High-pitched whine coming from Subwoofer

[gocjeffe]

In the last week I've noticed a high-pitched whine coming from the sub...it's pretty loud and very annoying. As soon as I power off the sub it goes away and once I power it back on it seems to take a bit for it to start up (maybe 30 seconds).

Any guesses what it might be?

I have a DSW Pro400 (about 2 months old) connected to an Onkyo 705 with a 16' monster subwoofer cable. I get the noise whether or not the sub is connected to the recieiver...it just has to be powered on.

Thanks!

[treitz3]

A hint to take it in for service. Oh, my manners.....welcome to the forum.

[gocjeffe]

A hint to take it in for service. Oh, my manners.....welcome to the forum.

LOL. It's not a very nice hint. It's annoying and loud.

And nice to be here!

[treitz3]

Well, nice hint or not. It's reality. A high pitched noise that came from electronic equipment I repaired when I was in that type of industry always had something wrong with it. My guess would be a cap, but it may be something within the circuit that is causing it as well.

[gocjeffe]

Bummer...I guess I'll see what they say on the phone tomorrow. Just finally got everything set up and in it's proper place too. I was hoping there was just a "turn off high-pitched noise" switch on the bottom of the sub that I didn't notice.

[treitz3]

Wouldn't that be nice. Keep us informed as to what they say. I would love to be wrong with this. The good news is that if you do have to send it in for service, you don't have to ship the entire sub, most likely you can just ship the amp saving $$$.

[gocjeffe]

Hopefully since it's barely over a month old they can come up with something better than that!

[treitz3]

Eh, you may have just gotten a lemon. It happens with the best of manufacturers. Could you possibly take it back to the store and just do a swap out?

[gocjeffe]

I bought it online from Crutchfield, which probably means I'll be dealing with Polk directly. No big deal, I can wait, but I hope it doesn't take too long.

[treitz3]

I see you have another post in the troubleshooting section. Most likely, you will have a response from them tomorrow, as it's a direct line of communication with them. Polk is usually very quick and helpful to get matters like this resolved.

One last thing, and please don't take this the wrong way. Are you 100% positive that you have the sub hooked up correctly? It may be a long shot, but it's a possibility that might be the cause of this noise.

[gocjeffe]

Yeah...it's connected properly and the noise happens whether the sub is connected to the reciever or not, which says to me it's either a problem with the amp/power supply or it's an interference problem. The manual says that there could be some interference from the cable connection that generates noise, but a low hum, not a high-pitched whine.

The way it takes the noise a little bit to start after you power on the sub is telling too...something about the amplifier warming up or something.

[treitz3]

Yeah, it sounds like it has some kind of issue as this is not normal. You can call 1-800-377-7655 or send an email message to polkcs@polkaudio.com if you don't get a response tomorrow. I have no earthly idea what their holiday schedule is like.

Sorry I couldn't help more. Have a good evening and be sure to keep us posted.

[gocjeffe]

Talked to customer service today...they have no idea what it is, so they're just going to ship me a new one and have me send the old one.

Great experience so far!

[zingo]

gocjeffe,
Did you feed the gnome that lives in the subwoofer? All subwoofers have a gnome that lives inside, and if he (or she) doesn't get fed from time to time, they produce a high pitched whine. Just put half a twinkie in the port tube and problem solved.

[gocjeffe]

I fed him a poisoned twinkie. Bad?

[zingo]

Ah, should be fine. They are resilient little guys.

[chargerman426]

hey gocjeffe im glad polk is going to work with you on the sub but just in the future reference Crutchfield has a 30 day money back guaranty and also a 1 year warranty on all there products.