Ayre amplifier to Subwoofer connections

Al,

One subwoofer only. What I meant to indicate was when either the left or right input from the DAC is pulled from the Ayre AX7 integrated amp (only one stereo side connected) I hear output from both main speakers (whether or not the sub was on)with the alternate speaker down about 6 - 10 db. When the black leads were removed from the subwoofer amp chassis, there was no crosstalk. Meaning the energy from the balanced negative speaker outs was crossing over and back the negative leads to the main speakers.

So, you are correct and I am having a "duh" moment. When Steve at Ayre suggested grounding the subwoofer speaker connections to chassis ground, he meant on the Ayre, not on the subwoofer. (not a pre-amp chassis as the Ax7 is an integrated that actually doesn't have a pre-amp stage per-se).

I think I get it now and will try the grounding sub negative to the Ayre and not to the subwoofer amp chassis. Although I am still confused about one piece.

Should I do this:

1. Positive speaker outputs on Ayre connected to red speaker inputs on sub.
Negative leads from speaker out to chassis on Ayre - seems like this would ground the mains to chassis as well?

or
2. positive the same
negative from chassis ground on the Ayre to black speaker outputs on sub.?

Drew.

Ouch! Yes, by all means what was meant was sub black to amp chassis, not vice versa. Keep in mind that with a fully balanced amp, both the red output and the black output of the amp have signals on them (in fact, the same signal except with opposite polarity, as you now appear to realize). When you connected both of the amp's black outputs to sub chassis, you were connecting two different amp output signals together, a definite no no!

I don't quite follow the two alternatives you listed at the end of your post, but let me re-state how I envision the connections should be made:

-- Left main speaker red to Ayre left channel red.
-- Left main speaker black to Ayre left channel black.
-- Right main speaker red to Ayre right channel red.
-- Right main speaker black to Ayre right channel black.
-- Sub left channel red to Ayre left channel red.
-- Sub right channel red to Ayre right channel red.
-- One or both of the two black terminals on the sub to the chassis of the Ayre. I suspect that it won't make any difference whether you connect both of them, or only one of them, since they are most probably connected directly together within the sub's amp.

Regards,
-- Al

Al,

I get it and appreciate your help - now I am going to leave things as they are and enjoy it.

drew.

This is an interesting and timely topic as I just today picked up an AX-7 to play around with. I connected my REL to it the way I normally would, with the one black lead connected to one channel's "-" terminal. Drewh1, did Ayre suggest what to use for chassis ground on the unit? There are no obvious screws on the back to use.

(In case anyone at Ayre is reading this, the Cardas binding posts are not ideal when you are connecting a subwoofer this way because you end up tightening down for the terminal with the subwoofer lead and then it's not tight enough on the other pole.)

For subwoofers that only offer line level connection, such as the JL Audio subs, how would you connect them to the Ax-7, which has no pre out -- through the tape out?

I connected my REL to it the way I normally would, with the one black lead connected to one channel's "-" terminal.

Drubin -- What model REL is it? And does it have a 3-prong power cord? If so, you definitely don't want to do that. For the reasons I explained above, and also note the cautions on page 5 of the AX7 manual:

http://www.ayre.com/pdf/Ayre_AX7e_Manual.pdf

Regards,
-- Al