Sub-woofer quit working

[Blue Laser]

Okay, guys, here's a challenge for ya...

My sub-woofer quit working for no apparent reason. Turned on the tv to watch a movie last week, sub

came on kind of loud (but not THAT loud) and now refuses to work at all.

I just tried replacing the cable (one can only hope) that didn't do any good, so now I don't have ANY

idea what could be the problem.

The other four satellites and my center work fine, but my sub appears to be hosed.

Anyone got any advice for me?

System is Energy 5.2s and a Energy 8.2 on the sub which, when it works, is WAY more than I need,

but it sure sounds cool!! Denon receiver running the whole thing, by the way.

TIA

 

[radman]

By "plugged in", do you mean a patch cable, or is it self powered and has a 110 volt cord? Does it have a power on indicator? Volume and/or crossover adjustments on the back?

 

[Blue Laser]

By "plugged in", do you mean a patch cable, or is it self powered and has a 110 volt cord? Does it have a power on indicator? Volume and/or crossover adjustments on the back?

Rad,

It has a 110 volt cord plugged into a power strip.

Power on indicator (little blue light in front) is lit up.

Actually, volume/crossover is on the front.

Anything else you need to know?

 

[sparky3008]

On my system at home one of the channels went completely dead. I can hook any speaker into it and it doesn't work. Luckily it isn't the center channel so I can live with it and don't want to fork out several hundreds of dollars for a new one.

Mine is to say I hope the Sub Channel didn't blow!!

 

[nusman68]

-could be that the power supply itself (inside the speaker cabinet) has gone out; perhaps even the voice coil in the speaker... you might consider opening up the cabinet (if you can do so without damaging it) and checking for a fuse. (sometimes on items like these the manufacturer will install a fuse, albeit hard to access, as a last line of defense) If there is one, and its removable and still looks good (visually) go ahead and remove and verify continuity with an ohm meter. On rare occasion I have seen a fuse get hot enough to melt the solder connection inside (glass fuse) breaking the circuit, even though the fuse element itself was still intact...strange but true. While you're looking around inside the cabinet, look for any defective (loose/bad solder joints/etc) connections; you might get lucky. If you decide to take it to an 'authorized service center' it seems these days all you'll get is a flat-rate estimate, even though it may be a minor problem; but at least you'll know how much $ you're looking at. Good luck.

 

[drjfjr]

Most subs have two ways to connect them. One is using the sub output from the reciever and another is to hook the + or - side (can't recall which) of both rear speakers to the input of the sub. If this is the case for your sub you could try this to determine whether it is the powered sub or the reciever channel that is bad.

 

[radman]

-could be that the power supply itself (inside the speaker cabinet) has gone out; perhaps even the voice coil in the speaker... you might consider opening up the cabinet (if you can do so without damaging it) and checking for a fuse. (sometimes on items like these the manufacturer will install a fuse, albeit hard to access, as a last line of defense) If there is one, and its removable and still looks good (visually) go ahead and remove and verify continuity with an ohm meter. On rare occasion I have seen a fuse get hot enough to melt the solder connection inside (glass fuse) breaking the circuit, even though the fuse element itself was still intact...strange but true. While you're looking around inside the cabinet, look for any defective (loose/bad solder joints/etc) connections; you might get lucky. If you decide to take it to an 'authorized service center' it seems these days all you'll get is a flat-rate estimate, even though it may be a minor problem; but at least you'll know how much $ you're looking at. Good luck.

+1

 

[slapnpop]

Most subs have two ways to connect them. One is using the sub output from the reciever and another is to hook the + or - side (can't recall which) of both rear speakers to the input of the sub. If this is the case for your sub you could try this to determine whether it is the powered sub or the reciever channel that is bad.

Alternitavly you can plug in a different audio source (such as the TV or DVD's audio out) directly to the sub input. If it's working fine, you'll still hear whatever is below the crossover level.

If it got louder for a while, then went totally dead, I would guess electronics.

Most speaker problems would either still generate noise, but not sound right (phyiscal damage to cone, surround, spider, etc), or in the case of a voice coil would go silent all together, not get louder first.

If you determine it's the amp, and not the sub, you could replace it cheaper than buying a new sub, and possibly cheaper than paying for repairs (which would probably just replace the amp anyway).

Check madisound.com