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Home theater speakers question

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Pilot, Nov 23, 2009.

  1. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    This is fairly dumb: do the "left" and "right" speaker inputs refer to left and right as you look at the TV or as you are looking with your back to the TV?
     
  2. OTD

    OTD Well-Known Member

    Left and right as you look at the TV.
     
  3. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    but are you looking at the front of the tv or the back?
     
  4. Bad Guy Zero

    Bad Guy Zero Active Member

    Headphone are different. The "L" and "R" refer to which area of the body should be covered by each side. The "L" side goes over your lobehole while the "R" goes over the rutimus.
     
  5. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Alright, now for a real problem.

    Why won't my speakers make any sound?

    Thanks.

    -- Pilot

    ... Ok, for real. I bought a Denon 1709 receiver, and immediately hooked it up to some crappy Panasonic satellite speakers I had gotten as a part of a home theater DVD system 5 years ago. Cheap stuff that I figured would hold me over until I was ready to make a real investment.

    Anyway, when I hooked them up, they worked for a few hours. Then they just shut off. After a day of unconnecting and reconnecting all the wires to the back of the receiver, I could get them to work very sporadically and usually not long before they would make some terrible noises.

    Even though it didn't make a ton of sense, I decided the problem was the cheap speakers and went ahead and bought a set from Polk Audio. Two TSi 100 book shelf speakers, OWM 3 surround speakers, PSW111 subwoofer and TSi CS 10 center channel speaker.

    I unpack it all plug it all in and have most of the same problems. They played a little, then after two or three minutes cut out. At one point I started an auto-calibration thing on the receiver and they seemed to play, but I stopped that because ... I don't know why. Anyway, they still mostly don't work. I got them to do some screeching a little bit ago.

    I went and about banana plugs because I was afraid maybe I just lacked the fine motor skills to correctly screw in speaker wire. That doesn't seem to have helped. When I run the auto calibration thing again, by plugging in this little speaker that's supposed to listen and set everything up, I get the error message "Caution: SP None", which basically means that it can't detect any of my speakers.

    The one thing that does work is the speakers actually built in to my TV unit. Anything I try to play through the receiver will play on my TV ... computer, Ipod. Whatever. I kind of wonder if that's part of my problem ... if I changed some setting to make it do that. I have no idea when or how I could have done that, but I've changed so many settings in the last two weeks it's entirely possible.

    Anyway, I'm getting pretty frustrated. I obviously don't know a damn thing about what I'm doing, and I'm not sure any of you can help me without being here to simply do it yourself. But if anyone has any advice, I'd very much appreciate it.

    ----

    Update... Holy crap. I just got my Ipod to play without any problems from the front two speakers ... no sub, no center channel or surround speakers, though they were all plugged in. Then I turned a dial on the receiver and they stopped. Can't make them go again.

    Somehow I suspect here in a month when I learn how to use this, I'll be very embarrassed by this problem.
     
  6. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    More than likely, you have a component set-issue.
    Meaning, on the Denon, the speakers are connected to play PRO SURROUND or 5CH STEREO, which is pretty standard. Where you can run into a problem is not having the input married to the output. Mean, the input to the receiver is coming from the television, but the component setting on the Denon is not set to television. Or, the input is coming from the the DVD player, but the Denon isn't set accordingly. Mainly, your compenent needs to match the output on the receiver, both in wiring and digital settings on the receiver itself.
    I hope that wasn't all too confusing.
     
  7. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    Check your audio receiver for a short-circuit. I've lost two receivers to this problem and when it shorted, the sound simply cut off.
     
  8. OTD

    OTD Well-Known Member

    If the speaker wires aren't neatly attached to the back of the receiver, they could be short-circuiting. Make sure that the leads to each speaker aren't coming in contact with each other.
     
  9. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    So after a full night of tinkering I can get some of the speakers to play sometime. I really there's something I have set wrong somewhere deep in this thing. Again, when I finally figure it out, I full expect to be embarrassed.

    I'm already humiliated that I'm a 27 year old generally techno savvy guy who's having these problems. I feel like I'm trying to translate Chinese sometimes.
     
  10. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    How would one check for a short-circuit?
     
  11. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Anyway, to update my misery:

    I tinkered and tinkered and tinkered. A few times I could get all five speakers to play, or at least emit static in a manner that matched up with the TV. Then, when in "direct" mode, I could get the front two speakers to play somewhat consistently. Eventually they would develop a rumble, though, and cut out and be difficult to turn back on.

    So I finally gave up and called a local home theater installation guy. I didn't have much confidence starting from the point when he answered his cell phone "Uh, hello?" "Yeah, is this the speaker guy?" "Oh, uh, yeah, sure."

    Anyway, he came over and tested all my speakers and declared my two brand new rear speakers blown. I believed him. On his little resistance meter, every speaker showed some resistance (thus, according to him, being alive) while those two didn't show squat and didn't register at all. Then, he declared the main amp in my new (refurbished) receiver was blown.

    I believed that too, because we did get the two front speakers to play on Zone 2, which he told me has a separate, un-blown amp. So today I went back to tinkering. I wanted to be sure the back speakers were actually blown. So I unscrewed my front speakers and screwed in a back one. Low and behold it sounded perfect. So did the other one.

    I called the guy and was like "what the hell", and he told me I was probably just lucky and that they were probably still broken, just the pieces fell back in together. Told me I was running the risk of blowing my Zone 2 amp. ... I find that hard to believe -- it's a lot easier to believe that he fucked up or didn't measure right or didn't know what he was doing, than it is to believe that my two fairly expensive brand new speakers both arrived from a reputable dealer broken, or were blown as I tinkered without ever getting them to produce sound for more than 30 seconds.

    So, now do I trust him that the rest of the machine is broken? I mean, I still can't make it do shit outside of Zone 2, but we established long ago I don't know what's going on.

    I paid the guy $40 and he cashed the check about 30 minutes after he left. He said he's a dealer in my type of receiver and that he can probably get the company to repair or replace it. He wants the unit's serial number and a copy of my receipt. Which I'll give him, I guess. But I'd feel pretty uncomfortable giving him any more money or even giving him the actual receiver because I don't really trust him at the moment.
     
  12. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    This equipment is all new, correct? With a warranty? Then why are you paying someone to take a look at it and hoping things get repaired?
     
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