well i have yet another prob i need help..im all new to this home theatre stuff..neways here it is ...i have a harmon kardon avr330 reciever and athena asb2 and asc1 centres and p300 subwoofer...wen im waching a movie i get great bass wen the receiver is set to the VMAX mode but wen i put it to the dolby digital mode the bass goes away alot..i like the way the dolby digital mode sounds better cuz with the VMAX mode i only get 2 channels and the other i get all 5.1 sound but bass almost disapears though ...is this normal for that to happen....i bought my reciever open box so it had no manuel to it ...please help so i can use the 5.1 mode but with good bass like the vmax gives me
well i checked that ..even if i did have bad connections i still got good bass from the vmax mode...but i realy want the 5.1 mode bett to get the surround sound
5.1 surround and 5.1 stereo are two different configurations;
5.1 surround has a subwoofer channel designated just for bass (.1) it separates all the other frequencies and therefore the .1 channel uses all of its power concentrated on just the sub harmonic frequencies.
5.1 stereo is stereo mode plus a subwoofer. The subwoofer in this mode is designated just like the surround mode except the signal is split differently. So now you get a huge loss in the bass section, due to the split.
Why?
Surround is for home theater. In surround sound recording; the microphones are a lot farther away from the source (so that the camera doesn't capture the mic in the picture). Therefore, in Mastering, the signal is boosted so that it may be audible during playback.
In stereo mode recording; the mic can be plugged in-line, as close as 2" from the source (tympani drums/acoustic bass), or even be used as an area microphone, recording the entire set.
I took Art Kyle's advice and hooked the subwoofer up from my HK AVR430's left/right pre-out jacks into the filtered left/right jacks of the subwoofer. I then set the sub to "None" and the fronts to "large." With the subs X-over set to 80Hz I now get great bass response in all formats, especially in Dolby Digital/DTS where the floorstanders and the sub both play everything including the LFE track. Since my sub could be better (Polk PSW404), the fronts support the sub with added detail.