Unsatisfying Bass to Sub from Oppo UDP-205 in 5.1 Setup
 

I have been playing with this setup for a year or so, and I thought I would throw this out and see if anyone else had a similar issue. I bought the big dog Oppo just so I could save a component and get my DAC and home theater decoder together in one. It sounds really good with great imaging in surround. I just want the earth shaking bass with my movies.

- The signal comes from the cable box via HDMI to the Oppo, and I have also tried Blue Ray movies. No difference in bass. Tried Netflix, Prime, and the usual cable stuff too.
- I have an REL 12" Home Theatre Sub (HT/1205) that is connected via REL wireless to the Oppo. The signal is clear, doesn't break up (I replaced a Best Buy wireless that was absolutely terrible). I am not an expert on subs, but I can't believe you can get a much better sub than this for $600. It is powerful.
- I had the gain on the sub and in the Oppo setup screen cranked to max, and I just barely felt like I was getting the rumble. Crossover on the Oppo was set to max (per REL webinar), on the sub it was set to around a 100 Hz - but I tried it all the way up and it didn't help.

So I finally gave up on the Oppo, and connected the LFE that went to the wireless module to one channel of the second pre-out on my MAC6700. HOLY CRAP! I can't get the sub past about half gain on the dial now or it overpowers the rest of my system. It's crazy. I can feel the bass in my spine. And I am only running the left channel into the wireless module too, not both. I went into the Oppo and turned off the sub, so I am hoping that the LFE is mixed into the front Left and Right now. Not sure if this is true or not.

So my question is, has anyone else seen this? With the low LFE output on the Oppo players? I am starting to second guess the whole Oppo idea. I know this thing is legendary, but I think the DAC sounds better on my MAC6700 too (been doing some A to B stuff and it is pretty enlightening. Found a couple songs that sound great on the MAC that the Oppo completely ruins.)

Thank you.

-Geoff

To be clear:
1. The sub output level setup on the Oppo was set to maximum.
2. The sub output (LFE) crossover was set to the highest frequency.
3. Were the main channels set to SMALL and with a crossover frequency?

Never. Works just fine all the time with all of my Oppos including the 205.

We do something similar, but not with wireless. I run both the LFE and High level signals to a pair of REL subs from the 205. The speakers are set to small, but at a fairly high crossover (70Hz). For stereo, the REL's take over below 70 Hz, for movies they blend in the LFE signal as well (which is adjustable on the REL). Works great.

The LFE (.1) output is not affected by the crossover frequency - it is an independent signal (and not mixed in with the L/R signals). There is quite a bit of good info on this topic on the OPPO forum at AVS - Bob Pariseu is something of an OPPO guru - check his early posts.

Yes on the first two. But for #3, the main left and right and center where set to LARGE - I was running left and right into the home theater bypass on my MAC6700 and into the RF7's. For center I have a Martin Logan Motion 8 running on an old Rotel 976 amp that sounds better on the LARGE setting. I will try that this weekend! Thank you!

So you are running high signal to the sub then back to the speaker? I am not sure I could do that because of locations of the components. I think I am doing something similar by running it off my second output, but the difference is that I am still getting full signal to the RF7's.

Thank you for the tip - I will check AVS and do some reading!

Thank you!

-Geoff

Hello Geoff - No, the signal lines are in parallel - using the cables supplied by REL for this purpose (high level signal). Basically one set of wires go from the amplifier speaker outputs to the high level input of the REL and one to the speakers. Note that the input resistance (impedance) of the REL is far higher than that of the speaker, so the REL presents a negligible load to the amplifier.

The wireless sub may be different set-up though. After all it is wireless :)

Geoff,

First of all, you will have to set the main front LR speakers to SMALL on the Oppo's settings. This would make a big difference. And set the crossover on the Oppo's setting to 80 Hz, which is usually recommended, but you can always play around with that.

I will try it this weekend. I was going to mess with it last weekend but the wife had too many projects lined up... I had set it high because the Rel sub recommends to set your source to Max and let the Sub do the crossover. I will try lowering it though too.

Thank you!

-Geoff

On the Oppo settings set the main front LR speakers to SMALL. Do not set them to large. You can set your center channel speaker & surround speakers to LARGE but not the main front LR speakers. It will make a big difference.