speakers and cables


this is about me being a loser and problem creator.

I finally got a 2nd subwoofer and I was excited to hook it up. Well, not too excited. I knew it would be a pain to hook it up. I was excited to hear it. I spent over 90 minutes connecting the speaker wires to my power amp. When I turned it on, the left channel was gone. It blew the fuse. I disconnected everything, replaced the fuse, hooked it up again. It worked for 10 seconds, blew the fuse again.

The way I hooked them up was I went from the sub speaker out from both subwoofers, rolled the left and right side wires together so I had 4 wires that I connected to the left and right plus and minus channels - speaker binders on the power amp. What are my options? My preamp has no sub out. Nor my amp.

Stupid question: should I just go from left to left on one sub and right to right on the other sub?

grislybutter

The only way my way will work is if the output on sub1 sends the full signal to sub2, which it won’t. It’s low pass filter at the input I believe will stop the lows there and only pass on the higher signal through the high pass filter on its output to sub2 negating what having a second sub in the mix is for in the first place since no low Hz signal will be going to it.

Now you’ve got me going for my own supply of baby aspirin, @thecarpathian.

There’s only filters on your subs, not active.

Also use the crossovers and filters on the subs.

I apologize if I confused or frustrated anyone.

I am not at all frustrated, but I can understand how anyone could be confused after reading through all of this.

On edit:  but be sure to let us know how you feel about the sound when you put the 'Y' splitters in.

 

 

 

Also when done, make sure the subs are in phase. That will kill this entire process.

@mswale , if OP hooked up to both of his subs from amp + to + and - to -, and then he went from his subs to his speakers in the same manner (+ to + and - to -) is there any reason that his subs (or speakers) would be out of phase with each other? That is a serious question; OP did report that he felt that things sounded "thinner."

On edit:  if OP uses 'Y' splitters from preamp and goes out to his subs via RCAs, there is no way the subs could wind up out of phase?

. . . @griz: I don’t know if you’ve happened upon it yet, but if not, at this very moment there is a thread/discussion on the amps/preamps forum (right here on A’gon) about merging the sound of subs with the main speakers. (This thread is NOT about how to connect the speaker wire.) You may find it an interesting read and helpful to you for dialing your own subs in with your speakers.

ongoing discussion

On edit:  you will probably also find the discussion interesting  that is going on here in the 'speakers' forum about which input to use hooking up REL subs.

 

@immathewj yes, that's a cool thread. The last two comments got me confused though (what doesn't) angry

I am going to hook up my Y connectors in an hour and I hope I will like it :)

@immathewj I plugged in the splitters and rewired the speakers.

The speakers definitely "came forward". The subs seem to have a weaker signal - maybe because it's low level, but I can boost the gain for sure. I will listen now for a couple hours to my usual test CDs and albums