How can I verify my AV subwoofer is working?

Question

I've had a 10" Klipch for about 2 years. Over the 2 years I rarely watch movies and really do not know if the woofer is working. I just moved and am now more interested in getting more bass out of my TV watching experience.

When the unit is plugged in, and it's connected to the Sub out ports all I get is a humming sound and very little bass, not matter how much I turn up the volumn.

Answer 1

Find your receiver manual and get into the setup menu. You want to tell the receiver all your speakers are SMALL and that you have a subwoofer attached.

This will tell the receiver to send all low-frequency sounds from all speakers to the sub.

Then get a copy of a setup DVD like Avia, Digital Video Essentials or Sound and Vision setup DVD. There is a set of test tones on these disks that will send sound to exactly 1 speaker at a time.  Let it flow around the speakers and when it comes time for the sub - it should produce sound.  Check your connections/intensity k**b until that sub produces sound with the test tones.

Once you have verified the sub is configured and working with your DVD player - then you need to check how you send sound to  your receiver from the TV.  Hopefully you have a HD cable box and feed the receiver sound with an optical cable.  If not - try using this.  The standard sound for HDTV is 5.1 dolby digital so it's the same as your DVD player.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I agree with Grumpy Mac go into your recievers setup and set all speakers to small, then set the sub crossover (on the receiver) to 80Hz.

On the sub itself set the crossover as high as it will go, since the reciever is handling the crossover.  On subs it's normally 200Hz.  You do this because you don't want conflicting crossover and with the reciever doing the crossover it will make all the adjustments on what frequency (80Hz and below) to send to the subwoofer from all the speakers.

Also select Auto on the sub and with the Phase slowly twist the phase dial till you get the cleanest bass signal.

Your reciever should have a pink noise test tone which will send static noice to each speaker, to test if each one is getting noise (including the sub) if the receiver has an Auto setup for pink noise check this and it will tell you if the sub is working or not.  Another test is to put on a bass heavy scene from a movie (U-571, Transformers) and put your hand on the sub driver, if you feel it move, your getting bass.  Adjust the volume accordingly (a sound pressure meter from Radio shack is good for calibrating all speakers.

As for the humming, this could be a ground loop problem and Radio shack sells a ground loop isolator for about 7.00  The ground loop isolator has two RCA connections, but you only need one (red or white) when hooking up to the sub.  Buy one with one male and two female connectors.  This should eliminate the "hum" that you hear.

Answer 3

First put it in auto mode. If the light turns from red to green then it's getting a signal. At that point, you should hear bass. If the light stays red, check your receiver and make sure the bass output is on and configured correctly.