Defective 165W sub-woofer!?!?!? Anyone else having a problem with the sub-woofer. Mine says only 165W on the back instead of the 290 Watts that it is supposed to be. Even more important, the base plays super super low no matter what the adjustment on the sub or on the tuner. I can't say it doesn't work at all, but I have to stick my ear up to the sub and even then it is really quiet. Definitely not shaking the house. Did I get cheated and sent a defective 165 W sub-woofer??? Defective 165W sub-woofer!?!?!? Anyone else having a problem with the sub-woofer. Mine says only 165W on the back instead of the 290 Watts that it is supposed to be. Even more important, the base... » Read More Defective 165W sub-woofer!?!?!? Anyone else having a problem with the sub-woofer. Mine says only 165W on the back instead of the 290 Watts that it is supposed to be. Even more important, the base plays super super low no matter what the adjustment on the sub or on the tuner. I can't say it doesn't work at all, but I have to stick my ear up to the sub and even then it is really quiet. Definitely not shaking the house. Did I get cheated and sent a defective 165 W sub-woofer??? « Show Less
178914
Craig, thanks for your response. I asked a salesperson at an electronics store and he says that the 165W is probably referring to the power consumption not the total power and that would be typical for a 290W sub. What ate your settings showing in S. cal. and ind. speaker settings, if you don't mind sharing?
178915
Mine also says it is 165W, but the bass is massive. I've got the dial on the back only turned up about 25%. Maybe you got a bad connector cord? Did you use the calibration microphone? Good luck!
429290
Glad to hear you got one, have you tried it yet? Mine is on it's way via UPS, I should have it tomorrow.12/5 UPDATE: by now you may have found out the VS4121 only works if you connect the speakers that come with it. The subwoofer doesn't work as a stand alone with the IM600. I just called Altec and got someone who actually knew what they were talking about and he was surprised that it was recommended by an Altec employee (Wagner). None of their speaker systems w/sub work on the IM600. The guy I just spoke with said there is a stand alone sub in the works and should be out early next year. Sorry for the bad advice but as you can see it was given to me as well direct from Altec. Happy Holidays! Glad to hear you got one, have you tried it yet? Mine is on it's way via UPS, I should have it tomorrow.12/5 UPDATE: by now you may have found out the VS4121 only works if you connect the speakers that come with it. The subwoofer doesn't work as a stand alone with the IM600. I just called Altec and got someone who actually knew what they were talking about and he was surprised that it was recommended by an Altec employee (Wagner). None of their speaker systems w/sub work on the IM600. The guy I just spoke with said there is a stand alone sub in the works and should be out early... » Read More Glad to hear you got one, have you tried it yet? Mine is on it's way via UPS, I should have it tomorrow.12/5 UPDATE: by now you may have found out the VS4121 only works if you connect the speakers that come with it. The subwoofer doesn't work as a stand alone with the IM600. I just called Altec and got someone who actually knew what they were talking about and he was surprised that it was recommended by an Altec employee (Wagner). None of their speaker systems w/sub work on the IM600. The guy I just spoke with said there is a stand alone sub in the works and should be out early next year. Sorry for the bad advice but as you can see it was given to me as well direct from Altec. Happy Holidays! « Show Less
709361
If you're still having issues, you should probably give more details. For example: what receiver are you using? and what are your subwoofer settings on the receiver set to?
2264040
Exact same thing happened to me. I am in the process of shipping it out for repair. The unit is of terrible construction and the electronics flaked. I actually got a sub -woofer and wireless surround speakers for my TV which are 10 times better.
1082412
Probably worth buying a more advanced subwoofer.... Thought mine was but unfortunately my RCA connection to my subwoofer did not work so I tried connecting my subwoofer to my two front speakers. Don't know if that is the proper way but that thing is delivering a thumping bass
1922151
I would check three things.. is there enough bass.. is the sensitivity adjustment correct and is the master / slave switch in its correct setting. Mine came with it in slave mode and I had to switch it to master.
2284699
Are you sure it isn't the subwoofer? It stays on all the time even when the system is turned off and produces a low level hum, constantly. That seems to be the norm for all the subs and the Onkyo receivers. I was surprised to walk into my media room and hear the hum coming from the sub and the system was turned off. Sub is always in stand by. Just a thought.
