speakers and cables

@immatthewj

The short answer is I don’t know. I follow your train of thought and I believe in the shortest path and signal purity too. Electricity is a mystery to me though so I just believe what I read.

I think I have a compromised system (a nice way of saying "crappy") and using your analogy, it’s a glass with dirt on it, an extra layer of dirt won’t make a huge difference.

These passive components are essentially cables/cable connectors. The signal will degrade for sure, but maybe not much. In my system, the amp and the speakers make 90% of the difference (assuming my records are clean). I can hear the difference in the turntable but preamps, amps and speakers are 30% each. Cables, interconnects, electricity, vibration control, barely noticeable.

Having said that, everything counts, still:

inclined not to put in that switching box

I agree with that and you significantly reduced my desire for it, thank you!

Long story short, I enjoy and learn a lot from your comments. And despite my limitations, I love listening to my rig, it sounds awesome. It’s all relative....

Too bad @erik_squires has left the forum. This is an area where he could answer in his sleep.

I believe the correct way to wire it is not in parallel but in series.

Take the left speaker wire to the left input of your sub "speaker level input’ and then go from "speaker level output" to your speaker. same on the right.

Do not hook anything to the right speaker on the left sub and vice versa.

And I don't think you need a high pass filter, The sub has all it needs between the speaker level input and output.

Jerry

thank you @carlsbad2, I am a big fan of Erik but I had a lot of good advice and options so far including yours. Once my coffee kicks in, I will try and compare them. Wiring-wise yours is the least stressful.

Step one is to determine if the output of your amp is balanced or single end. If it is balanced the negative is not ground. If you don’t know the. The safest thing to do is connect the black to the chassis. If you have REL line subs then you need to combine the two positive wire to the right sub s x connect if to the right positive terminal. Then repeat this for the left. Black goes to chassis. This should work. 

I think I have a compromised system

I am also a member of that club.

it’s a glass with dirt on it, an extra layer of dirt won’t make a huge difference

That is absolutely one way to look at it. Of course, the other way to look at it is. . . .

And despite my limitations, I love listening to my rig,

And that’s a healthy attitude and one I try live by myself. If there is something I think that I can easily and affordably correct, I will give it a try. But sure, there are always compromises and certain sacrifices to be made in an imperfect world. I think that ’Y’ connectors out of a preamp MIGHT be a degree of a compromise that MIGHT sacrifice the siganl to a degree (to what degree I won’t venture, and "might" was an operative word), but what you get for that compromise is the ability to hook your subs up with RCAs and go straight to your speakers from the amp. That might be worth the compromise, and I guess the only way to know for sure would be to try both ways and compare. And I, personally, hate making audio comparisons, although some members seem to literally thrive on it.

As far as my analogy . . . that applies to the way I believe that my hearing works and not necessarily yours or anyone else’s. After I was thinking about it for a while, I actually thought of a better analogy for myself. Do you remember quite a long time ago hearing about when movie theaters were doing something to the effect of slipping in a quick frame of a cheese burger or something delicious every so many frames of the movie they were showing? The frame of the cheeseburger (or whatever it was) came and went so quickly that no one in the audience actually realized that they saw it. But, cheeseburger sales at the concessions counter increased dramatically. Or something like that--I don’t remember the exact details. But where I am going with that is that I believe my own hearing works kind of like that. I may not think I hear something that incrementally improves or degrades the performance of my system, but over time I start to realize that I am experiencing an increased level of comfort in my listening experiences (note the plural form) or, on the other hand, an increased level of listening fatigue and less desire to go back to my room and listen.

Just my own personal theory on my own personal hearing is all.

Not long ago I posted a question about power cords, and what one of the respondents replied with was mind blowing to me. Mind blowing in the differences he said he heard with different cords. That ability to hear (and identify what I hear) is wayyyyy beyond me.