# Replace bass knob for more bass? Onkyo TX SV535



## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

So, I'm wondering, is it possible to replace the potentiometer in my receiver to put out more bass? I want to increase the range of the bass knob, so how do I know what kind of potentiometer I need?

How do I know which ones are good to purchase? Do you need to know the specs of the current potentiometer? I just want more powerful bass response compared to the rest of the music. Yes, I know that if it works, I'll have to be more careful about clipping.

I don't know the current range of the bass knob, but it's definitely less than the +/- 10 db range of my now fried JVC. A range of +/- 12 or 15 db's would be really awesome!

Thanks in advance:bigsmile:!


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Hi Billy, as you have already mentioned you have fried your JVC and I think tbh it is not the best Idea, I would look at a better sub woofer maybe than trying to modify any electronics?


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## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

I have very close to zero money, and the subwoofer I have is really great. If you look at my threads, it's a nice driver with strong suspension, and for $3, I don't think I can get a similar sub for a similar price : ). The sub is really loud, just the music to bass ratio isn't really fueling my basshead needs.

I thought it would be a good alternative to getting a pre-amp from the local swap meet (same place I got this new Onkyo receiver and $3 Rockwood driver :bigsmile, but yeah, maybe it isn't such a good idea. Also, the JVC had a thick film of dust covering the electronics on the inside that I couldn't clean unless I disassembled it, so it might have become a bit more sensitive.

But yeah, it might be too risky for me : /. I guess I'll just have to wait until we can go to the swap meet again.

Thank you, I feel a lot more patient and content with my new Onkyo :bigsmile:.


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## tundraSQ (Mar 17, 2007)

judging by the time of the post, is it a safe bet you are a bit of a drinker?:clap:

this cannot be a serious question....*lol*


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Bad Idea.....If you mess something up you will end up with no bass. And maybe do damage somewhere else. I would wait and get a better amp to drive your speaker because even if you blow the speaker trying to get more bass you will only be out 3 bucks....


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

Put some cottonwool in your ears. It will roll off the treble resulting in a relative increase in bass.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I'm sorry to say but your idea will not work, there is allot more to the "Bass" circuit than just the knob and replacing that could potentually damage the entire board. 
Your sub is not what I would call good quality or something with deep bass. Get a better sub and consider yourself lucky that you did not damage your receiver.


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## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

tundraSQ said:


> judging by the time of the post, is it a safe bet you are a bit of a drinker?:clap:
> 
> this cannot be a serious question....*lol*



Not too serious of a question... just really bored, thought it would be an idea starter for a problem that was driving me nuts. I have the fronts on the left channel and the sub on the right channel, so if I change the balance further to the right, I get more bass.

Also, I'm 15 and not only to I not drink, but I've heard more than enough sad stories about drinkers to the point that I never even want to try a shot or Bud on my 21st B-Day. Also, my dad who I haven't seen in over 5 years who lives in rural Washington while I live with my mom nearly died from a decaying liver. I heard that he had a seizure from over-drinking and was sent to the hospital for weeks and put on a three month to two year waiting list for a new liver.

However, it is a safe bet that everybody who has ever met me, whether in person or on the internet, has seen me as a nerd, unlikable, or just plain weird : ).


@tcarcio: I'm more afraid of blowing the amp over the speaker. The sub is begging for more power! Also, is there a better way to connect a 4 ohm sub to a 6 ohm channel than just directly connecting it? Like bridging, or something? How can I lighten to load on the receiver?

Also, if you've noticed, I've said both amp and receiver... sorry if using them interchangeably is annoying any of you guys.

@Kal Rubinson: :rofl:That's actually an interesting idea : ). 5 stars for you and your creativity!

@tonyvbd: I said I'm broke... I have no other options. What's your definition of high quality? It's not like I could just save up. We have a hard time paying bills, we're overdue on multiple things, and if we had $500 to spend, the worst thing we could do with it is buy a subwoofer.:spend:

I kinda feel like you said "Go big or go home."

