Surround System Subwoofer Intermitent

The subwoofer itself could be blown or the capacitor board leading to it may have problems. good luck.

Subwoofer sockets
The HTR-420 has only a single subwoofer output. It is the socket on the lower left corner. The other subwoofer socket is part of the multi-channel input.

Because of the age of the 420, it comes from a time when optical and coax connections were not so common and DVD players had 6x phono/RCA sockets to send out the surround signal in analogue format. The multichannel input is for sending a signal in to the amp, and not for getting a signal out. That's why the sub doesn't get a signal from that socket. Use the proper subwoofer out. That's what it is there for.

Speakers A+B
The 420 was designed to run Speakers A+B together if required. However, you must observe the minimum impedance loading if you connect up two sets of front speakers and run them simultaneously.

The minimum Impedance for each set of front speakers is 8 Ohms. If you're recycling old surround speakers from a Home-Theater-in-a-Box system, or the speakers have no labels for impedance on the backs then you can be fairly sure they are not 8 Ohm. That could be the problem.

there is a nobb on the subwoofer, one is to dial down or up the sub (noob1) , and the other is to dial up or down the 5.1 speark (noob 2). turn noob 2 to the left to dial down the sound, first time i got my setup it was totally down, btw the 5.1 works wonderous if you use a home theater system. Iam using a 1,000watt sony home theater system. 100/200watt RMS per channel at 5 channel those little speakers really can handle well, I never experiance any blow outs :) Coby outdid themselfs with this system

Here's how I'd do it... connect the subwoofer pre-out to one of the unused analog inputs (CD or CD-R perhaps?). Turn on Zone 2 by pressing the MULTI-ZONE ON/OFF button. The MULTI-ZONE indicator will light.

Press CONTROL. (Zone 2 should display) Use the INPUT SELECTOR dial to select the source for the zone you have selected. In my example, CD or CD-R.

Of course, you'll need the sub hooked up to the Surround back speaker terminals.

Here's a link to the manual online:
Pioneer VSX-1018 Manual

Things to keep in mind:
The Surround Back setting must be set to ZONE 2. See page 41 of the manual.
The volume level going to the sub will probably need some tweaking. Check out page 7 to see how to manually adjust volume levels, or get it close by adjusting the Master Volume while in Zone 2 control.

I'm not sure if the auto setup function (with the included microphone) will work properly with this setup. And, of course, this is not a "suggested" setup by Pioneer, so please use caution when hooking everything up.

Good luck!

Has it ever worked?

Try this - connect one pair of its speaker wires at a time and test it. Watch the polarity.

• Make sure all cube speaker arrays are connected to the proper terminals according to their
position in your room.
• Check to be sure all wires are connected to your surround receiver with the proper polarity
(+ to + and – to – wires). Incorrect wiring can result in a total loss of module output.
• Correct any wiring problems before you plug in your receiver and turn it on.

do you need a reciever to get ceiling mounted speakers to work surround sound

YOU NEED TO HOOK YOUR RCA CABLES FROM YOUR DVD,TV,AND DIGITAL CABLE TO THE INPUT SIDE OF THE SURROUND. HOOK THE RCA CABLES FROM THE TV TO THE AUX SIDE AND THE DVD TO THE VCR INPUT, AND THE DIGITAL TO TH LD SIDE OF THE INPUT YOU CAN SWITCH BETWEEN THE 3 ON THE FRONT OF THE SURROUND.BY MOVING THE KNOB. YOU WILL GET NOISE FROM THEM THEN TO THE SPEAKERS.

I'm in the same boat... happened once before, then came back to life. Now it's back to a red standby light and no ejecting tray

it could be one of two things.... the first is that the speaker selector is set to OFF. the other thing (also the more expensive one) is that there is a problem with the amp, and you either have a problem with the offset voltage on the output of the amp, or that the idle current in one of the output stages is too high. normally, a protection circuit monitors the output stages for these two faults, and if there's no problem, your speaker relay clicks in within 30 seconds of turning on the power. if there's a problem, the relay never clicks in. so first check your speaker selector. if it's done by "soft switching" (not a physical selector switch, but a microprocessor controlled relay) then you also could have a problem with the processor chip, or with the parameter storage memory (which sometimes uses a backup battery). sometimes the backup battery isn't a battery at all, but a very large (electrically, not physically) capacitor that keeps alive the parameter RAM. if the power is left off for more than 2 or 3 days, the capacitor will lose it's charge, and the stereo "loses it's mind". same thing if it's a dead backup battery. sometimes if the battery is marginal, you lose some settings, but not others or the settings get changed

so sorry no one got back to you with an answer as we exxperts try our best to get back to everyone in a timley fashion .. Your problem sounds like it could be in the powe supply or the output section of the circuit. If your a handy man the I would leave this to the pros BUT if your a tech then you certainly can get the manual and procede with this repair. Tyy looking up emerson on the WWW or try this # Good Luck 905-940-5089