiom and they will send a new STRAIGHT adapter instead of the right angled one which they apparently have had some problems with. If that doesn't work, then it's probably the AMP itself.

If you have another or can borrow a sub-woofer from a friend, you can verify that the receiver is setup correctly and that will save you some steps.

Oh yeah? Good to know. I didn't realize they were having problems with the right angle one. Pity, I really like the right angle one for my setup.

At least mine is working at the moment...

Careful, Ken! If you touch one without dissipating static first, they blow up the house....sans propane canisters, of course.

(But, besides that, they're as good as the straight one....)

OK now it is complete!!! The SubW works. Went through and hooked up another SubW I had on another system and it registered sound. Went back through the setup for the I don't know how many times and found a setting on a SubW set at -17 db, which I moved to +2 db as Alan suggested. I got sound in the EP350 then. Then went back and re-calibrated the system to the room. WORKS GREAT!!!

Thanks to one and all who contributed. Problem solved.

Great news, congrats.