XMC-1 "No Subwoofer" problem

[richardt9000]

Hi all, I'll try to make it quick. For some reason all of a sudden my XMC-1 will not acknowledge the sub in preset 1 or preset 2 under the stereo mode. It will kick on in Dirac stereo, however, as well as multi channel, including "all stereo." I've quadruple checked (perhaps more) the setting as being set to mono. Any insight? I've done two full power downs, completely unplugging the processor. I'm a little lost. I haven't reached out to customer support because I'm not the original owner (not sure if that matters or not). All advice and direction is much appreciated. I'll try anything at this point. I do have the most recent firmware update installed.

I did search the forum a little bit, but didn't find anything. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong.

-Richard

[ttocs]

What is the exact Audio Mode being used when the subwoofer isn't being "acknowledged"?
What type of audio is being played?
What is the exact speaker setup in the Menu?
Which speakers are Small and Large?
Which subwoofer Output(s) are active? Mono? Dual Mono? LFE?
Which EQ Slot is active when the subwoofer isn't being acknowledged?

[richardt9000]

Holy smokes, some of those are deep for me. I appreciate your willingness to help.

What is the exact Audio Mode being used when the subwoofer isn't being "acknowledged"?
Stereo and Direct

What type of audio is being played?
Analogue 2.0 (front in via Tidal through AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt from my phone), PCM 2.0 (Dish via HDMI), and Dolby Digital 2.0 (TV to Processor via toslink)

What is the exact speaker setup in the Menu?
front: large
Center: small
surround: small
Enhanced Bass: Off
Left/Right Sub: Mono


Which speakers are Small and Large?
See previous answer (did I answer that last one wrong?)

Which subwoofer Output(s) are active? Mono? Dual Mono? LFE?
Mono? (Am I misunderstanding this one too?)
LFE is set at 0.0

Which EQ Slot is active when the subwoofer isn't being acknowledged
I don't know how to find the answer to this.

It's just odd - all the surround stuff works. It's as though the stereo/2.0 simply stopped acknowledging the sub setting at mono. The only variable I can think of is that I recently added the toslink from the TV (got a new OLED Sony I'm in love with!). If I somehow changed a setting unintentionally, I don't know how to undo it. And I feel like I've jumped through every menu hoop.

Again, thanks for reading and questioning the setup which gets my brain working too. I feel like there must be another menu setting I'm not getting to. I'll whip out the manual for the 4th time today and go through the menu diagram now.

[ttocs]

Apr 9, 2021 15:03:16 GMT -5 richardt9000 said:

Holy smokes, some of those are deep for me. I appreciate your willingness to help.
What is the exact Audio Mode being used when the subwoofer isn't being "acknowledged"?
Stereo and Direct

What type of audio is being played?
Analogue 2.0 (front in via Tidal through AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt from my phone), PCM 2.0 (Dish via HDMI), and Dolby Digital 2.0 (TV to Processor via toslink)

What is the exact speaker setup in the Menu?
front: large
Center: small
surround: small
Enhanced Bass: Off
Left/Right Sub: Mono


Which speakers are Small and Large?
See previous answer (did I answer that last one wrong?)

Which subwoofer Output(s) are active? Mono? Dual Mono? LFE?
Mono? (Am I misunderstanding this one too?)
LFE is set at 0.0

Which EQ Slot is active when the subwoofer isn't being acknowledged
I don't know how to find the answer to this.

It's just odd - all the surround stuff works. It's as though the stereo/2.0 simply stopped acknowledging the sub setting at mono. The only variable I can think of is that I recently added the toslink from the TV (got a new OLED Sony I'm in love with!). If I somehow changed a setting unintentionally, I don't know how to undo it. And I feel like I've jumped through every menu hoop.

Again, thanks for reading and questioning the setup which gets my brain working too. I feel like there must be another menu setting I'm not getting to. I'll whip out the manual for the 4th time today and go through the menu diagram now.

I asked some slightly repeating questions because so many often don't answer what seems unrelated but is related, so 'ya did good!

The subwoofer won't operate for stereo when the Fronts are setup as Large. 

The subwoofer will support any channel setup as Small.

[Ex_Vintage]

Or, if Enhanced Bass is enabled (with the fronts set to Large) the sub will work with 2 channel stereo.

[ttocs]

Now that I think about it some more, there are some things I should correct. The XMC-1 doesn't have a LFE subwoofer setting. It has Stereo and Dual Mono as choices, and there is no Center Sub Output. Sorry about that.

Likewise, I am pretty sure Enhanced Bass is not offered on the XMC-1, but I'm not 100% certain.

Also, I apologize for not thinking correctly about the EQ Slots, this is only on the XMC-2 and RMC models. I traded my XMC-1 over a year ago and memory has faded.

But, since Stereo Subwoofer is a settings choice, something the XMC-2 doesn't have, the subwoofers connected to the Left and Right Subwoofer outputs will retain the Left and Right channel signals as opposed to a summed Mono signal for the subs when set to Dual Mono. But the same rule applies to how the subs operate when the Fronts are setup as Large, which is to say that the subs won't play if there are no Small channels active.

[Radblue]

Apr 9, 2021 21:09:53 GMT -5 Ex_Vintage said:

Or, if Enhanced Bass is enabled (with the fronts set to Large) the sub will work with 2 channel stereo.

This is it, when fronts are set to large you need Enhanced Bass turned on. TBH I don't think it was always this way, I noticed this after I updated firmwear to latest.

[richardt9000]

Finally got a chance to test ttocs' point the front speakers were set to large. Success! Change to small resolved all.

Embarrassingly, I must have known that at some point because it was all working before. When connecting the toslink from the new tv, I must have seen they were set small and thought well that's not true!

In my futile attempts at rectifying this, I believe I did come across Ex_Vintage's post and radblue's confirmation but thought the mains were also getting "enhanced bass" of some sort. Perhaps I was imagining things, but I plan to test that again. Now I need to hunt down what the crossover frequency is when set to small.

Thanks for everyone's time and expertise!