Hey

I've currently got a Goodmans X-Pro Series surround sound system, complete with 5 speakers and a subwoofer. It's connected to my TV via optical cable, but when there's a few seconds of silence...the noise cuts out and cuts back in, making a very annoying noise in-between. I've been searching for a solution for a while and most seem to think its due to the lack of a receiver. But I'm wary about splashing out over 100 on something that may not solve the problem. I was wondering if you had any tips or advice?

Thanks

Does nobody have any answers to this?

Not wishing to be rude but I think you will find nobody understands the question! can you please try to be a little more specific; what noise cuts out & back in? & what does a receiver have to do with it? a receiver is simply an amplifier with a radio tuner added, since you already have an amplifier what good will a receiver do?

Paul's hit the nail on the head. Is your Goodman's Pro-X series thing not already an amplifier with speakers attached to it? In which case, how can adding a radio tuner to your set up improve things when listening to your TV?

A couple of other things - is your TV actually capable of sending out a DD encoded signal, or is it only sending out a stereo signal via an optical connection? And if it is capable of exporting a DD signal, how are you getting that DD (or DTS) signal into your TV in the first place? Does it have both an optical in (or multiple optical ins, so you can feed it from both a DVD player and a Sky+ box) as well as an optical out. If not, and you are only feeding your TV an audio signal via scart, then it has no digital audio to send back out through its optical connection anyway.

You say that when there's a few seconds of silence the noise cuts out and back in. Isn't that what you would expect it to do? Surely if it continued to make a noise when it should be silent you would be complaining? Or alternatively, if the noise didn't come back in when the silence ended you would be complaining? Doesn't everybody's source of audio cut out when there is silence, and cut back in when volume returns?

It is not overly clear exactly what is being described here but....

If the Surround system is connected to a TV chances are it is only getting a Stereo signal. Certainly if watching from the internal tuner. It may pass on a DD or DTS signal from devices connected via HDMI and may even have A-D converters so it outputs a stereo digital signal for devices connected via SCART.

Anyway, if it is a stereo signal coming out of the TV and there is sound on all the speakers attached to the Goodmans then that stereo signal must be being processed in some way to generate the surround effect. Most likely via Dolby ProLogic. It may also be possible that it auto senses what it is being fed and chooses an appropriate decoder for the signal.

And it could be this that is the cause of the problem? If it goes silent then maybe the auto sensing circuitry loses track of what it should be doing and goes into "search for a decoder" mode. Then when the sound returns it says "oh it's stereo lets ProLogic it". In so doing it could easily generate some digital garbage which would make random nasty noises through the speakers.

So maybe it is just a case of having a not so good system, or it's set up incorrectly. if there is an option to manually select a decoder then perhaps it would be better to do it your self rather than let the unit faff about getting it wrong. If it can't be forced to pick one decoder and use that all the time then perhaps the advice to ditch it and get a better amp was correct

It's weird as the other surround sound systems I've listened to dont make the noise when there's a break, say a commercial in between a tv show. The noise that cuts out is like a small pitched boom noise...now you cant tell me thats normal.

Nobody said it's normal.

All I can say is that when modes change I do get a small pause in sound, for example when the source changes from Dolby Digital Stereo to Dolby Digital 5.1, or from Digital 5.1 to MPEG-2 Stereo. No squeaking though, just a brief pause in sound.

I have a Pioneer digital AV receiver.

As you say other surround systems you have listened to don't do this, so maybe it's worth investing in a decent AV receiver?

I have no idea what your X-Pro thing is about. Is it a DVD Player amp budget type system, or is it a dedicated AV receiver?

AdamVGR, Here's a question put in the same way you've asked yours...

" I've got a Ford complete with alloy wheels. It's making a funny clunking noise. "

and your second post would be...

"It's weird as other Fords I've driven don't make this sound."

The guys here know a lot but they're not mind readers. You need to provide some basic info about the gear and how it's connected.
[LIST][*]Find a link to the Goodmans Pro thingy. Post it here.
[*]Find a link or at least give a full model number to the TV
[*]Tell us what the TV is connected to and how. Is it the TV ariel for analogue or FreeView, or a cable box, or a Sky box - if so which type: vanilla, Sky+ or SkyHD.[/LIST]

The only Goodmans system I could find that has both Pro in the model name and an optical digital in is this...

http://www.goodmans.co.uk/productdet...language=en-GB

But the manual available on line appears to be a p**s poor scan of the paper version with a large strip down the right hand side that has been cut off. But even the bits that are left are next to useless.

