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

@grislybutter ,

It sounds good from the sweetspot. From everywhere else, it’s a mess. It sounded significantly better with one sub.

on this, it would make a big difference to me whether the SQ in the sweet spot was SIGNIFICANTLY better than before. If it was, I’d probably say it was a compromise/sacrifice I’d make. But that would be me in my listening room.

Because of the room and furniture, I have no way of placing the subs anywhere else, other than further to the right and left 1 or 2 feet.

I have never claimed to be an expert with this stuff, but I would think this might make things tough, as I am thinking placement/location is probably critical I cannot tell from your picture whether the subs are to the rear or to the front of your speakers, and I am sure that this might factor in to the SQ result. When you were a one sub family, where was your one sub located? Quite a long time ago I posted a question about subwoofer location (I only have one sub) and a link provided in a reply I received strongly recommended two subs (much like you were acting on) and suggested that the desired location would be in the rear of the room versus in the proximity of the speakers.

"get a high pass/low pass filter"

We’ve been over this ad nauseam, so I’ll try not to be overly redundant . . . you already have LP filters built into the subs, and I did see that you are waiting for a HP filter in the mail to try out. Pros and cons: the sub will produce bass up to a certain hZ (probably not an absolutely clean chop off at that frequency) and then the midrange drivers of your mains will take over at theoretically where the bass from the subs stopped/another pro (imo) would be using RCAs versus speaker wire to connect the sub, which, among other things, MIGHT allow you to find more flexibility in locating your subs. But one con I see is putting something else in the signal path between your preamp and amp (assuming that is how the HP you are waiting for hooks up).

"don’t have any overlap in the bass"

"don’t add a high pass filter to a full range speaker?"

On this: I just don’t see how a whole lot of overlap between the mains and the subs could be a good thing. I’ve already said that I know I am not an expert on this subject, but that just SEEMS to defy all the logic that I had previously been exposed to. But I have had my preconceived notions debunked here on A’gon before. As far as not using a HP with a full range speaker? Going back to my preconceived notions: I would have been inclined to live in the camp that wouldn’t try to integrate subs with good full range speakers that were capable of getting down into the low frequencies. As a matter of fact, and this goes back to about 30 years aago, I seem to remember when I set my subwoofer based system up that the prevailing logic was, at the time, subwoofers were to augment two way speakers. I’ve read enough here on A’gon to know that if that actually was truly the "prevailing" logic, it no longer is. BUT: I would think that if one was running sub(s) with full range speakers, it would be important to set the lowpass filters on the subs low enough so that the mains and the subs were not reproducing the SAME huge range of low frequencies. And I think I remember you saying that the low pass on those subs only cuts off as low as 80 hZ? Meaning that your subs are going to try to reproduce AT LEAST from 80 on down. And since your mains are rated down to 50(?), even if they are not making it honestly all the way down that low, that still seems to me to be a recipe that calls for a HP or a crossover.

Attached is the current setup. I still don’t know if the sub is supposed to get full signa as before or just left or right.

Although I don’t recall this method being suggested before in your thread, I would THINK that the full signal going to the binding posts of your speakers would pass on (after your speakers) to the subs.

I know a lot more than the beginning of this thread. But still not enough to make meaningful improvements. High level vs low level; high pass filter or low, no filter, I still don’t see the obvious preferences.

Well, knowledge comes from experimentation--both successful and unsuccessful. You’ve tried high level and low level, and when you get the HP filter I assume you will try low level again (with high pass), and as far as

high pass filter or low, no filter,

your subs utilize LP filters and you have not yet used a highpass filter. But I will be waiting to hear how that works out for you. Staying tuned. . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

@immathewj so you are right in your questions, we discussed most of it to death. But the big question is - regardless how I set it up, how it will sound. Sometimes less is more.

When I wrote high pass/low pass filter, I meant: external, sorry for the confusion.

I think my biggest confusion is the right crossover point, and whether I should have stuck with one sub.

I would have been inclined to live in the camp that wouldn’t try to integrate subs with good full range speakers that were capable of getting down into the low frequencies.

I understand. I guess the long story short, if I never tried, I would always wonder, what if....

Now that I tried, I understand that I need better components to take advantage of the sub, or I use little hacks. Human voice is above 100Hz, so I would think, if I filter out the signal below 100Hz to the mains, it still would be OK with vocals. I will find out soon!

This is what it looks like

 

 

I would have been inclined to live in the camp that wouldn’t try to integrate subs with good full range speakers that were capable of getting down into the low frequencies.

I understand. I guess the long story short, if I never tried, I would always wonder, what if....

Well, despite which camp I would choose to live in, I’ve read posts (it seems like several posts) by members who are using subs with full range speakers and seem to be very happy with the SQ that they are achieving. I assume that they are able to find a place on their sub’s low pass filter that integrates their sub with the woofers of their full range speakers, and I would THINK that the setting would be well below 80 hZ, but I am just surmising on that.

And from looking at the picture you posted underneath the diagram, you are using two way speakers, and I would think that would be doable.

. . . and on edit:  there is just absolutely no way, even once you get the HP filter and connect with RCAs, that you would be able to experiment with placing the subs behind your chair?

 

@immathewj

I would have a hard time placing it behind the listening position. I would have to rearrange the room and get long cables. And I guess it wouldn't solve the main limitations.

Next time (there won't be a next time, my wife would stop me any way should would find feasible) I would need to have one or more of the following

  • a bigger room
  • subs with more options
  • pre or integrated amp with crossover controls
  • a brain.....

It's not over though, just yet, the high pass filters are a few days away, according to Amazon. 

My lazy excuse to give up may be that it's just as much of an art than science smiley