Need Help: No sound from Subwoofer

[Reds4ever]

Hi,

I have an Onkyo 304 amp connected to Jamo 406 (5.0) home theatre system. I bought a Jamo Sub 200 this weekend to add some much needed bass to my setup but when I connect it to the amp, I'm not getting any sound from the sub.

Here are the details of my connections.
- Audio from PS3 to Onkyo through Optical cable; video through composite connected to Video 2 inputs
- Tata Sky to Onkyo through composite connected to Video 3 inputs
- Subwoofer is connected through the subwoofer pre-out
- In Speaker Setup, Subwoofer is "Yes"

Here's what I've tried thus far with no success:
- I've tried various settings of the crossover - 80 Hz, 100 Hz
- Double Bass On and Off have both been tried
- I've played with various settings on the subwoofer - level, cutoff, phase, auto/on
- I've tried both the left and right input sockets on the subwoofer for connecting the cable
- Ive tried two subwoofer cables - one that came with the subwoofer and another which I'd bought
- I've tried connecting my cell phone to the subwoofer and it gives a very low volume muffled sound.

When I play a game on the ps3, the Onkyo detects the audio as 3/2.1.
The light on the subwoofer stays on but no sound comes from it.

Any feedback/suggestions on whether there is anything wrong with the setup or something which I can check before I take this issue with the Jamo Service centre? I waited all day yesterday for my sub to arrive and am mighty upset that it didn't work (or i couldn't get it to work) out of the box. :-(

 

[jayad08]

Hi,

I have an Onkyo 304 amp connected to Jamo 406 (5.0) home theatre system. I bought a Jamo Sub 200 this weekend to add some much needed bass to my setup but when I connect it to the amp, I'm not getting any sound from the sub.

Here are the details of my connections.
- Audio from PS3 to Onkyo through Optical cable; video through composite connected to Video 2 inputs
- Tata Sky to Onkyo through composite connected to Video 3 inputs
- Subwoofer is connected through the subwoofer pre-out
- In Speaker Setup, Subwoofer is "Yes"

Here's what I've tried thus far with no success:
- I've tried various settings of the crossover - 80 Hz, 100 Hz
- Double Bass On and Off have both been tried
- I've played with various settings on the subwoofer - level, cutoff, phase, auto/on
- I've tried both the left and right input sockets on the subwoofer for connecting the cable
- Ive tried two subwoofer cables - one that came with the subwoofer and another which I'd bought
- I've tried connecting my cell phone to the subwoofer and it gives a very low volume muffled sound.

When I play a game on the ps3, the Onkyo detects the audio as 3/2.1.
The light on the subwoofer stays on but no sound comes from it.

Any feedback/suggestions on whether there is anything wrong with the setup or something which I can check before I take this issue with the Jamo Service centre? I waited all day yesterday for my sub to arrive and am mighty upset that it didn't work (or i couldn't get it to work) out of the box. :-(

As you have tested that there is some sound coming from the sub from ur cellphone there seems to be an issue with the amp..
As you didnt mention the volume of the sub, check the same from the amp settings, it maybe that ur sub volume from amp is very low..
you can try another thing, if your sub supports high level inputs, take additional speaker inputs from the amp, and connect to the sub at high level speaker inputs..

 

[Adhiraj]

Hi,
In my Yamaha,when I select the front speakers as large the sub automatically gets disabled until I go back and select "Both" option for the sub,dunno if the onk has a similar behavioural pattern.If your amp has preouts try using that with the sub instead of the sub pre out and let the subs inbuilt crossover take over, try the high level outputs if the sub supports them.
Im thinking this is 70 percent likely to be a setup issue,reach for the amp manual.
Also once its sorted make sure your speakers and sub are similar in phase or you will have a bass suckout and net result will be no or very little bass.
If it does not work even with the high level inputs then its the sub.
HTH.

 

[Reds4ever]

Thanks a lot Adhiraj and Jayad08 for your inputs.. I've managed to rectify the problem. There were two issues:
- The contact between the subwoofer cable and the onkyo pre-out was not proper even though it seemed so upon first look. I pushed the cable in a little harder in after having read about a similar issue with another Onkyo owner on another forum.
- The front speakers were set to large because of which very little power was coming to the sub. I changed that to Small.

My setup now does give good bass though i'll definitely need to tweak it over the next few days.

Adhiraj,
You'd mentioned about the need to ensure that the sub and speakers are in phase. Is there any way to check whether it is so other than playing around with the phase control on the sub and listening for changes?

I don't have an actual SPL meter, but have an Android phone and have downloaded an SPL meter app on it which uses the phone's mic to detect the pressure. Although not accurate in an absolute sense, i can use it to determine relative values in two setups. Perhaps, i can keep moving the phase control on the sub and check from this meter where i get the maximum reading.