Is it dangerous to turn a Subwoofer up too high?

[srinivas1015]

My current config: Marantz sr6011, Polk DSW Pro 550 Active 10 inch Subwoofer.

I set the volume of the sub to 50% and had Audyssey calibrate it. It set it at -3.5 db, and it was barely producing anything so I bumped it up to +9 db. I also increased the subwoofer's volume to 65%.

It sounds good but is there any danger with doing this? The sub blowing out/exploding/imploding, etc?

I usually listen at a volume of -15 db on my receiver.

 

[MaSh]

No there is no issue in turning it up. There are built in circuits that will protect it. However, I would be more worried about the listeners and neighbours.

MaSh

Sent from my Redmi Note 3

 

[Audiodoc]

The sub will produce sound in movies if the LFE track has significant effects.

Secondly extremely over driving the sub can damage the voice coil or cone of the sub as well as the output stage of the sub amplifier. So modestly increasing the LFE response and feeding good quality music in the only way out.

65percent sub volume is fine but 9 dB boost is excessive. It would be better to check the crossover frequency in the avr and match it well with the sub. An example is that if you have small front left right speakers you can set the cross over at 80 hertz and adjust the subs crossover to 80 hertz so any music that is below 80 hertz is produced by the sub. If you have set the sub at 60 hz you are loosing the 60 to 80 hz band and will have low bass levels as you are experiencing.

 

[Audiodoc]

You can also place the sub in the corner of the room to enhance bass.

 

[srinivas1015]

I'm using a single cable from the LFE out and the crossover on the Sub has been set to 120 hz. The other speakers are set to 80 hz.

There are a few scenes where I can hear the sub making a Thump noise-- like when the engines of Prometheus turn on in the finale.

I'm getting less 'oomph' ever since I calibrated using Audyssey XT32. With my old receiver and Audyssey MultiEQ, I got more of a 'kick' form the sub but without any distortion. I had to turn it up to 5.5 db though (Audyssey had put it at -4 db).

The only difference is that now I'm getting distortion in a few scenes-- something that wasn't there before.

Two clarifications:
1) I'm talking about movies.

2) I turn it up from -3 db to 6 db; not 9 db.

It's fine for the most part but I hear 'thumps' in some heavy scenes such as the World Engine in Man Of Steel. Is this what clipping sounds like?

 

[ISO]

Don't know about subwoofer but it will definitely have bad effect on your ear.

 

[sanloyn]

By looking at the settings, I can only say that you are a bass-head Like me

Setting the sub at 6db and the volume nob at 65 is perfectly OK, I don't see any issue with that. Unless until the speakers or the sub produces a tearing sound, you are OK to crank up the settings.

But always try to keep a threshold point so that you can feel that the speakers are safe.

Like many others mentioned, this will wake up your neighbor in the night hours, you might want to keep a check on that.

 

[Audiodoc]

For movies the sub should be setup to that level that during the most bass heavy sequences there is no clipping of the sound.
Secondly you should check the frequency response of the front left and right speakers. If it in 80 hz to 20 khz it is better to setup the avr at 80 hz so that the front left and right sounds have some body.
You should also set the sub to 80 hertz and check whether the cones of the front speakers and the subwoofer are in phase, that is, both are moving out at the same time. You can try with some low frequency samples.
You can setup the avr subwoofer gain from 0 to 3 db and rest of the gain from the subwoofer amplifier.Feeding a large signal can also cause premature clipping. There is a certain input voltage to every amplifier for optimal output. Usually it is between 1 to 2 v that is usual line in levels.