Looking for a little advice. Some years ago I bought a basic Kenwood
home theater system—VR505 receiver, 05HT subwoofer (no external power
to the subwoofer), and 5 satellite (205HT) speakers. I decided to
replace the receiver, and bought a Pioneer VSX-D814. The television is
a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection, a few years old, not HDTV.

With the Kenwood amp, the speaker output for the "front" speakers went
to the SW, with the front speakers wired to the SW. When I got the new
amp, I wanted to hook up the speakers as diagrammed, and directly
connected the front speakers to the amp, as well as all the others. I
can't get the SW to work. The D814 doesn't automatically recognize the
subwoofer, and I haven't figured out either how to set the options on
the amp or to hook up the SW properly to get it to work. I've gone
back to the "pass-through" setup, but my feeling is that I'm not
properly powering all the speakers if I'm running two speakers through
the SW. (Am I wrong?) Is there a way to get this to work directly, or
should I just leave well enough alone? Or do I need a new SW?

In article ,
says...


Looking for a little advice. Some years ago I bought a basic Kenwood
home theater system—VR505 receiver, 05HT subwoofer (no external power
to the subwoofer), and 5 satellite (205HT) speakers. I decided to
replace the receiver, and bought a Pioneer VSX-D814. The television is
a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection, a few years old, not HDTV.

With the Kenwood amp, the speaker output for the "front" speakers went
to the SW, with the front speakers wired to the SW. When I got the new
amp, I wanted to hook up the speakers as diagrammed, and directly
connected the front speakers to the amp, as well as all the others. I
can't get the SW to work. The D814 doesn't automatically recognize the
subwoofer, and I haven't figured out either how to set the options on
the amp or to hook up the SW properly to get it to work. I've gone
back to the "pass-through" setup, but my feeling is that I'm not
properly powering all the speakers if I'm running two speakers through
the SW. (Am I wrong?) Is there a way to get this to work directly, or
should I just leave well enough alone? Or do I need a new SW?

Sounds like your sub-woofer is of the passive variety. That means that
it gets it's amplifier power from the reciever. You need to either get
an amplifier for the sub-woofer, you could user your old reciever if
it has pre-amp inputs, or wire it the way you had it before with the sub
connected to the front speaker outputs from the reciever. I would try
to get an amp to use with the sub-woofer.
-------------
Alex

Tom Wassel wrote:
Looking for a little advice. Some years ago I bought a basic Kenwood
home theater system?VR505 receiver, 05HT subwoofer (no external power
to the subwoofer), and 5 satellite (205HT) speakers. I decided to
replace the receiver, and bought a Pioneer VSX-D814. The television is
a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection, a few years old, not HDTV.

With the Kenwood amp, the speaker output for the "front" speakers went
to the SW, with the front speakers wired to the SW. When I got the new
amp, I wanted to hook up the speakers as diagrammed, and directly
connected the front speakers to the amp, as well as all the others. I
can't get the SW to work. The D814 doesn't automatically recognize the
subwoofer, and I haven't figured out either how to set the options on
the amp or to hook up the SW properly to get it to work. I've gone
back to the "pass-through" setup, but my feeling is that I'm not
properly powering all the speakers if I'm running two speakers through
the SW. (Am I wrong?) Is there a way to get this to work directly, or
should I just leave well enough alone? Or do I need a new SW?


Looking at the user's manual online, it looks like the SW-05HT is a
passive sub that only offers 'speaker level' ("passthrough") connections,
and only for one pair of speakers. That means the signal has to go from
the receiver, through the sub (where presumably bass frequencies are
extracted, though itsfrequency response is rated up to 1 kHz, which is
ridiculous for a 'subwoofer') and then onto the front left and right main
speakers only.

It also looks like the Kenwood VR-505 was intended for use with a
line-level (audio jack-connected) pwoereed subwoofer, fed from the sub
pre-out jack.

I don't understand why this sub was sold to you as part of a home theater
setup, since it appears not suitable for anything but a two-channel setup.

How did you connect the sub to the Pioneer receiver?

I wodl suggest that its your speaker setup, rather than the receiver, that
was most in need of replacement. The VR-505 lacked Dolby Pro Logic II,
which is nice to ahve for CDs, but at least had DPL I, Dolby Digital and
DTS, whihc suffice for all movies.

--

-S.

Steven Sullivan wrote:

Tom Wassel wrote:

Looking for a little advice. Some years ago I bought a basic Kenwood
home theater system?VR505 receiver, 05HT subwoofer (no external power
to the subwoofer), and 5 satellite (205HT) speakers. I decided to
replace the receiver, and bought a Pioneer VSX-D814. The television is
a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection, a few years old, not HDTV.


