Possible to hook up mutiple subs to a home theater sytem?

Question

Would it be hard to do it? Expensive? What would it entail in order to do that?

Answer 1

It is possible to have to subs to your home theater. What amp or receiver are you using now? You can use a Y cable which will plug at one end 2 subs and the other end into your Sub output on your amp or receiver

Answer 2

Check out Audioholics.com for tips about setup of speakers and subs.

You will have to be careful about having null spots (places where the two sounds from two subs cancel out each other,

and hot spots, where they reinforce each other

>sounds good, but the frequency response of the entire system will be hard to balance).

It can be done, but it is best to use matches subs, and to run one out of phase to the other.

Answer 3

If powering the two subs with your home theatre amp, you'll need to check the ohm rating of the two subs and then check load rating on the back of your amp or owner's manual specs. Usually the load rating will be marked next to the sub signal out=(-) (+) on the back of the amp with something like 8-16 ohm limit.

If the subs are rated at 4 ohms then you should wire them in series to present an 8 ohm load to the amp. Series wiring is where you take the negative lead from the amp and wire it to the negative of the first sub and the positive of the amp lead to the positive of the second sub then you connect the positive of the first sub to the negative of the second sub with one speaker wire lead you'll have to cut yourself. If 8ohm subs then you can wire them either way if your amp is rated 8-16 ohm. If only 8 then you must wire them in parallel=(Y) for two 8ohm subs to present an 8 ohm load to the amp.

Answer 4

It is possible but the bass a sub produces has no sense of directional origin so there would be no positional benefit.  On top of which you would see little change in bass levels as one sub that can only go down so low isn't made deeper by adding another that only goes just as low.  You would also see very little benefit in volumes, and the levels of sound colouration caused by two drivers driving exactly the same low frequency signal would create a muddied bass.  If you want more volume and more bass then just buy a single, bigger, sub.

Answer 5

If you have a real home theater receiver (large black box from Yamaha, Sony, Denon, Kenwood, Onkyo - etc) with an RCA connection to a self-powered subwoofer - it's easy:

Go to Radio Shack and get an RCA "Y" adapter and some RCA cables. Split the subwoofer output on the receiver and send it to 2 subs.

If you have a plastic system where the thin receiver has the DVD player built in and you use 2 thin/gray speaker wires to feed a subwoofer - forget it.  These systems are not expandable.