[rominho]

I have a Yamaha AV-63 home cinema package, the problem is with the subwoofer (SW-P130) performance, when I run the auto
set-up YPAO I always get a warning at the end of the process:"LEVEL ERROR" which shows as a problem with the subwoofer.

While all other speakers will have adjustments of +2 or +3 the sub will show -10 as adjustment (it says the sub is over 7 meters away from the listening position when in fact it's only about 2.5 meters).

I have tried changing the wire and even changing the position of the sub, to no success. Also, the subwoofer sounds very muffed sometimes inaudible, particularly when using the "multi channel output" on the receiver.

I have contacted Yamaha's customer services over this matter but in their
reply they basically only copied and pasted the subwoofer setup section from the user manual (thank you very much Yamaha ) which obviously I had already gone through, I tried to follow up but they never contacted me again (it's been a week).

I then wrote to Peter Tyson (where I bought it from), a guy got in touch and we exchanged emails back and fourths, so basically what they said is that I can send it to them for testing, but I have to arrange the transport, if it's faulty they will deliver it back to me , if it's not I have to pay again for delivery.

He also said that Yamaha equipment is very reliable and if the sub was faulty it would be muffed with every output (the performance does vary from source to source).

If I was to send it to them and it's not faulty I will be throwing £50 to £60 away on delivery charges.

Not sure what to do now, the ideal should be a technician to have a look a it and just tell me whether it's faulty or not. I mean, just the fact that the automatic setup won't complete without errors tells me that something is definitely not right.

Any advice from you good people?????

[Badger0-0]

While all other speakers will have adjustments of +2 or +3 the sub will show -10 as adjustment

This is suspicious straightaway.
It would seem you have the subs volume too high and the amp can't turn it down enough.

Make sure the crossover on the sub is fully turned up or off.
Turn the sub's volume (gain, same thing) down to half of what it is now and re-run the setup.
If it still says -10, turn it down some more and re-run it again.

I'm not sure what you mean by muffed?
It won't sound like a normal speaker.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

This is suspicious straightaway.
It would seem you have the subs volume too high and the amp can't turn it down enough.

Make sure the crossover on the sub is fully turned up or off.
Turn the sub's volume (gain, same thing) down to half of what it is now and re-run the setup.
If it still says -10, turn it down some more and re-run it again.

I'm not sure what you mean by muffed?
It won't sound like a normal speaker.

Thanks for the advice.
This sub doesn't have a crossover control, only volume.
When I run the setup I have the volume set about half way (a bit less, say number 4 out of 10).

sometimes, depending on the DVD, you won't hear the sub at all, I will have to crank it to the max to have a minimal response and in rarer occasions (much rarer) it will be so loud that I will have to turn the volume down close to the min.

I know that this subwoofer is part of a budget setup, therefore I can't expect much from it. That's why I am not really sure whether it's faulty or not.

[Badger0-0]

Re-run the setup with the volume at 2 out of 10 and let us know what the amps adjustment is.

If it still says "level error" it could be a faulty amp.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

Re-run the setup with the volume at 2 out of 10 and let us know what the amps adjustment is.

If it still says "level error" it could be a faulty amp.

Will do as soon as I get home.

you know what, it could actually be a faulty amp... it would make sense given that the sub works well with certain DVDs.

I watch quite a lot of concerts on DVD so it is easy to know when the sub is working properly or not.

[IronGiant]

The sub (any sub for that matter) is a fairly basic bit of electronics, if you are getting error messages on the main amp I too would be suspecting the main amp to be at fault, not the sub.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

Re-run the setup with the volume at 2 out of 10 and let us know what the amps adjustment is.

If it still says "level error" it could be a faulty amp.

Ok ... I run the setup with the volume close to the minimum ... it didn't show the error ... but again it says that the distance to the listening position is over 5 meters, it should be half of this. The receiver then offers a +3 adjustment, I should get that with the volume half way through, not when it is close to the minimum.

Then I tried again with the volume nearly half way through, a bit less ... and managed to finish without the error, well not quite, again the distance shown is 5.2 meters and a -9 adjustment (i suppose the error comes when the adjustment reachs either 10 or -10).

Well, those are the results!

[Badger0-0]

Okey dokey
That's not right.

Ok, now totally ignore the auto setup.