So, it's the best I have. There are high quality speakers at the swap meet, but they're $70, $100, $150... etc. We just don't have the kind of money to bring to shop if it's not important.


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## salvasol (Oct 31, 2006)

31Orcas said:


> Also, I'm 15


That explains a lot :whistling:



> I have the fronts on the left channel and the sub on the right channel...


 Do you mean that L and R front speakers are connected on the left channel??? and sub is alone in the right channel???

Why are you using this set up???... What sub do you have??? ... It is a passive or active sub???



> The sub is begging for more power! Also, is there a better way to connect a 4 ohm sub to a 6 ohm channel than just directly connecting it? Like bridging, or something? How can I lighten to load on the receiver?


To lighten the load... the sub has to have it's own amplifier... to connect to a 4 or 6 ohm, the amp need to be rated safe to drive a 4ohm load or if it doesn't "DON'T PLAY IT TO HARD".


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

If you have a job then you could set aside a seperate account that money goes into automaticly each week (or pay period) and save up your hard earned money that way. When i was i kid that is how we did it. I understand, it sounds as if there is no spare change but when you want something bad enough you can acheive it one way or the other.:sn:
For example (i'm twice your age), a job bid came up at work for something i basically know nothing about, there was an electrical test and a trouble shooting test (yet to come, which i'm nervous about) but the first part of the test i went in with confidents:boxer: and out of 15 guys i'm the only one to pass it and were talking guys that have been doing this job for 10 times longer then me, now the trouble shooting part of it i'm going to go in with the same confidents:boxer: but yet in the back of my head i have a feeling that i'll fail but at least i can give it my all and get to say that i made it that far.

I guess in short, if you want it you can get it.:T


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## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

@salvisol: Not only that, but I'm also quite the person in their own little world : ).

@bambino: My mom said that maybe, once she starts working more hours, she'll let me sell sub boxes : ). I'll build them out of MDF and tune them low, and put in bracing if it's a big box. I'll be selling them at the local swap meet (same place I got nearly all of my audio equipment).

She said she'll try harder to shell out the starting money because it'll help all of us if I can make a decent amount of profit.

If I make boxes for 18's, I can sell them for a higher markup, because pre-fab boxes for 18's can push $150 for a basic, carpeted, slot ported box. If I look into nice paints and glosses... well, now we're talking MONEY!

(Just a side note, I happen to hit the caps lock by mistake just before I typed "money" :bigsmile


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Just curious but why not get a job yourself, that way you can get what you want quicker.:T


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Don't change the potentiometer unless you have a schematic of your receiver and know how it functions. There is probably 0 bass and full bass and the pot makes it go either way. At zero resistance it's most likely at full and at the rated high resistance it is low. Changing the pot it not going to make zero resistance any lower.

If you need the manual for your AVR you can find it here.

What you should do is connect your sub better to the system. So, I'm assuming, you're running two 8 ohm speakers on the left channel. That makes them appear as 4 ohms. Then you have, I'll assume, a 4ohm sub on the right channel. You're loosing out on the beauty of stereo, are taxing your receiver and your sub is only getting one side of the bass from the stereo pair.

What you should do is pick up a cheap amp, stereo or mono, and pass the low level sub out from your receiver to it and have that amp power your sub. You might be able to find a really cheap used stereo that puts out 100W per channel. You don't need all of the extra features that modern receivers have so it could be a 20 year old stereo/receiver. Check out page 10 in the manual on how to connect a sub.

Oh and about money...Imagine if you had millions of dollars and didn't have to worry about money. What kind of job would you want if money was not in the equation? Probably something you're passionate about, something that you enjoy. Do that and put your passion into it and you will succeed and be happy. You're young, so stay in school and go as far as you can in school to support and train you in doing what you love.


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

Your idea is akin to replacing the gas pedal in a car...


