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Help with hooking up 2 passive subwoofers

benjamin

benjamin

Active Member
I think I'm having a brain cramp, and need you guys to straighten something out. :scratch2:

Gear involved...integrated 2 channel amp (no sub out). Two speakers and 2 passive subs.

Do I run a shotgun bi-wire from the amp with one cable going to the sub and the other to the speaker.

or

Do I run a speaker cable from the amp to the subwoofer and then a cable to the speaker?

Is one of these methods definitely wrong? If not what is prefered?

thanks
 
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benjamin said:
I think I'm having a brain cramp, and need you guys to straighten something out. :scratch2:

Gear involved...integrated 2 channel amp (no sub out). Two speakers and 2 passive subs.

Do I run a shotgun bi-wire from the amp with one cable going to the sub and the other to the speaker.

or

Do I run a speaker cable from the amp to the subwoofer and then a cable to the speaker?

Is one of these methods definitely wrong? If not what is prefered?

thanks
Click to expand...


Passive Subs? Do you have a cross-over??
Pre to crossover / crossover to amp/ speaker wires to sub
 
gyusher said:
Passive Subs? Do you have a cross-over??
Pre to crossover / crossover to amp/ speaker wires to sub
Click to expand...


So if the passive sub (not self powered) does have a crossover then: speaker wire from the pre-amp to sub and speaker wire from sub to speakers.

If the passive sub has no crossover then: pre-amp to speakers (which have a crossover), but then how do you get speaker cable to the sub? :scratch2:


Am I missing the obvious?

Scott
 
If the syb has no xover,,,,dont bother connecting it,,,

If you connect speakers in series, it drops the OHM'age,,,if the amp doesnt like it, it may melt on you....
 
benjamin said:
So if the passive sub (not self powered) does have a crossover then: speaker wire from the pre-amp to sub and speaker wire from sub to speakers.

Speaker wire from amp only. . . Some subs do have a crossover and are passive typical of some three piece systems where you do go from sub to speakers. . .

If the passive sub has no crossover then: pre-amp to speakers (which have a crossover), but then how do you get speaker cable to the sub? :scratch2:


Am I missing the obvious?

Scott
Click to expand...

Preamp (line level) to crossover/ crossover (line level) to amp / amp (speaker level) to subwoofer

No crossover = wont work

Best thing= What sub?? What amp? What speakers? Johnny 5 need more input??
 
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WhiteSE said:
If the syb has no xover,,,,dont bother connecting it,,,

If you connect speakers in series, it drops the OHM'age,,,if the amp doesnt like it, it may melt on you....
Click to expand...

Thats what I was concerned about running a "shotgun" bi-wire from the amp. Without a crossover it would have been like running 2 pair of speakers from single taps on the amp.

Verdict: NO crossover no go!

thanks for the input :)

Scott
 
resistance in series Rt=R1+R2+ and so on... Rt=8+8... =16

resistance in parallel 1/Rt= 1/R1+ 1/R2+ and so on... 1/Rt= 1/8+ 1/8... =4
 
I think what I need to do is brush up on my electrical engineering knowledge!


The situation was this for a buddy of mine. He has a Copland integrated and Maggies. He's never been happy with the bass response of the speakers, so he bought 2 passive subs. Which ones I have no idea yet, as I haven't seen them, and thats why I'm not sure about the crossover. He's asked me to help with the wiring of them and that's what has brought me here.

He thought of running a parallel set of speaker cables from the integrated to each of the now 4 speakers and that just sounded wrong. In my ignorance of electrical terms, I couldn't see how you'd send full frequency through a sub. Good things couldn't happen there!

Well, I'm atleast a little more educated now on this early Sunday morning. Where's a good place to help further educated myself on electrical laws etc! Remember I'm an elementary school teacher and PE at that! I live by KISS.....Keep It Simple Stupid (or for my kids Smart Guy).
 
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Scott, you have to find out what 'passive subs' means. If they are simply woofers in a box, he'll need crossovers of some sort - either active (work at line level) or passive (speaker level, after amps). Lots of subs these days have built in amps with line level crossovers but there is some out there that have built in passive crosses as well.

Without knowing the basics all else is speculation and you might just get yourself into trouble trying hookup or at least give yourself a headache worrying about engineering that may not apply.
 
Billfort said:
Scott, you have to find out what 'passive subs' means. If they are simply woofers in a box, he'll need crossovers of some sort - either active (work at line level) or passive (speaker level, after amps). Lots of subs these days have built in amps with line level crossovers but there is some out there that have built in passive crosses as well.

Without knowing the basics all else is speculation and you might just get yourself into trouble trying hookup or at least give yourself a headache worrying about engineering that may not apply.
Click to expand...

Good advice Bill. I'm going to go over to his place and take a closer look at these subs. All I know is that he didn't want subs with built in amps (active), other than that...I'm guessing too.

I'll run more details by you guys soon.

Scott
 
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