HELP! No sub in Stereo Mode

I recently purchased the 990 from Outlaw brand new. So far I really have enjoyed the SSP but I noticed this weekend my Outlaw LFM 1 Compact sub will not activate when the 990 is in stereo mode playing an audio CD. Only in 5 channel stereo will it activate (as well as Dolby movie and dts modes). And, yes I have check the on-off switch on the sub. I also checked the 2-Channel Subwoofer offset and it’s at 0db, no offset. I tried stereo mode, bypass, upsample and the sub will not function. It clearly states in the 990 manual I should have left and right fronts and the sub woofer functioning in stereo mode. What else should I check? Is the unit defective? I think it worked previously but I could not tell you for sure. What do I do?

Are the fronts set to "large" or "small". If they are small, what is the crossover setting? I ask because it sounds like the fronts are large (or small with a very low crossover), and the unit is thus not supposed to send any audio to the subwoofer when playing 2.0 sources in a 2.0 mode. 5 Stereo sends signals to center and surrounds, and if at least one of those is small (and/or has a higher crossover setting) then the sub would kick in.

Thanks for the reply. The front L/R mains are set to large with crossover set at 100Hz.

I did leave one little bit of info out but I don’t think it matters and coincidently this is when I noticed the sub not working. Just for temporary purposes I removed my Definitive BP2002’s bipolar’s to take pictures of them to selling purposes. In there place I put my Paradigm Atoms however, I did not change any settings at all. As for the other speaker settings, the center is set to small, X-over at 100Hz, and the rears set to small, X-over at 150Hz. Am I way off? Would changing the settings make a difference? And what would you suggest I set them too? The center speaker is a Definitive CRL 2002.

Note: As soon as the Definitive BP2002’s sell, I plan to purchase a pair of Paradigm Studio 40’s or 60’s.

With the fronts set to large, the crossover is meaningless because there is no bass management applied and stereo modes will only send data to the front speakers. It sounds like the 990 is operating as intended.

For your current setup (the BP2002's up front, CLR3000 center, and Atom surrounds), I'd probably experiment with a crossover of 60Hz or 80Hz for the center. The rears definitely need to stay crossed over above 100Hz - you might also try 120Hz to see if you see any benefit there over 150Hz. And when you go to Studio 40's or 60's, I'd think about starting with a 60Hz or 80Hz crossover for them (80Hz for the 40's, 60Hz or 80Hz for the 60's) - but remember to change the fronts to "small" to engage the crossover.

Damn, I think that worked. I set the speaker size to small and put the X-over on the fronts to 100Hz, the center to 100Hz, and since i do not have any surrounds hooked up at the moment I set the speaker size to show none. Put in a CD and the sub kicked on. Cool! I noticed when i changed the speaker size for the front L/R mains, the sub setting automatically changed from "LFE Only" to "Yes". Not sure what the difference is between LEF only and Yes???

If you would, help me understand something; For example when the X-over is set to 100Hz for any speaker, say in this example the front L/R mains, does that mean any part of the audio signal below 100Hz is automatically sent to the sub and not to the L/R mains and above 100Hz goes to the L/R mains? And by the way, thanks big time for your help!

"Yes" is the only option when there are no large speakers - when there are some large speakers in the system, I believe that the sub can be set to "none" or "LFE only" or "LFE+L/R" (which produces a sort of "double bass" condition with the fronts and sub).

You've basically got the right idea about the crossovers. When a speaker is set to "small" the 990 uses the corresponding crossover setting to divide the signal. Below the crossover point goes to the sub and above goes to the speaker. To be picky about it, this filter is not a "brick wall" but actually a pair of overlapping slopes (one low pass for the sub and one high pass for the speaker), but the basic concept is as we've described it.

Thanks again gonk!

With BP2002s you might want to move the crossovers on the front speakers down to 60hz or mabey even 40. If memory serves, the BPs have a pretty nice subwoofer built in that your not using with that high a crossover.I would expect the crossover built into the speakers to give you a flatter response than shifting from the 990 to the sub at so high a level.
This advice comes with the usual disclaimer that every system in different and what sounds best is best, but I'd give it a try.

The BP2002's were running "large" before. If they were run small, I do think a 40Hz or 60Hz crossover would be a good place to experiment.

Thanks for all the help and information.