# BFQ2496 stops passing signal?



## distoga (Mar 4, 2008)

When watching a movie at 0db with very base heavy scenes (HTTYD) I'm having problems with LFE cutting out. At first I thought it was some sort of thermal protection on the amp or SOA but it happens to both sub amps at once and power cycling the subs amps, including pulling their AC cords did not recover the sound. All three times I had to power cycling the BFQ2496 and it instantly restored the LFE sound. The BFQ does show sound on the vu meter when I'm not hearing bass on the subs so I know the AVR amp is passing a signal. 

The only thing is I don't have different subs to hook up via rca when it happens to test if the BFQ is still outputting sound over the RCA cable to completely verify it's the BFQ for sure.

Has anyone else heard of this happening? I don't see where in the manual it says that the BFQ has some sort of mode it would go into if it gets too much of a signal, considering the BFQ is setup correctly. As it is right now, it's only been unboxed and not a single button has ever been pressed except bypass which I turned on and off twice. I of course did use REW and have loaded a few different peq adjustments.


----------



## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

I'm working on getting someone a bit more qualified than myself to look at this for you. Especially since I haven't the foggiest of what could be happening. 

Has it always done this? Is it new?


----------



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Yeah, you really need to try bypassing the BFD and going straight from receiver to sub, just to make sure it’s not the receiver.

When the subs drop out, is the FBQ meter still showing a reading? Don’t forget that the FBQ’s primary function is feedback suppression, so it might be seeing the strong signal as feedback. So make sure any feedback squelching function is turned off. Also, you might try switching the input switches to +4.

Regards,
Wayne


----------



## distoga (Mar 4, 2008)

The BFQ is 2 years old but I set it up for the first time last week. The VU meter does still have the bars light up showing it's receiving signal. 

I had the LFE originally set at -7db on my marantz 7002 and the other day I read you should have LFE set at 0db (instead of -7db or any other value) and then adjust the level on the sub amp to calibrate it to the room. It's after I did this that I've seen the problem, though I did recalibrate Audysses and REW with the new 0db setting on the marantz and new level on the sub amp.

Should the feedback squelching be turned on or off by default? And I'm not sure what you mean by "input switches".


----------



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

I don’t have one of those equalizers, so I don’t know how the feedback function operates. I’m sure it’s explained in the manual. The input switches are on the back panel, to set the expected level for -10 or +4 dB.

Regards,
Wayne


----------



## distoga (Mar 4, 2008)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> I don’t have one of those equalizers, so I don’t know how the feedback function operates. I’m sure it’s explained in the manual. The input switches are on the back panel, to set the expected level for -10 or +4 dB.


True, I did set the switch on the back to -10db. But now I'm confused why the BFQ setup guide says to set it to -10db if people are seting the LFE to 0db output on their AVR, would I be the only one with this issue? Or maybe I'm the only one who's run HTTYD with an AVR set at 0db level and used a BFQ2496?

So should I set it back to +4??? I'm confused, and is this likely to be the exact cause of my problem? 

Also, could anyone explain why -10db is preferred over +4db for setup of the BFQ?


----------



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

distoga said:


> I had the LFE originally set at -7db on my marantz 7002 and the other day I read you should have LFE set at 0db (instead of -7db or any other value) and then adjust the level on the sub amp to calibrate it to the room. It's after I did this that I've seen the problem...


If that’s the case, you should just put things back the way you had them and ignore that advice you saw... 




> So should I set it back to +4??? I'm confused, and is this likely to be the exact cause of my problem?


No, the switch setting will have no effect on the problem you’re having.




> But now I'm confused why the BFQ setup guide says to set it to -10db...
> 
> Also, could anyone explain why -10db is preferred over +4db for setup of the BFQ?


The info in the BFD Guide on level setting is wrong. It was written by folks who (at the time at least) didn’t understand that 24-bit gear doesn’t care a whit about input levels. If you’re interested in a TMI analysis of that topic, check Part 5 of the article on gain structure in my signature. But in the mean time, if things were working fine before, just put them back the way they were. There’s no need to mess with something that’s working. :T

Regards,
Wayne


----------

