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Sunfire subwoofer cuts out

2306 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by the8thst, Jun 17, 2006

mruseless

Discussion Starter · May 13, 2006

I'm hoping for a little advice in troubleshooting some problems with my Sunfire MkII subwoofer. I bought it in 2000.

The symptom: the sub cuts out at what appear to be random intervals.

If I turn the volume knob on the back of the sub all the way up, and the music playing has strong bass, it will pop and then the sub will start working again for a while. Occasionally it will make a soft pop when cutting out, too.

My music source is an HTPC, with DDL 5.1 going via optical to a Denon receiver. I don't have another sub to test with, but so far it appears to be a problem with the sub rather than the other components.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Eric in Denver

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mruseless

Discussion Starter · #2 · May 14, 2006

Now I'm not sure if its the sub or the signal from the receiver.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this, short of borrowing another sub and receiver from a friend...

Any ideas?

E

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RMK!

· #3 · May 14, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by mruseless
Now I'm not sure if its the sub or the signal from the receiver.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this, short of borrowing another sub and receiver from a friend...

Any ideas?

E

You don'y need both (receiver and sub). Plugging in a known working sub should tell you if it is the sub. Sunfire has an excellent service program. They will fix whatever the problem is for $230 (you pay shipping to Sunfire) and they cover shipping back to you. They will even provide a box and packing material if you don't have it.

Good luck

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mruseless

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 18, 2006

Thanks for letting me know about the Sunfire program. I'm polling my friends for subwoofers to test with.

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mruseless

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 19, 2006

Hmmm, I tried a friend's sub (PolkAudio), and so far it works. But here is the question: when I first plugged in and connected the Polk, it just gave a constant hum. I then swapped out the audio cable and the Polk worked fine. So I used the new cable and tried my Sunfire sub, but it continues to cut out at random intervals when the signal is low (the light on the Sunfire indicates it is going into low power mode).

What are the odds that a cable and a sub go bad at the same time? Could one have caused the other?

E

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CT_Wiebe

· #6 · May 19, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by mruseless
-- Snip ---, but it continues to cut out at random intervals when the signal is low (the light on the Sunfire indicates it is going into low power mode).

What are the odds that a cable and a sub go bad at the same time? Could one have caused the other?

E

It sounds like you have auto signal sensing turned on (does the Sunfire have that feature?). If it has "auto signal sensing", can you adjust the level at which it detects a signal (or just turn the "auto sense" off and see if it still cuts out)? I have a cheapo sub that has that feature and it sometime exhibits that characteristic once in a while when the source has very little, or no, LFE (or low bass).

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mruseless

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 19, 2006

Good thought, but when I checked the sub and the manual, there is no way to turn off the auto signal sensing. The manual states that the sub will turn off (the power light dims) after 15 minutes with no signal, but I've seen it turn off during a song. Perhaps the auto on/off circuit is messed up.

E

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retret

· #8 · May 20, 2006

seems like you are triggering a protection circuit that causes the sub to shutdown and reset..my .02 cents

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mruseless

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 24, 2006

I contacted Sunfire, described the problems, he thought there was a problem with the auto-off circuit. I'm sending it in, hopefully the $240 will be worth it....

E

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the8thst

· #10 · Jun 17, 2006

I sent you a pm, but you still haven't read it... so I will post here as well. I have a similar sub with the same problems, so could you try and get as many details about what was wrong with your sub from the tech guys and let me know what they say? Thanks.

I am too busy these days to start testing and troubleshooting all the circuits and the info from you would be a big time saver.

Thank you.

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