RCA cable or speaker wire for subwoofer hook-up...?

Question

Hi!

Is there a real difference in hooking up my subwoofer through the RCA output on the back of my receiver as opposed to the normal, wire hook up, which I have the option of?

I ask because I am wondering if some cutoff issues I am having with my amp has to do with the way it's hooked up.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you have RCA connectors on your sub, and it plugs into power, you should use them and disconnect the speaker wires. Self powered subs almost always perform better when they are using their own power, which is what the RCA hook-up is designed for.

If you are having shutdown issues with your main amplifier, and it persists after you disconnect the speaker wires from your sub, very carefully check all the speaker wires to all the speakers for a short, meaning copper from the possitive and negative are touching each other. After that, disconnect the speakers one by one and see if the problem goes away. If it does, check the disconnected speaker's wiring carefully and if okay, try running that speaker with another wire. You may have a bad speaker. If disconnecting the speakers one by one doesn't make the amplifier stay on, disconnect all speaker wires from your amp. If it still shuts off, disconnect every wire from your amp. If it still shuts off, your amp has an internal problem and will need to be serviced.

Answer 2

Speaker wires allow the sub to strip off low-frequency sounds and pass the rest onto the L/R speakers.  This is the way to use an un-powered sub.

But this bypasses a lot of the bass management that the receiver can do using the RCA hookup.

And speaker wire - draws power from the receiver and does not use the internal subwoofer amp. This tends to leave less power for the other speakers and sounds.

Using an RCA cable tends to produce better over-all sound because of these issues.

Answer 3

No it does not matter which wires you use to hook up your subwoofer, both should work fine.