Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Power increase when Subwoofer ON

Can someone tell me why I get more bass from my front (L+R)
loudspeakers when I turn my sub on? When its off and I crank a tune I notice the woofers on my loudspeakers move about an inch, but when I turn on the Sub the loudspeaker cones move about 2 inches its a huge difference even if I turn down the vol on the sub - I have a strage system - the amplifier is built into the sub - and the receiver part connects to the sub for power, so all the wires going out to my speakers come from my sub - did sony somehow wire all the bass to go thru the sub?

Hi freesey,

I'm confused. Do you use an A/V receiver, feeding the low-frequency effects (below 80 Hz) line-level signal to the RCA input jack on the subwoofer?

Some subwoofers do not use a high-pass filter on the outputs to the speakers, so the speakers may be getting a full-frequency signal, WITH the bass frequencies intact.

Regards,

freesey

Me to - I am confused. Please tell us what equipment you have (makes and models). And if not to difficult - how you have the components wired together. Perhaps you have it hooked up in a way that you don't really have to. Or you may just have some connection crossed.

Randyman

This is a strange system- The subwoofer sits right below the whole recevier/tuner/tapedeck/cd changer and acts as a stand for it all. The POWER plug goes into the sub, and a ribbon cable goes from the sub to the monster reciever - - Now obviously all my tv stuff dvd player and whatnot plugs into the receiver - but some cables go BACK to the sub (like sub out and l+r out; there are ins on the back of the sub) and then there are spring clips for bare wire in the back of the sub so Im assuming the amp is in there. So whenever I turn on my sub I get more bass from the front l+r speakers, when I turn it off it dissapears, I can turn down my sub all the way when it is on and I still get the same amount of bass id get from the speakers if the sub was on and turned up - Sorry its confusing I hope I have sorta explained it, if not, Im gonna try making a schematic lol

Check out the reply I sent to Alan, maybe that will be a little better - if not Ill make a picture

Here is a picture
http://members.rogers.com/xlrate2000/stereo.jpg

Strange setup. I am not familiar with the piece of equipment you have at all. What MODEL is it? and how OLD is it (when did you get it?) Does it have power input for 110 - 220V (multi-country use?) or just 110V only. Does the tuner have a switch to change the AM band between 9 and 10 khz? (another clue to international models)

Perhaps there is some info for it on Sony's website (but I doubt it - they are really lacking on technical info there)

Does your manual give you ANY clues?
So far I am stumped - but there HAS to be an answer!

Randyman

LOL well so am I!
hmmm It was refurbished I got it used at a liquidation centre - there were a few things wrong with it - I paid 130 clams for it, had to pay another 70 to Sony to send me a ribbon cable because it was missing - I believe this was like one of those home theatres you can buy in a box with speakers and all - I think it was made in 96 I cant really tell cept for a few dates - THe top part with the receiver is called HCD-541, and the sub is labelled SAW552, while the whole thing is called SEN-R5520; its insane logic. anyways, it doesnt have any switches for power input, or a 9,10 khz switch either. Ive tried lookin on sonys website, they are TERRIBLE for info on their stuff, its like they try to disown everything they have that isnt current. Ah yes, i dont have a manual either, the remote im using is a RM-VL700 sony multi remote cause it seems to work for the most part for this thing - One thing Ive noticed on the sub tho is that there is a "Phase" light beside the power light, Ive never seen it light up and have no idea how to do so - sorry for the lenghty response - heheh Ill borrow a digital cam and take a picture of this monster :P

Freesey, I've tried to interpret your schematic and what you've written, but it's still unclear. The most common connection scheme would be to have a single length of co-axial cable running from the sub out on the receiver to the line level input on the sub. No other connection to the sub would be necessary. Then you you would have 5 lengths of speaker wire running from the main, center, and surround outputs on the receiver to those speakers( not to the sub at all). How are your speakers connected presently? Even that isn't clear to me.

Basically thats how it is with the sub - except that the five lenghts of speaker wire run out from the SUB to the speakers, everything else is just trimmings or excess I guess - the only reason there are other connections on the sub is probably cause it was a HT setup - I was just wondering if anyone knew why id get more bass from my loudspeakers when I turn on my sub