Exactly. How are we supposed to help without this basic info???

Holy shit, that is it. But it looks a bit different from that. So yes its the GHC 4200 Pro, its connected to my TV via the subwoofer to the back of my TV via Optical cable.

Until the OP comes back with a reasonable amount of basic info then can I suggest that no one wastes any more time on this. After all, asking for help is one thing, but expecting the helpers to do all the work as well is just taking the pi55.

I've now told you all you need to know. The truth is that I'm new to the whole surround sound stuff and I'm confused about a lot of it.

I also found some reviews for it, which explain the problems I'm having in better detail. I'm very sorry for the lack of knowledge, I'm just very new to this is all.

Sounds like p**s poor design from those comments. So basically nothing you are doing wrong. But equally nothing you can do to correct it either.

Except that is by sticking an ad in the local free sheet or eBay and get rid of the thing and buy something better. Sadly that looks to be your only option if you can't live with the fault.

It is basically Gating as it is known in pro audio circles. Essentially what it does is detect silence then effectively switches itself off. Then when sound returns it switches back on. Trouble is from the comments made it isn't doing a very good job of it. Taking far too long to switch back on it would seem. As a I said basically poor design.

Trouble is does it count as an inherent fault under the Sale of Goods Act? If it were new then you might have a case for rejecting it as being faulty. But does simply being badly designed and make it faulty? It is after all doing exactly what Goodmans (or whoever really put the Goodmans badge on it) designed it to do. Does the fact that they messed up count as a fault? Could make for an interesting conversation with the shop if you did take it back for a refund.

Damn..so simply replacing the subwoofer with a new one wont solve the problem?

If you do a like for like replacement, ie another Goodmans GHC 4200 Pro, won't do any good. Unless they have an updated version that fixes the problem.

You can still use the front, rear and centre speakers if you want. After all they play no part in the problem. You would however have to replace the amplifier part of the sub and the speaker section too.

It is the amplifier built into the sub that is the root cause of the problem. A shame it isn't like the other systems in the Goodmans Pro series. They at least have separate amplifiers, but no optical digital in unfortunately. But at least it would have been a little bit easier to replace the amplifier since you would not also have to replace the sub.

As others have said, the best thing is to return it and say that it doesn't meet your requirements in that the sound cuts out and you would like to exchange it for A DIFFERENT SYSTEM (i.e. different brand, etc).

If you've bought it fairly recently most retailers would allow you to do that as a goodwill gesture.

I suppose in a way, it isn't really "fit for purpose" as a surround sound system that cuts out regularly is "just not on", is it?

With mine, during silence the sound also cuts out (as when you look at the display the speaker symbols go blank), but the sound comes back the instant that the silence ends so you don't hear a click or pause at all. This is how it should work.

This is not necessarily the case. I have an amp built into my Videologic 5.1 speakers, however I have replaced the amp with a very nice AV receiver and luckily my AV reciever has an output for "Sub [woofer]" and the subwoofer supports external inputs bypassing the built-in amp. Maybe this is the case with the OP's speakers?

Then again it could be something unique to my subwoofer.

With a budget of around £150-200, can you recommend a surround sound system that wont have that problem?

Unfortunately in this case the amplifier is built into the back of the sub and appears to be wired internally.

The only external speaker outputs are for the front, rear and centre speakers. So without a bit of surgery to pull the wires off the amp and find some form of connector block accessible from outside the box there is no easy option but change both amp and speaker.

Oh dear. That's a bummer.

I'm pretty sure that most of them won't have that problem, but can't be sure.

Probably best to look on review sites and see what people are saying.

Oh yes, and your best bet would be to just get speakers seperately and the amp/AV receiver seperately. Not that DVD Player/amp nonsense.

My amp is discontinued now, but if your curious anyway it's a Pioneer VSX-C301 (and one of the very few with scart sockets!), 3 optical audio inputs, 1 coaxial digital input, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II, etc. etc. I know I'm sounding like a salesman now for something that you can't even buy!

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/p...roduct_ID/1505

However there is one of these on sale on eBay at the moment for a Buy It Now price of £70 (£20 delivery)! So if you're into eBay and would like this AV receiver then go for it. That leaves you with £110 to spend on speakers!

Ah I see. Is there any specific brand or model of speaker thats better than the other? I think I will avoid anything by Goodmans... I'm finding it difficult to find any that DONT have their amps built into the subwoofers, thats something I'm eary of now...so any advice on that would be appreciated.

Sorry for the double post folks. I just saw this and wanted your thoughts