Why aren't my subs turning on?

SW,

Pz may be onto something. By nature, LFE is "low frequency effects" for discrete multi-channel encoded material. Until you actually play some material that has discretely encoded LFE information, your subwoofers may not turn on. This would seem to make sense considering you know they work when you auto-Eq, which you know needs to send a signal to the subwoofer.

An easy way to test this theory would be to put in a DVD and play a scene that has explosions or something like that. You could use the "lobby" scene from The Matrix or the "airplane crash" scene at the beginning of Mission Impossible-2 for instance.

If they still don't work, I would check all of your configurations and maybe contact the manufacturer of the SMS-1. If you find that the subs do work when LFE output is know to be present (explosions when playing DD 5.1 or DTS content), but they don't work for music, check your configuration and make sure the processor is supposed to output through the LFE port. It may be that your processor doesn't work that way and you may need to change your setup to power the subs off of the L&R pre-outs.

TIC

Pzuckerman- Perhaps I should have posted more detail. This is a music only system and the SMS-1 is an outboard x-over equalizer. My mains (Merlins) are recommended to be run full range and they get their signal from the main amp which is fed by the Merlin Bass Augmentation module, which in turn is fed by a pass through from the SMS-1. LFE is the label Velodyne uses on the SMS-1 for the equalized and crossed over, line level output. the SMS-1 gets its signal from the output of my volume controlled APL 3910 U-player. Se we have CDP to SMS-1 to sub (all line level) and CDP to SMS-1 (looped out aka pass through) to BAM to amp to main speakers.

RubenT- Understood. As you can see, I am powering the subs from the main L&R outs from my pre.

Geared4me- Unfortunately, that means going to each (I have a pair), reaching behind, shutting them off and then back on after about 30 sec. A real PITA. Hopefully VSA has a work around.

Sw,

Does it sound correct after you manually force the subwoofers to turn on? If so, then it seems that the subwoofers are not working correctly or they are not receiving enough of a signal to turn them on.

What is the low pass frequency you have set up in the SMS-1? If it is really low, it is possible that the music you are playing does not have any content below that frequency. If that is the case, I think it is very possible that the subwoofer will not be receiving a signal from the SMS-1 and therefore it will not turn on until some content below that frequency is played.

TIC