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## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

@MatrixDweller: I figured that out about the less than zero resistance thing after I researched how volume knobs work : ).

As for a job... the most practical one that comes to mind is subwoofer box building. I could build passive subwoofers and sell them for ~$200 if I get a decent 15" and build a nice sealed box for it, and if it performs nicely, I'll build more and then sell them. Once I have enough cash collected, I'll try to start on active subwoofers like SVS or Klipsch, and hopefully that gets me somewhere. I also have ideas for creating subs with really nice aesthetics.

Also, I'm an artist, so if I can make some really interesting paintings, like Escher, I can sell them for a lot of money as well.

So... actually, I'm running two 4 ohm speakers in series on the left channel, and the 4 ohm sub on the right. 

It would be ideal if I could get another Rockwood XR-1712, but after checking across the internet, the only other person who has documented owning one of these exact drivers is a user named "Wipe0ut", a moderator on a car audio forum. Judging from the posting dates, this sub was in production about ten years ago in the early 00's. The official website claims to still have the 15" version of this sub for sale. No prices or obvious way to purchase from the website. Also, it still says "Copyright 2009" on the bottom of the webpage. 

Also, I can't figure out why, but people on the forum are bashing Rockwood harder than any brand I've ever seen. They literally call it the worst brand ever, and disapprove any comment whatsoever that seems to hint at anything good about Rockwood. Is 112 db's at 27 Hz from a single 12 at ~70 watts peak bad to you?

Maybe that's why I got it for $3.

Anyway, I have the center out from my PC going into the left stereo input on my receiver, and the right channel of the 3.5 mm jack going out and into the right stereo input on my receiver (CD input). So yes, I am losing the stereo effect : (, but I _did_ try to purchase another amp (receiver) to power my sub. But the only thing I could find (in our budget) was a $10 amped-up (no pun intended) version of my old JVC RX-307 that blew out on me (an RX-318). Rated at 220w max total output, it's, to my dismay, not as powerful as the 120w Onkyo. It's also rated at 8 ohms minimum, unlike my Onkyo which is rated at a more desirable 6 ohms if it's used for stereo instead of surround.

My mom said that it will be a while before I can get another receiver, and possibly, if I want to get another one at all, might have to rid some of my unused and unmatchable drivers/boxes.

So, do you think I should run my sub off of the JVC to avoid the trade-off of no stereo, or should I keep it the way it is? If I try using the JVC, I could attempt to create a full 5.1 system for once, but the already cramped space becoming so much more packed with speakers would challenge the mom acceptance factor. Also, the JVC is only rated down to 8 ohms and might not be too happy. Can I hook up both the left and the right to the sub? Or would that kill it? Also, I'm a little short on the needed cables (and yet flooded with miscellaneous cables like a yellow, mono, video RCA to a mono 3.5 mm).

Thanks in advance to the recommendations : ).


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## Theresa (Aug 23, 2010)

I really think you will be frustrated after a while if you just get your equipment at swap meets, although back in the day I got some good Commodore peripherals at a swap meet. But there was still precious little that wasn't broken down junk. Also, a lower end receiver, even new, will not meet its own specs. There is a lot of snake oil involved in specs. There was a day when equipment had to meet its advertised RMS levels but sadly that day is no more.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Theresa said:


> There is a lot of snake oil involved in specs. There was a day when equipment had to meet its advertised RMS levels but sadly that day is no more.


It's not exactly like that. Their RMS ratings are true it's just how they are measured. 150 watts per channel measured at only 1000Hz and 10% THD is not very good. So the manufacturer is not lying but layman only sees the 150 Watts per channel and buys it thinking theirs must be better (or louder) than their neighbour's 120 Watt per channel Denon system (measured from 20-20,000Hz at 0.05% THD).


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## 31Orcas (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks guys, but I've decided not to tamper with it. I'll just mess with the "sub out" that seems to output full range (face-palm).

So far, my setup is working nicely.


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