Open Floor Plan Listening Room

Question.. pardon my lack of knowledge here- My setup is currently all XLR (balanced) cables. How do I wire for subs? Do I need separate crossovers or do some of these active subs have built in crossovers. If I were to go that route would the signal flowing out to the main speakers be compromised by the quality of the connectors/wiring at the subs?

What’s the best way to wire for subs without compromising on cable influences? I know, I know, many of you don’t believe cables make any difference but with planar speakers like these Apogees they are very sensitive to the cables used in the signal path.

There are two ways to wire subs. The first is from the pre out, and if that is XLR and the sub(s) do not have that, you will need an XLR to rca cable. If the sub(s) have XLR, use those inputs. The alternative (not available on all subs) is to connect them at speaker level. REL are strong advocates of connecting this way. Nearly all subs have their own inbuilt low pass crossovers. Some also have a high pass facility to relieve the main speakers of the duty to reproduce the demanding low frequencies. This makes for a slightly cleaner sound from the main speakers, but makes integration harder. If the main speakers are full range I would not bother. It is usually best to use multiple subs in mono rather than stereo, as you can more easily equalize them succesfully.
Sometimes you have to combine speaker level and line level connection. If you were to use a DSpeaker Antimode 8033 room eq for the subs (as I do and strongly recommend) it only has a line level input. If you do not have a pre out, you will have to get the signal from the speaker level output, and use an attenuating cable to reduce the level to line level. Fortunately none of this is complex, and no fancy cabling is required.

There are number of cabling options, so it depends on what you pick. The sub amps I use have RCA inputs, but there are other models (same brand) with XLR inputs. I also use the high level inputs into the sub amps from my line stage, so the subs are independent of my speakers that play full range. I happen to have two outputs from my line stage, but if I didn't I could use a quality splitter, but I tend to stay away from those things. The sub amps also provide for a low level input for connecting the speaker mains directly to them. I plan on trying this method, but the manufacturer recommended to me the high level inputs. Another recommendation, was adding quality custom filters in-line with my power amps to limit the bass frequencies going to my speakers, so passing that part is the job over to my subs. I tried this for a while, but preferred my original setup.

So, it depends. My opinion, is that you need to match the proper type of sub(s) to your room. How a sub loads the room becomes important. So, a swarm system as mentioned may do the trick for you. I have even heard of mixing up the types of subs. Luckily, I got really good advice from a couple of knowledgeable Goners and what I wound up picking got the job done.

Good luck,
Kenny

I have a Krell KRC-HR.   I’m pretty sure I read in the manual that it outputs to both balanced and unbalanced simultaneously, so I should be able to do this.  Are there any timing issues I need to worry about in this setup?