Kenwood KS-303HT speaker system and VR-414 receiver hooked up to Inspiron 530 pc but KS-303HT powered subwoofer is not playing any sound.
My computer does not have a digital optical audio cord, so it cannot be hooked up to that. Instead I have it hooked up to the receiver with a y-splitter cord. That should not matter, however, because when I attempt to test the subwoofer with the radio stations on the receiver, it still plays no bass.
The Speakers are completely fine and do not have any trouble producing sound. I'm sorta new to this stuff but i've tried a lot of things and done some research on how to hook up this stuff to the computer. Any ideas on what I need to do to get the subwoofer to play sound?
Several options. First, radio isn't the best source for testing a subwoofer. No radio signal has frequency response beneath 50Hz (FM only, AM cuts off at 100Hz) by federal madate and most roll out their response well above that to increase their signal strength.
Try getting into the receiver's set up menu to make adjustments. Most receivers will not automatically divert low frequencies to the subwoofer through a "sub out" when they are playing a two channel signal. "LFE" effects are only available when the signal engages the 5.1 outputs.
You don't mention how you have the subwoofer output arranged on the receiver. If it is being fed from a "subwoofer" or "LFE" output, you might have to forgo using the sub for two channel operation. If you are feeding the receiver a 5.1 signal from the computer, you might also need to check the set up on the computer to be certain it is outputting a LFE channel. Without a digital output of some sort, there may be no discrete low frequency channel coming from the computer. Do the main front speakers sound as if they are being rolled out in the basss? Or, do they play as if they are runnning with a full frequency signal?
Your last resort would be to run the main two front channels from the receiver's speaker outputs to the subwoofer's "speaker level" inputs and then, from the subwoofer, run to the main speakers. Use the sub's internal crossover to make your set up adjustments for this connection type.
I tried using recommended setup from the KS-303HT manual by hooking the subwoofer up to the subwoofer pre-out. That did not make it play sound.
I have it hooked up as you said as the last resort and the speakers play the bass but not the subwoofer. Just like usual. It doesn't matter what my computer is set to, it still doesn't seem to work.