Surround sound repair/suggestion

[BuckeyeFlorida]

Hey all, I need some help. We've had an older surround sound hooked up at our house for a while, but the other day I realized I never actually wired in the subwoofer. Having a Super Bowl party and figured I should get that taken care of.

Long story short... working fine. Unplug and run main and rear speaker from receiver to input on subwoofer and output to the right and left mains to test and I get static, intermittent sound, crackling, and then silence. Rewired to original working configuration, no sound. Receiver still powering on, so did I do to my system?

Speaker test mode gives no output (including center which wasn't wired through the sub), tried different RCA inputs into back (TV, CD, VIDEO, etc...) and nothing.

Thoughts? Is it fried?

 

[Taosman]

Short. Blown fuse. If your lucky.......................................

 

[powerlifter]

Your sub is dead,but that's normally what death sounds like....Hopefully I am wrong..

 

[Muck]

What is the make/model of your receiver and your sub?

(What's been said already is unfortunately probably the case but still...)

 

[BuckeyeFlorida]

What is the make/model of your receiver and your sub?

(What's been said already is unfortunately probably the case but still...)

Receiver RCA RV-9970A
Sub RCA SP9950

 

[Muck]

K looks like that sub has high level inputs only (ie speaker wire).

OK going by your quote...

Unplug and run main and rear speaker from receiver to input on subwoofer and output to the right and left mains

The sub in question has two inputs (left & right) and two outputs (left & right).

How did you wire both the main & rear outputs from the receiver into the sub?

Did you combine them into a single set of inputs (ie positive and negatives from both main & rear each into a single input....or even plainer, did you stick two wires into one hole)?

 

[BuckeyeFlorida]

The sub in question has two inputs (left & right) and two outputs (left & right).

How did you wire both the main & rear outputs from the receiver into the sub?

Did you combine them into a single set of inputs (ie positive and negatives from both main & rear each into a single input....or even plainer, did you stick two wires into one hole)?

This is correct, I combined both into a single set of inputs for the subwoofer. Did I overdo it on the sub? Should I only have wired in the main left and right?

I have since verified two blown fuses in the receiver I will get replacements for this evening.

Thanks to everyone in the thread for help, Muck especially.. greenies all around.

 

[Muck]

That is definitely the problem. When you crossed the two channels you shorted out the amp section of the receiver.

BIG no no.

On pro logic receivers there is no separate bass management, all three channels (the rear two channels are actually a single mono source) are "full range". There's no extra low frequency information in the rear channel that isn't delivered to the mains so running them through your sub would not add anything that wasn't already there from the fronts.

If everything is ok after you replace the fuses, just run the mains through the sub and keep the rears separate.

In the future don't ever try to run two different channels into a single set of speaker terminals, smoking your amp is not fun.

Good luck, I hope the fuses did their job and protected everything else!

 

[BuckeyeFlorida]

So thanks again for everyone's input on my little situation. A final update for those who might be interested.

Successfully replaced the fuses and voila.. we have sound again. All was not entirely well, however, as one of the rear speaker outputs was trashed. So the subwoofer is now wired per Muck's instructions, center, two mains, and one rear speaker are functioning beautifully.

I consider myself a lucky man. Goodnight.

 

[Muck]

All was not entirely well, however, as one of the rear speaker outputs was trashed. So the subwoofer is now wired per Muck's instructions, center, two mains, and one rear speaker are functioning beautifully.

Glad to hear things weren't a total loss!

If you are gonna lose a channel one of the rear is the best option since as I mentioned it's really just a mono signal going to both rears...there is no stereo separation.

Stick the working rear speaker in the middle of the back wall and just pretend it's a rear center channel.