Hi there. I haven’t posted anything in this forum for about 7000 years but I am curious about a position I find myself in an wanted some opinions (we all have them) about the best way to proceed.
My questions are around a) subwoofers not working and b) room correction software benefits
Background
First some background (which you can skip if you just want me to get to the point)
7000 years ago, or more specifically in 2009 I upgraded my home cinema kit and it’s the kit I largely still have to this day.
I have a pioneer KRP-600A plasma tv (still going strong with a great picture), pioneer sc-lx81 amplifier, and a 5.1 speaker system consisting of tannoy revolution signature DC6T towers and matching centre, tannoy arena highline as rears, sunfire hrs-12 as sub. Oh and pioneer lx08 blu ray player which I never use anymore.
Its in my living room. Its not a dedicated cinema room. It’s a bit of an odd shape and not suited for great room acoustics. I have no appetite for sticking bits of foam all over the walls. Its main purpose is a living room that we watch the telly in.
Suffice to say for 13 years Its been fine. Like most Ive always hankered after better more impressive sound (and vision) but I am severely restricted about where the speakers can go.
Oh and as an aside, Atmos would be lovely but we had a bit of a nightmare recently fitting new LED lights in the ceiling and since then have had a new floor laid, new settees and redecorated throughout so there is no appetite to stick atmos speakers in the ceiling and/or digging channels in the walls for the cables.
I’m quite happy with what I have but for the last year or so I have fancied a decent 77” 4K tv and whilst I know there is a workaround, I know to do it properly I would also need to upgrade my amplifier to suit. So no rush but maybe when it gets round to black Friday I would see what was on offer.
In addition preliminary investigations led me to the conclusion that the biggest impact on sound quality was the room the equipment was housed in, then probably the quality of the equipment itself. But ….and this is up for debate and we will get back to it later, if you don’t address the problems in your room then its pointless spending huge sums of money on very expensive and very good quality equipment!
Now about a year ago my sunfire sub starting humming. I took it to a repairer, and he basically said it couldn’t be fixed. I don’t like big subs. I like small discrete ones. So I thought I would buy 2 x svs-3000 micros to replace the 1 hrs-12. Power output about the same but spread over two subs. I couldn’t afford 2 at same time so bought 1 and connected it. It worked. Great. Then I thought before I totally give up on the sunfire I would just try it again and so using an adaptor (the amp only has one sub out) connected both and lo and behold humming gone and I had a 5.2 system, albeit different size subs.
I then had a few months of listening to that system.
Intention is that when the time is right to invest in a 77” 4ktv (fancying the LG OLED C1), a good quality amp (maybe £2-3k) and another svs-3000 micro to replace the sunfire. Probably looking at £5-6k in total.
The Problem
One day quite recently I noticed that I didn’t appear to be getting any sound out of either of my subwoofers.
I disconnected and reconnected, switched everything off and an again.
Bought a cheap new cable and connected it to each sub in turn (to see if it was the cables), running the pioneer room correction software which sends noise (is it white noise?) to each channel. There was sound coming from each of the 5 speakers but not either of the subs. Total silence.
I checked the outputs and settings on the subs, unplugged them, plugged them into different sockets but still nothing.
I tried tapping the end of the sub cable that goes into the amp and there was a sound coming out of the subs.
Checked the settings on the amp. Nothing changed there. It should be sending a signal to the sub(s) but it wasn’t.
It seemed one day everything was working, and for several months it was, then one day…nothing. No signal was being sent to the subs. And it was both of them. Not just one.
My conclusion is that it must be the amp. If I had another amp I could connect that up and see if the subs suddenly spring back into life. Maybe my trusty old pioneer has finally had enough sub work.
Bearing in mind my previous statement about investing in a new tv, amp and sub I am thinking that some dealers may lend me an amp, just to test out the theory. At least if that works I know its my amp that’s stopped working (or at least the sub out channel has).
I wouldn’t want to spend £6k on new gear only to find there is still no sound coming from the subs.
The Questions
So EVENTUALLY here are my question(s)
The logic being that Anthem ARC or DIRAC room correction software would improve my sound quality in my 5.2 system, compensating for my poor room layout and would be worth the outlay.
OR….
Any comments are welcome, even if its I haven’t got a clue mate.
