Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stereo and subwoofer

Help me fix my subwoofer

Gamblor — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:43:03 -0800

I have a passive NHT SW2 subwoofer being driven by an NHT SA-2 amplifier that is supposed to control the volume. Lately, however, the volume for the sub plays at full, irrespective of the actual volume setting on the knob. When it first started, tinkering with the volume control could sometimes get the correct volume, but now it's just at max all the time. It's not making any unusual sounds, it's just loud, vibrating, and completely disproportional to the sound coming out of the satellite speakers. This makes it unusable with the satellites, and the satellites are unusable without the sub, which makes my whole system unusable. Not fun.

So far:

-I replaced the cables connecting the amp to the subwoofer.
-I cleaned the volume control dial with electronic degreaser.
-I inspected the connecting wires around the volume control but see no physical problems.

I suspect that it's an amp problem, but since everything in my home stereo are separate components, it's hard for me to test this without disassembling all the parts and testing at a friends house piece by piece. That's something I would really like to avoid.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Any suggestions or directions on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Stereo / amp question.

starman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:47:51 -0800

Looking for advice on stereo speakers (and an amp setup). I have a 5.1 setup that I'm pretty happy with, but I recently came into posession of a 15-plus year-old Yamaha R-30 "Natural Sound" receiver that I'd like to use just for music (anyone else have one of these older Yamaha receivers, have any thoughts on them?)

Question is: what can you recommend for a decent set of speakers to plug into it? They don't have to be that powerful - maybe some bookshelf speakers that have a good range? Or if you have a suggestion for some floor speakers that are a "great find." Let's say the price range is $200-300 but don't hold back.

Part 2: I also have an unpowered, 80-watt subwoofer. Left and right stereo wire inputs. Any recommendations for cheap-ish amp for it? The amp output has to be a single RCA.

Can anyone help me with a troublesome home theater problem?

bDiddy — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:41:39 -0800

I'm having some problems with my AV receiver and I'm hoping someone here can help. I'll post the details inside. In August I purchased a Yamaha Home Theater in a Box system. Specifically, I bought the YHT-760 system. It worked great for three months and then all of a sudden I'd get a lot of noise from my subwoofer. The way I decribe the noise is: imagine you're on stage and you have a microphone connected out to an am. Then you rub paper all of the microphone. I am getting a sound out of my subwoofer very similar to the sound the paper makes on the microphone as amplified by the sound system. Make sense?

So that's the sound in the sub. It's not always constant. sometimes it happens after a few hours of TV, but lately it happens whenever I have the sub plugged in. On top of that, the receiver has taken to turning itself off. I am told this is a circuit protection feature.

I have already brought the receiver in for repair and was told they fixed the problem by replacing a PCB. They tested it and returned it to me. Two days later, I got the sound from the subwoofer and then yesterday it started turning itself off again.

Yesterday I bought banana plugs to attach to the speaker wire into the sub. With those plagged in, I got the same sound. And, I bought one of these things to see if it was a problem with my outlet. The receiver still turns itself off (I have taken to keeping the sub unplugged.)

Can anyone give me an idea of what to do next? I am losing my mind with this problem!

Corollary: I seem to have a lot of static electricity in and around my living room. Can this have anything to do with the problem I am having?

I apologize for the length of this question. I just wanted to be thorough.

Small audio amp?

cccorlew — Sun, 08 May 2005 12:07:04 -0800

I have a small Soundworks subwoofer with satellite speakers I want to use with my Mac. I need a small, no frills amp just to, well, amplify. Is there such a beast at a reasonable price?

Subwoofer Recommendations

delmoi — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 17:13:48 -0800

stereofilter: I'm interested in replacing my subwoofer. I have some cheap RCA thing that really overemphasizes a single note. I'd like to replace it with something that has better frequency response, preferably a self-powered sub, and I don't want to pay a fortune for 'stereophile' stuff like so many people seem to do.