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

This is becoming the most consisting thread. 

Your 2 subs start at 80

Your Mains go down to 40. 

Why did you get 2 subs in the first place? Your bass is going to be muddy, that is a lot of overlap. Might need to put a low pass filter on the mains like this

low pass filter

But then you would need to rewire the subs. frown

@mswale

I guess you meant "confusing". Yes, I am often confused and I am very good at confusing others.

I had read for years here how a sub makes a difference before I looked into buying a sub. And then I read that one sub is almost meaningless, you need at least two.

My bass isn’t muddy but "reverby" at times.

I don’t mind adding a low pass filter and reconnecting my subs. You linked an 80Hz filter - would it be OK to add a low pass filter for a higher frequency to let my subs go higher, like 100Hz?

I will measure the frequencies of the mains today if I find a decent app.

@grislybutter Yes, confusing. 

Normal sub cutoff is 60-100 hertz, your mains go down to 40, and the lowest your subs can cut is 80, maybe try 100? There maybe a variable lowpass XO out there for you, that way you can dial it in. 

One sub can work just fine, usually you add another to balance it out, and fill in the bass holes one sub can create. A lot of that can be cured with sub placement. I have found with 2 subs, that you can great bass, but it can easily overpower the mains, becoming the focal point. 

This entire setup is starting to feel like a compromise. As nothing is really working with each other. This has me thinking, does your amp, have a speaker A/B switch? Not sure why no one talked about it. You can just wire the subs to the B connections, then put the low pass filters on the A speaker, both with will get full power.

@mswale it is a compromise (mainly for the simple reason I had to swear to my wife many times I am done spending money on audio), and 2 steps back 2(3) steps forward process. 

This has me thinking, does your amp, have a speaker A/B switch? 

No, but one of my ideas was to get a speaker switch. I am interested in this low cost low pass solution, as it should fix the overlap.

 

I don’t mind adding a low pass filter and reconnecting my subs.

A high pass filter would actually simplify your subwoofer connection. Speakers would be. You’d need one extra pair of RCA interconnects to go from your preamp into your high pass and then RCAs from low pass to amp. Since you were able to try ’Y’ connectors out of your preamp, I assume you already have enough RCA to reach your subs. But remember, and not to start controversy, the quality of (RCA) interconnect cable (particularly to & from the low pass filter, imo) will make a difference.

I am interested in this low cost low pass solution, as it should fix the overlap.

Not only should this clean up a bit at where your subs and mains overlap, now your amp will be freed up not to be driving the low frequencies from your main speakers. There are pros and cons, but overall I think you may really like a HP filter in your system.