My questions are around a) subwoofers not working and b) room correction software benefits
Background
First some background (which you can skip if you just want me to get to the point)
7000 years ago, or more specifically in 2009 I upgraded my home cinema kit and it’s the kit I largely still have to this day.
I have a pioneer KRP-600A plasma tv (still going strong with a great picture), pioneer sc-lx81 amplifier, and a 5.1 speaker system consisting of tannoy revolution signature DC6T towers and matching centre, tannoy arena highline as rears, sunfire hrs-12 as sub. Oh and pioneer lx08 blu ray player which I never use anymore.
Its in my living room. Its not a dedicated cinema room. It’s a bit of an odd shape and not suited for great room acoustics. I have no appetite for sticking bits of foam all over the walls. Its main purpose is a living room that we watch the telly in.
Suffice to say for 13 years Its been fine. Like most Ive always hankered after better more impressive sound (and vision) but I am severely restricted about where the speakers can go.
Oh and as an aside, Atmos would be lovely but we had a bit of a nightmare recently fitting new LED lights in the ceiling and since then have had a new floor laid, new settees and redecorated throughout so there is no appetite to stick atmos speakers in the ceiling and/or digging channels in the walls for the cables.
I’m quite happy with what I have but for the last year or so I have fancied a decent 77” 4K tv and whilst I know there is a workaround, I know to do it properly I would also need to upgrade my amplifier to suit. So no rush but maybe when it gets round to black Friday I would see what was on offer.
In addition preliminary investigations led me to the conclusion that the biggest impact on sound quality was the room the equipment was housed in, then probably the quality of the equipment itself. But ….and this is up for debate and we will get back to it later, if you don’t address the problems in your room then its pointless spending huge sums of money on very expensive and very good quality equipment!
Now about a year ago my sunfire sub starting humming. I took it to a repairer, and he basically said it couldn’t be fixed. I don’t like big subs. I like small discrete ones. So I thought I would buy 2 x svs-3000 micros to replace the 1 hrs-12. Power output about the same but spread over two subs. I couldn’t afford 2 at same time so bought 1 and connected it. It worked. Great. Then I thought before I totally give up on the sunfire I would just try it again and so using an adaptor (the amp only has one sub out) connected both and lo and behold humming gone and I had a 5.2 system, albeit different size subs.
I then had a few months of listening to that system.
Intention is that when the time is right to invest in a 77” 4ktv (fancying the LG OLED C1), a good quality amp (maybe £2-3k) and another svs-3000 micro to replace the sunfire. Probably looking at £5-6k in total.
The Problem
One day quite recently I noticed that I didn’t appear to be getting any sound out of either of my subwoofers.
I disconnected and reconnected, switched everything off and an again.
Bought a cheap new cable and connected it to each sub in turn (to see if it was the cables), running the pioneer room correction software which sends noise (is it white noise?) to each channel. There was sound coming from each of the 5 speakers but not either of the subs. Total silence.
I checked the outputs and settings on the subs, unplugged them, plugged them into different sockets but still nothing.
I tried tapping the end of the sub cable that goes into the amp and there was a sound coming out of the subs.
Checked the settings on the amp. Nothing changed there. It should be sending a signal to the sub(s) but it wasn’t.
It seemed one day everything was working, and for several months it was, then one day…nothing. No signal was being sent to the subs. And it was both of them. Not just one.
My conclusion is that it must be the amp. If I had another amp I could connect that up and see if the subs suddenly spring back into life. Maybe my trusty old pioneer has finally had enough sub work.
Bearing in mind my previous statement about investing in a new tv, amp and sub I am thinking that some dealers may lend me an amp, just to test out the theory. At least if that works I know its my amp that’s stopped working (or at least the sub out channel has).
I wouldn’t want to spend £6k on new gear only to find there is still no sound coming from the subs.
The Questions
So EVENTUALLY here are my question(s)
- Do you agree that it is probably the amp that’s at fault?
- Do you know of any way to prove it, other than temporarily replacing it (purely as a test)
The logic being that Anthem ARC or DIRAC room correction software would improve my sound quality in my 5.2 system, compensating for my poor room layout and would be worth the outlay.
OR….
- am I wasting my money as I cant treat my room and should just get something like a Denon AVC-X3700H (or maybe a model or two above), spending £1-2k rather than £3k plus on a better quality amp that I just won’t hear the benefit of (because of my room limitations)
Any comments are welcome, even if its I haven’t got a clue mate.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram