Hello.

This recent discussion of LFE reminded me of a problem I had a couple of years ago. I did a multi room system and the Master Bedroom was powered by a Marantz slim line reciever. The model escapes me but I don't think it's relevant.

The receiver is powering a pair of in ceiling speakers. I had the sub line out feeding a customer supplied Energy sub. The sub out setting was L/R + LFE. I had out put from the subwoofer when the local cable box and BD player were in use but nothing when the multi room system Airplayed to the receiver.


I messed around for a bit and wound up using the speaker level inputs on the sub and then the high pass out to the ceiling speakers, setting the receiver to no subwoofer. Probpem solved, or worked around anyway. However, I never did find out why no sound was output to the sub when Airplay was used.

Has anyone experienced something like this?

Craig

This is exactly what we're talking about, except the unis I've seen this on did not have the choice of LFE PLUS L&R.

Do you happen to remember if you ever tried non-surround modes with the cable box and BD Player, and what the bass results were? This is irrelevant to helping someone here today, except perhaps to pin down the kind of thing to look out for.

Or, heaven help us, the kind of thing that makes it a definite positive thing to connect a sub to the L & R high level outputs!

Been banging out Marantz exclusively for 5 years and dont recall seeing anything about LR+LFE, just large or small on other speakers, sub roll off and Always assumed you can't do Large and still get anything from a lined out sub.

Have also always had Sub on AirPlay no problem. Have it thumping nicely in fact. It's usually what I get going first so I can jam some good stuff for the rest of the install. Funnest part of any job, and of course you have to heat it up to make sure the walls and other things don't rattle.

Sorry, the setting was LFE and main. I did the Audessey set up and it sensed the sub just fine. I then double checked all of the settings when Airplay had no bass. I thought maybe the sub stopped working.

To answer Ernie's question I had the receiver set to stereo for all sources as I was only running a pair of speakers. I had sub bass from the cable box and BD sources.

Craig

Just checked on a Marantz NR1605 (slimline model), and AirPlay definitely produces bass from the subwoofer in all modes except for pure/direct (as one would expect).

Craig,

I suggest reading the information on Audyssey's website because it sounds to me like you aren't using the correct settings based on their recommendations.
I was also using many of the wrong settings before I understood what was really happening with my personal setup. I am no pro, just a dumb sparky with a laptop and the internet.

After running Audyssey you would think that everything would be setup correctly; however this isn't the case.
A prime example is the large vs. small argument.
If a sub is in your setup, your receiver will set your speakers to large if they can handle low frequencies. This is the wrong setting according to Audyssey. The receiver manufacturers are stuck in a time warp and are dumb as a brick when it comes to this!

As Freddy mentioned if you have a sub in your system your speakers are small. There is no argument to this according to Audyssey.

[Link: audyssey.com]

In regards to your setting LFE+Main.
This is a quote from Chris Kyriakakis from Audyssey, "LFE only.  LFE+Main is a bad setting because it overlaps the bass in the sub and speakers resulting in boomy bass."

[Link: audyssey.zendesk.com]

Again, I highly recommend reading the information at Audyssey. You will find as I did that your receiver isn't exactly helping when it comes to bass management.

After understanding and implementing the settings suggested by Audyssey I can say that My Denon 4520CI has never sounded better.
Now if only we could get the manufacturers that use Audyssey to set things up correctly!!!!

I'll check that out.

Thanks.

I feel like I boob for admitting this publicly, but I'm OK being wrong. I always understood that the Sub needed to be set at LFE and main otherwise you would get no sound from the sub if there were no LFE track.

My own system had the 5 speakers set to small, something I have always done, but I did have my Sub set to LFE and main. I'm interested to hear the difference.

I guess I'm watching Back to the Future:II again tonight.

Craig

Craig,
re your signature:

I once ran across a site lauding The Big Bang Theory, and some comments were required :-)

I put on my best Sheldon Cooper attitude and worked hard to write as he would speak. I even stated, "as Sheldon might say...." The first response was "you don't need to be an a$$ when you write here." Sure enough, that's pretty much how he sounds!