I need a little advice on home theatre receivers. I have a Pioneer VSX-D810S digital receiver that I recently connected. I didn't really want to buy any new speakers so I decided to scrounge up the speakers I already had. The front, rear, and center channels work fine. What I am not sure about is the subwoofer; I took the subwoofer from a Klipsch/THX computer sound system. The subwoofer has an amp built into it; it is made to produce low tones from a standard computer stereo source. I thought that I could connect this to the preout on my receiver, but when I do that I get only a very faint tone coming out of my subwoofer. Instead I have now connected it to the front left and right preout and it sounds pretty normal. What I want to know is this; is this setup okay for a Dolby Digital or DTS signal? Is there actually a separate channel set up for the subwoofer in a Dolby Digital or DTS signal that is completely indepentantly of the left and right speakers? If that were the case then theoretically only the center channel could be making noise and only high tones would come out when the subwoofer should be doing something. Is getting a subwoofer channel from the left and right channels the same as getting it from the preout, and if not how can I get my subwoofer to work with the preout?
I wouldn't connect a PC Subwoofer to a consumer class Reciever. That could be just your problem. Buy one made for specifically for stand alone recievers.
DTS/DD5.1 Specifically have a channel for subs. You will be missing some audio, but whether you can distinguish is another question. However the bigger problem is that you are not using matched sets of speakers - that just isn't going to sound that good, in a nutshell. The impedances most likely don't match between the sub and amp too, and that won't give you max power.
Well, to be quite honest it sounds really good; I just thought it could be better. I guess if it isn't noticable it isn't really a problem. Although, what do you mean by matched speakers? Do you mean to say that surround speakers ideally come in one package? Why?
Boxed sets are designed so that each component meets the same specification. If you replace a component with a different spec, let's say frequency range, then you can have mismatched sounds. The subwoofer is usually the one component that you can get away with mismatching, but it is still better if it matches. Also, PC speaker systems are designed for a much smaller area of effect than regular home theatre components are, so that could be why the sub feels weak when connected to the subwoofer preamp output. Funny thing is, I have this exact same receiver. You should have MUCH better results by using the subwoofer preamp rather than the speaker preamps. Here are a couple of settings that you might want to look into: 1) Speaker Setting: The (F?-C?-S?) setting where ? = (S)Small/(L)Large/(*)Missing. Chances are good that you are using small speakers, so make sure that you have this set to FS-CS-SS. If they are set to large, some of the lower frequencies are sent to the speakers instead of the sub (which seems to be exactly what is happening with your preamp outputs). 2) Subwoofer Setting: If you actually do have large speakers and set the speaker setting to FL-CL-SL, then you have to set this setting to PLUS to send the lower sounds to the sub. 3) Crossover Frequency: This is probably the other culprit. The higher this setting (100/150/200Hz) is, the more frequency is sent to the subwoofer. 4) Dynamic Range Control: If this is on, the frequency range is compressed and some sounds (namely the lowest and the highest) may be dropped or sound wrong. It is worth looking at. I have had this receiver for a while now and my only complaint is that it doesn't have ProLogic II support.
I would do that marsil, if my receiver had come with a remote control. All the things you're talking about require a remote, don't they? I only paid 55 USD for it so I can't really complain. I wonder if there is a place that sells remotes for receivers and such? eBay doesn't have any for the VSX-D810S.
Holy crap. I just looked up the remote to see how much it would cost to replace and every place that I looked had it at $60 or more (including direct from Pioneer), with one on ebay for $40 BIN. Just so you know, the remote is the same as the 710s receiver too. Here is the part number for the remote itself: XXD3028 As I recall, there are compatible program codes for the receiver included with some universal remotes, but I haven't found a code with complete functionality (I just use a programmable remote).