With the Kenwood amp, the speaker output for the "front" speakers went
to the SW, with the front speakers wired to the SW. When I got the new
amp, I wanted to hook up the speakers as diagrammed, and directly
connected the front speakers to the amp, as well as all the others. I
can't get the SW to work. The D814 doesn't automatically recognize the
subwoofer, and I haven't figured out either how to set the options on
the amp or to hook up the SW properly to get it to work. I've gone
back to the "pass-through" setup, but my feeling is that I'm not
properly powering all the speakers if I'm running two speakers through
the SW. (Am I wrong?) Is there a way to get this to work directly, or
should I just leave well enough alone? Or do I need a new SW?



Looking at the user's manual online, it looks like the SW-05HT is a
passive sub that only offers 'speaker level' ("passthrough") connections,
and only for one pair of speakers. That means the signal has to go from
the receiver, through the sub (where presumably bass frequencies are
extracted, though itsfrequency response is rated up to 1 kHz, which is
ridiculous for a 'subwoofer') and then onto the front left and right main
speakers only.

It also looks like the Kenwood VR-505 was intended for use with a
line-level (audio jack-connected) pwoereed subwoofer, fed from the sub
pre-out jack.

I don't understand why this sub was sold to you as part of a home theater
setup, since it appears not suitable for anything but a two-channel setup.

How did you connect the sub to the Pioneer receiver?

I wodl suggest that its your speaker setup, rather than the receiver, that
was most in need of replacement. The VR-505 lacked Dolby Pro Logic II,
which is nice to ahve for CDs, but at least had DPL I, Dolby Digital and
DTS, whihc suffice for all movies.

Exactly. My feeling is that the sub-woofer was not really a sub-woofer.
I looked at the specs on line to confirm: frequency range is from 40 Hz
to 1Khz. A proper sub-woofer will do 35Hz and below usually. It's
correct name should be a bass module. when connecting the set ('sub'
woofer and satellites) to your system, simply treat the bass module and
it's 2 satelites as if they are a stereo pair of speakers and connect
them accordingly. Ignore any subwoofer connections.

CD

Thanks to all for your help. I understand the situation now.

Tom

Codifus wrote in message ...
Steven Sullivan wrote:

Tom Wassel wrote:

Looking for a little advice. Some years ago I bought a basic Kenwood
home theater system?VR505 receiver, 05HT subwoofer (no external power
to the subwoofer), and 5 satellite (205HT) speakers. I decided to
replace the receiver, and bought a Pioneer VSX-D814. The television is
a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection, a few years old, not HDTV.


With the Kenwood amp, the speaker output for the "front" speakers went
to the SW, with the front speakers wired to the SW. When I got the new
amp, I wanted to hook up the speakers as diagrammed, and directly
connected the front speakers to the amp, as well as all the others. I
can't get the SW to work. The D814 doesn't automatically recognize the
subwoofer, and I haven't figured out either how to set the options on
the amp or to hook up the SW properly to get it to work. I've gone
back to the "pass-through" setup, but my feeling is that I'm not
properly powering all the speakers if I'm running two speakers through
the SW. (Am I wrong?) Is there a way to get this to work directly, or
should I just leave well enough alone? Or do I need a new SW?



Looking at the user's manual online, it looks like the SW-05HT is a
passive sub that only offers 'speaker level' ("passthrough") connections,
and only for one pair of speakers. That means the signal has to go from
the receiver, through the sub (where presumably bass frequencies are
extracted, though itsfrequency response is rated up to 1 kHz, which is
ridiculous for a 'subwoofer') and then onto the front left and right main
speakers only.

It also looks like the Kenwood VR-505 was intended for use with a
line-level (audio jack-connected) pwoereed subwoofer, fed from the sub
pre-out jack.

I don't understand why this sub was sold to you as part of a home theater
setup, since it appears not suitable for anything but a two-channel setup.

How did you connect the sub to the Pioneer receiver?

I wodl suggest that its your speaker setup, rather than the receiver, that
was most in need of replacement. The VR-505 lacked Dolby Pro Logic II,
which is nice to ahve for CDs, but at least had DPL I, Dolby Digital and
DTS, whihc suffice for all movies.

Exactly. My feeling is that the sub-woofer was not really a sub-woofer.
I looked at the specs on line to confirm: frequency range is from 40 Hz
to 1Khz. A proper sub-woofer will do 35Hz and below usually. It's
correct name should be a bass module. when connecting the set ('sub'
woofer and satellites) to your system, simply treat the bass module and
it's 2 satelites as if they are a stereo pair of speakers and connect
them accordingly. Ignore any subwoofer connections.

CD