speakers and cables

@immatthewj

Your Klipsch link is the most applicable to what the OP is doing. The person on that link who suggested running the line level connectors to the subs first and then a second line level connection from the subs to the amps, was using the sub’s crossover as a high-pass filter. That does have its benefits but the trade-off is essentially adding additional crossover parts in the signal path. I have a fairly high-end, balanced Marchand passive high-pass filter here and, with my speakers, I like running them without the filter better than with it, so it sits in a box. The level of benefit from using a high-pass filter will depend on the bass capabilities and roll-off characteristics of the specific main speakers being used as well as the behavior of the amplifier powering the main speakers. However, since the main speakers are intended to be run full out normally, the benefits of a high-pass filter can be subtle or perhaps not audible or, in some cases, may even make things sound worse.

Sorry I didn't follow everything going on here.  Y splitters on the RCA low level signal are ok.

@mitch2

 sub’s crossover as a high-pass filter

Are you saying the in and out connections on my subs have a crossover in between them? What I am curious if it's a filter actually, filtering anything out that maybe shouldn't be

Are you saying the in and out connections on my subs have a crossover in between them? What I am curious if it’s a filter actually, filtering anything out that maybe shouldn’t be

@grisly: hopefully someone will chime in and offer an explanation I can wrap my head around. For the time being I will say that it is my understanding that the dial on back of your sub where you adjust frequencies is the low pass filter, and that this adjustable low pass filter is what determines at what frequency the subwoofer starts trying to reproduce bass. In other words, if you set the low pass filter at, for an example, 60, theoretically your sub would reproduce 60 hZ and LOWER. In a perfect world your main left and right speakers, and this is just a hypothetical example, would reproduce bass down to 60 hZ and then quit, and in that same perfect world, your sub would reproduce NOTHING higher than 60 hZ, and this would be perfect sub/speakers integration (as I understand that when the sub and speakers start reproducing the same range of certain frequencies, using another hypothetical example: sub and speakers overlapping from 50 to 70 hZ this OVERLAP is when bass gets "muddy").

(So to "muddy" the waters some more, remember when I was attempting to explain the high pass filter? Using my high pass filter as an example, it is preset to pass on frequencies of 80 hZ and HIGHER to the main speakers. In the perfect world that I understand does not actually exist, if one was using a high pass filter that was passing on frequencies of 80 hZ and HIGHER to the mains, , then setting the lowpass filter on the sub to 80 hZ would mean that the sub is going to make bass from 80 hZ and LOWER. Perfect integration. But I understand room acoustics and other variables usually prevent frequencies from being lopped off EXACTLY where the filters are set.)

I did a search using does a subwoofer have a crossover for a search engine. Found a forum where someone provided this answer:

"Does a subwoofer have a crossover or a lowpass filter?

within the context of a sub. Same thing. However the crossover is designed to also feed the non-sub speaker.

A crossover separates the signal. Over the point goes one way, under goes another. Only the under would get used on a sub. The rest are used on the non-sub speakers of a system.

A low pass just removes and throws away stuff over the point."

So if I understand that correctly, and it seems quite possible that I do not, if the sub does have a crossover, it would come into play if and when one was using speaker wire from L and R speaker posts in amp out to L & R speaker inputs in subs, and then speaker wires out of subs into main speakers. And the crossover would determine at what frequency the signal would cross over to the main speakers.

Don’t take that last paragraph I just typed to the bank yet. Let’s hope some one who is knowledgeable on this subject weighs in and clarifies how this works..

@immathewj

OK. that would make sense. I will check out the manual for the PSW10 if indeed it matches the crossover. (I also might just open up the beast and see if there is a crossover). It does sound "thinner" maybe because I am keeping the low frequency from the speakers and I should dial it down. And overall, the "sound chaos" I sometimes had when I set the frequency on the sub too high is gone. Incredible how simple minded I can be and clueless about such simple things. Until I am not!

Thanks for figuring out my limitations and educating me.

One benefit would be, if the frequencies were split, for the bookshelf speakers to have to produce the sound in a smaller range - which then makes the sub placement even more important.