Hooking Up New PSW10

[reuliss]

So I just bought a PSW10 and am hooking it up to my Yamaha receiver. The receiver recognizes that there is indeed a sub hooked up to it and I went through the speaker set up with the microphone included by Yamaha for balancing the speakers hooked up to the receiver. The receiver seems to think that the subwoofer is putting out sound, but it's not. I put on the deepest bass music I can think of and the subwoofer is just making no sound whatsoever. The sub is definitely on and I've adjusted the volume, but I just don't know what else to do. Am I missing something? Is it possible that the speaker is defective??

Thanks so much in advance for any advice!

[wutadumsn23]

How do you have it hooked up? If you have it hooked up via LFE, make sure it is in the right pre out, it's usually labeled subwoofer, and is most of the time, purple in color. It may also be black, but make sure it is hooked up to the right one. If your AVR has 5.1 or 7.1 analog outs, there wil also be a pre out there for the subwoofer and sometimes people will mistake the two. Also, make sure you have it going to the LFE IN on your 10 and if all these connections are good/correct it may be a defective sub. Give Polk CS a call on the phone (don't E-mail as the turn around can be somewhat slow) and see what they can offer for assistance. Good luck and welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

1-800-377-POLK (7655)
9AM-5:30PM EST Mon-Fri

[reuliss]

Jeff--Thank you for the response. I'm a bit new to this, but I'm not sure what the "LFE" is. I can tell you that I'm sure I have it hooked up correctly to the receiver (looks like an RCA port that says "Subwoofer out." On the speaker itself there are only two RCA ports as well, both left and a right. I used a Y cable to connect the two.

Does this sound correct?

[Knucklehead]

Sounds like its hooked up ok...try removing the "y" cable and use either the right or left input. Make sure the cut off freq on the back of the sub is set poperly as well. You may need to go into your AVR's programming manually and check the settings. David

[wutadumsn23]

On the speaker itself there are only two RCA ports as well, both left and a right. I used a Y cable to connect the two.

Does this sound correct?

Does the PSW10 not have a LFE IN? If it does you could just connect the cable from the Sub Out on the AVR to the LFE IN on the sub (usually a yellow colored connection) LFE is the best way to connect a sub, IMHO but the way Dave has described will work as well. Good luck.

-Jeff

edit: just checked the specs and the 10 does have LFE IN, try that way and check the settings as Dave had advised.

[Knucklehead]

Does the PSW10 not have a LFE IN? If it does you could just connect the cable from the Sub Out on the AVR to the LFE IN on the sub (usually a yellow colored connection) LFE is the best way to connect a sub, IMHO but the way Dave has described will work as well. Good luck.

-Jeff

edit: just checked the specs and the 10 does have LFE IN, try that way and check the settings as Dave had advised.

Edit: Jeff, Im not sure the PSW10 has an LFE input. Ive had 2 and dont remember it having that. I could be wrong though.

David

[wutadumsn23]

Crap you are right Dave. I looked at the Polk website and it said LFE IN for the PSW series, but had an asterik next to it. I looked for the meaning of this asterik and it said "except PSW10" My bad, sorry for the bad info and thanks for clearing it up for me Dave. Carry on, lol.

-Jeff

[lumpy]

reuliss,

you will also want to check your receivers set up. What yamaha do you have? the set up should be as follows: menue / manual set up / sound menue / speaker set / up arrow 3 times to bass out - set it to either sub out or both with the left or right arrows for an LFE connection (sub out on the back of the receiver).

if your source that the music/movie is coming from has a set up for bass, you may want to check that as well.

If your source is connected with annalog L+R rca only, you may want to have the sub also connected with L+R rca cables from the L+R front speaker pre outs on the back of the receiver. in this case set the receiver to bass out - front.

[kolbtod]

It sounds like you need to go into your receiver settings and "turn on" the LFE port with the channel you are attempting to use. Example, when I listen to 'radio' in stereo mode, I needed to turn on the LFE port in this setting, otherwise no signal was sent to my sub. This is because my receiver by default disables LFE in stereo mode regardless of the receiver auto sense initial setup.

This will need to be checked for each channel in your receiver.