496031
Never experienced the problem and we are still in love with our Polk sounder. Since the woofer is a BlueTooth device, you might want to go through the "Pairing" process again. BlueTooth is kind of voodoo and has been known to drop it's pairing of devices for no real reason. Thus, try pairing it again. If you mislaid instructions on this, i am sure that Polk Tech Support could help you or you could Google the question "how do I pair my subwoofer with my Polk Sound Bar?". See if that helps.
36312
Hi Mark: I found that there is a bug in my 250 at least (it was refurbished) which makes the volume drop way off if I don't have all the equalizer settings in 'custom' set to EXACTLY FLAT. If you do that and OK it with the checkmark, on mine, suddenly the volume goes up. Sorry no idea what firmware I have.
610052
try changing your center channel speaker to large(in the settings) i had my center channel on small and i had the sub level at +7,after i changed the center from small to large...WOW,i now have the sub level at 0 and it actually sounds better.....
2195801
I agree with Jerry, if you have the option to send it back do so ASAP. I have had 2 of these units the first one the Subwoofer and Sound Bar would lose link very frequently, and sometimes emit a strange feedback.But could you explain the symptoms you are seeing? Personally I had the best luck with putting the sound bar in pairing mode (Hold input button till flashing) while the sub was unplugged. Once you plug in the sub it may pair automatically otherwise hold the link button until the lights go solid.Note: My second system has worked flawlessly since I unboxed it, solid link and no strange feedback. I agree with Jerry, if you have the option to send it back do so ASAP. I have had 2 of these units the first one the Subwoofer and Sound Bar would lose link very frequently, and sometimes emit a strange feedback.But could you explain the symptoms you are seeing? Personally I had the best luck with putting the sound bar in pairing mode (Hold input button till flashing) while the sub was unplugged. Once you plug in the sub it may pair automatically otherwise hold the link button until the lights go solid.Note: My second system has worked flawlessly since I unboxed it, solid link... » Read More I agree with Jerry, if you have the option to send it back do so ASAP. I have had 2 of these units the first one the Subwoofer and Sound Bar would lose link very frequently, and sometimes emit a strange feedback.But could you explain the symptoms you are seeing? Personally I had the best luck with putting the sound bar in pairing mode (Hold input button till flashing) while the sub was unplugged. Once you plug in the sub it may pair automatically otherwise hold the link button until the lights go solid.Note: My second system has worked flawlessly since I unboxed it, solid link and no strange feedback. « Show Less
2102165
Is the subwoofer working and correctly hooked up? If your still not getting sound try setting your main main speakers to small and the crossover to 80hz in the receiver speaker setup menu and subwoofer should say yes next to it. If your speakers are set to large subwoofer should say "plus" next to it on the menu.
661700
Date 14 October 2009. Hey I am late in the game. Can still find the 876 online. My question too you is do you think the 876 power rating is accurate. Also looking at the 806. The 806 is maybe $300 to $400 dollars less. Do you think their is a big difference? It is 140x7 to 130x7 does it sound as close as it seems? Speakers are JBL Studio Series. Also like to watch movies in Dolby and my Denon 1082 which is 110x6 seems to run a little quiet on the center channel. Please give me your thoughts if you have time. Thank You.
1514616
Are you sure that you've installed the unit correctly? Inputs connected to inputs, and outputs connected to outputs? Additionally, have you verified that the impedance switches are set correctly? Lastly, have you removed the volume control, bridges the speaker wires, to eliminate a fault in the cables or speakers? If you've tried all this, and still experience trouble, I'd say it's possible that you may have a faulty unit..
926469
It could be the settings in your receiver. If it's for a surround sound system there's a setting in most receivers that requires you to turn the subwoofer setting to "ON" in the Setup or Settings menu... I hope that works!
1537518
Mine, too, made a loud pop every time I turned it on. However, it was working otherwise until it lost connection to the subwoofer and started making the clicking (or popping) noise every second or so. None of my ideas for addressing the problem worked except for returning the unit to Amazon, which I am doing.
429283
Thanks for the update! I'll look into the BX-1021, did you have to use a special cable to connect it to the IM600? Altec told me last week that the sub-woofer for the VS-2421 would work as well. I'm little leary as they have given me bad advice before. My remote for the IM600 died back in March, it's taken me this long to get a replacement. They said it shipped, then said it was out of stock and would ship when they got them in (2 months ago), didn't ship, had to call (2 weeks ago) with still no remote, called again last week, hopefully it's on it's way. Not impressed with their CS.