Need help troubleshooting R-120SW sub

Kcamp

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So I've noticed that my Klipsch R-120SW doesn't seem to be outputting any sound. I have a Denon x4500h AVR with a couple of RP-280F towers and an RP-450C to go along with the sub. I have the subwoofer cable plugged into the Sub 1 input on the AVR and the L/LFE input on the subwoofer. The Low Pass (Hz) dial on the sub is set to LFE and the Gain dial is set to about 40% or so.

The green power indicator is illuminated, so I know it's on. When I was calibrating the speakers using the AVR, it recognized the subwoofer and sound definitely came out of it then. Now, when I actually play music or media though, sound never seems to come out of the subwoofer, all my bass seems to just come out of the towers. Any ideas?
 
A couple of things to check, make sure that the sub is still present in the speaker set up menu, also if the sub has been moved recently, double check the connections are tight, also that they are in the correct outputs/inputs.

Also have you got your L&R speakers set to "Small" and what is your crossover freq set to?
 
The sub is present in the "Active Speakers" display, although its block isn't colored in while the LRC speakers are blue. Not sure if that actually matters.

All the inputs are in the correct places and seem to be tight. When I do a Test Tone in my AVR setting with the sub, it does make noise, albeit pretty quietly (it's set to -3.5 dB).

So some things to note about my config settings. After calibration, the AVR automatically set my LRC speakers to Large. I didn't change any settings after the calibration. In the Speakers/Bass settings, Subwoofer Mode is set to LFE (Plays low range and LFE signals of channels set to "Small") and the LPF to LFE option is set to 120 Hz. The Crossovers category is grayed out and it says "Can only be set when there are Small speakers selected in Speaker Config or when Subwoofer Mode is set to LFE+Main.

So maybe something is off with my settings here. Should I switch my LRC speakers to Small? Or should I switch Subwoofer Mode to LFE+Main?
 
Change your LRC to small, generally when using a sub you want your main speakers to be set to small.
 
What will setting the LRC speakers to Small do, exactly? Just curious. Looking at the calibrated levels, it seems like they're already tuned down a good bit. L is -4.5 dB, R is -6.0 dB, and C is -7.0 dB.
 
Also, as a follow up, when I set the speakers to Small, the Crossover setting is defaulted at 40 Hz (is that a good number?). And that also seems to have activated my sub, it's now making sound.

Also, if I leave my LRC as Large but change the Subwoofer Mode to LFE+Main (Plays low range and LFE signal if all channels), the subwoofer also seems to activate. So which of these two settings would be better between setting LRC to Small vs. Subwoofer Mode to LFE+Main?
 
So we have two things going on that we need to understand:

LFE = Low Frequency Effects (your .1 channel) a specific channel encoded with LFE for films.

Then we have Redirected Bass, which works in conjunction with the Crossover you have selected and your L&R Main speakers. These are two very different things but are quite often confused

So your L&R speakers are physically large (and very nice by the way) their frequency response if accurate shows that they have the ability to go quite low, however, a Subwoofer has the ability to go much lower and handle the low frequencies much better, after all that's specifically what it's designed for.

Large speakers, or Full Range speakers as they should really be referred to, have a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz.

With your speakers set as Large, essentially what you are telling your AVR is that all bass will be handled by your L&R speakers.

With your speakers set to Small you are essentially telling your AVR that they can't handle the Full Range (even very large floor standing speakers usually can't go low enough at meaningful levels) so we supplement the L&R speakers with a dedicated Subwoofer. When we do this, we need to set a crossover to tell the AVR when to crossover from L&R speakers to the Subwoofer. This is why your crossover setting was grayed out when they were set to Large.

Setting the crossover to get a good blend between your L&R speakers and Subwoofer is the tricky bit. The generally recommended setting as per THX specs is 80Hz, as i don't know how accurate the quoted frequency response of your RP-280F towers are, i would experiment with the 40Hz setting that it has defaulted to when you set your speakers to Small, I'd suggest 60Hz would be a more appropriate figure to try, but this is entirely down to you and how it sounds to your ears.

I must admit i am not an expert in Audyssey, so you may get more help in the dedicated thread.

You may have to run a manual setup as changing what has been set post Audyssey calibration may create problems.

Hopefully this has helped rather than confuse matters even more?

There are lots of useful tips and articles on how to get the best out of your setup, so good luck.
 
If using speakers and a subwoofer in a 5.1 set up then those speakers should always be set as small and the crossover on those speakers set at 80hz. When playing stereo in the receivers menu the front left and right speakers along with the sub will be active. All signals below 80hz will be sent to the sub. Avoid the LFE+Main. Use LFE only.

For an understanding of crossover and speaker settings read the first entry of this excellent thread.
 
Got it. Thank you guys so much for the help. When you brought the problematic settings to my attention, I did a little more research on them and I think I have a better understanding now. I shouldn't have just wholesale trusted what Audyssey set everything to.
 

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