Set the sub up purely by ear.

How does it sound?

If it's ok, I'd be looking to get the amp (or at least the setup mic) checked out.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

Okey dokey
That's not right.

Ok, now totally ignore the auto setup.

Set the sub up purely by ear.

How does it sound?

If it's ok, I'd be looking to get the amp (or at least the setup mic) checked out.

That's the thing the sub's performance varies greatly depending on the source or amp output.

For example... I have some Audio DVDs (DVD-A) with 2 audio tracks a MLP lossless that I can only enjoy through the analogue multi-channel output ... and a DTS track that I will obviously get through the digital output.

The MLP track is supposed to sound better because it is lossless unlike the DTS track that is lossy, however I will get hardly any bass at all on multi-channel, but if I switch to the DTS track I will have plenty of bass.

worth taking the risk and send the amp for checking??

[Badger0-0]

I keep coming back to this;

sometimes, depending on the DVD, you won't hear the sub at all, I will have to crank it to the max to have a minimal response and in rarer occasions (much rarer) it will be so loud that I will have to turn the volume down close to the min.

Now I've never used your amp and am going from memory of my last Yam, but doesn't it allow you to alter the settings for each mode? (eg Stereo, DD, PL11 etc).
I think it does, in which case you might need to look into that.

Otherwise it sounds like the crossover could be too low.
I'd be looking to set it to at least 100hz for those speakers.

I'm not sure you should send it back until you've exhausted every route, as it's going to cost you.
If you can get it reasonable with manual settings, that would do, imo.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

I keep coming back to this;



Now I've never used your amp and am going from memory of my last Yam, but doesn't it allow you to alter the settings for each mode? (eg Stereo, DD, PL11 etc).
I think it does, in which case you might need to look into that.

Otherwise it sounds like the crossover could be too low.
I'd be looking to set it to at least 100hz for those speakers.

I'm not sure you should send it back until you've exhausted every route, as it's going to cost you.
If you can get it reasonable with manual settings, that would do, imo.

I think you're right ... honestly I have no idea if my amp (RXV 364) allows me to change these settings but I'll have a go at it.

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

I keep coming back to this;



Now I've never used your amp and am going from memory of my last Yam, but doesn't it allow you to alter the settings for each mode? (eg Stereo, DD, PL11 etc).
I think it does, in which case you might need to look into that.

Otherwise it sounds like the crossover could be too low.
I'd be looking to set it to at least 100hz for those speakers.

I'm not sure you should send it back until you've exhausted every route, as it's going to cost you.
If you can get it reasonable with manual settings, that would do, imo.

I still haven't found how to change these settings ....any help is welcome

[IronGiant]

Do you mean an RX-V365?

[Badger0-0]

I can't get an online manual to try and help you mate

[IronGiant]

if it is a 365 you can get the manual online by registering at yamaha.

https://www.yamaha.com/yec/Registrat...365_manual.pdf

Dave

[rominho]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

Do you mean an RX-V365?

it is actually 363 ... it can't be too different from the 365 though ... I'll see

[rominho]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

I can't get an online manual to try and help you mate

I found the manual http://www.yamaha-uk.com/pdf/owner_manuals/RX-V363.pdf

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If you (or anyone else) would spare a few minutes I think the solution could be between pages 44 and 50, there are a few choices to make, I don't want to go crazy changing all settings without even know what I'm doing.

For instance, you have the option to change the Crossover frequency, revert Subwoofer phase, adjust low-frequency level, adjust dynamic range ... and many more option there.

As I said I don't want to go and just mess about and end up with even worse worse results.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Rom

[Badger0-0]

Going through you list;

Crossover, I'd set to 100, but you can experiment (the higher the number, the more of the sound goes to the sub).

Phase, don't worry about that, but you can try both settings to see if you can hear any difference in the bass. I doubt you will.

Low frequency level, leave it at 0.

Dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds, set to std.

Make sure bass out is set to SWFR and make sure all speakers are set to small.

When you've done all that, you may need to alter the volume on the sub to suit.
Do some listening to DVD and music and tweak the sub volume to try and find a nice balance. You should find a happy medium, but don't expect it to be perfect all the time, as it won't be.
The point is, once you've found that happy medium, that's it. You shouldn't need to alter the volume on the sub.