I just added a 12" sub to my system to get some badly needed bass. The sub is a 250 watt Proficient S-12 and the receiver is a HK DPR1001 (which I will hopefully be replacing soon). Anyway, if I connect the sub directly to the dvd player I get the room rumbling bass I was expecting but if I hook it up to the sub output on my receiver I have to turn the sub up all the way to get a barely audible amount of bass. I am using an optical digital connection between the dvd player and receiver and I made sure all of the speaker settings on the receiver were correct. Is my problem due to the receiver being a piece o' crap or is it typical to lose that much bass when routing it through the receiver? TIA.
The sub output on the receiver probably only provides LFE signals that are very low frequency. The DVD player probably provides higher frequencies as well, giving the sound more definition. Just a guess...