How to Troubleshoot a Powered Subwoofer That Is Not Loud
A powered subwoofer produces deep bass for a lively home theater experience, bringing realism to action movies and music. The fun of having a subwoofer comes from the rumbling, low-frequency audio that rattles the room when movie rocketships race across your TV, cars explode, and dinosaurs stomp through the jungle. If the subwoofer is not loud to your satisfaction, it's not doing its job. A few troubleshooting steps may present the solution.
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Instructions
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Unplug the subwoofer from the electricity, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in. This is also a good time to verify the sub is receiving power. Many self-powered subs are equipped with a surge protector that trips if too much power courses through the speaker. Unplugging the sub for half a minute can reset the breaker.
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Push in the plug firmly on each end of the subwoofer cable to ensure a good connection between the sub and the home theater receiver.
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Adjust the volume control knob on the back of the subwoofer.
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Turn the crossover knob counter-clockwise on the back of the sub. The crossover control determines which audio frequencies are sent to the sub and which are sent to the speakers. If the crossover is set too high, the audio signal may not even be sent to the sub from the receiver.
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Press the "Phase" button on the back of the sub to be sure the audio is set to complement the other speakers in the system. When a sub is set out of phase, the bass normally produced by the sub is cancelled out by the bass from other speakers in the system. The result is less subwoofer bass, so the sub does not sound as loud as it could.
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Tips & Warnings
Unplug the sub from the electricity when connecting or disconnecting the subwoofer cable from the receiver to prevent a sudden power surge.
References
- Photo Credit multimedia acoustic system image by dim@dim from Fotolia.com
