Sub-woofer connection to A/V Receiver?

Question

I just got a new A/V receiver to hook my surround speakers to. Only problem is with the sub-woofer. It connected to my old receiver the same way the other speakers did, with the standard red (pos) and black (neg) wires. The new receiver has an audio out jack for the sub-woofer, the back of the receiver looks like this:

http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/sony_str_dg520_rear_panel.jpg

The sub could plug into the center or surround outs, but not the sub...is there a connection I can get to make this work, and if so what is it?

Answer 1

I see a lot of answers that don't take the speakers into question. What model numbers do you have? There may or may not be a way to do it with the speakers you have.

I wager that you are replacing part of a HTIB with a receiver but you may be disappointed to know that most of these are proprietary now and not interchangeable with current HT electronics.

Answer 2

If your sub is not a powered one (doesn't plug into the wall) then you'll need an amplifier to get the best result. You're sub is probably pretty small I would bet so you would only need a small amp (> 50W). It could be risky though as you could end up blowing your sub. Play a test tone and gradually ramp up the power if you do decide to go this route.

Ideally the sub would be adding bass to all channels and include the LFE track from DVDs. If you end up just running the sub off of the center or FR/FL speaker terminals you will not get this. It could also increase the load on your receiver and cause some problems.

The best bet is to buy a small powered sub. You could probably pick one up for under $100 that would do a nice job with your existing speakers. You will notice a huge improvement in sound quality by doing so.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SA-W2500-Perf...

Answer 3

Looks like your receiver has a dedicated output to work with a powered subwoofer.  However, you don't necessarily have to set it up that way.  It all depends on the sub you have.  I have a JBL powered subwoofer, and on mine you can either use the dedicated out from the receiver or you can hook your main left and right speaker wires up to the sub first.  They have input jacks for the speaker wires coming in and output jacks for speaker wires going out.  The sub filters out the low frequencies, directs them to the sub amplifier/speaker, then sends all the other frequencies to the speaker out jacks.  It requires a little more speaker wire, but it works.  The good news is the sub doesn't have to be powered as long as it has those speaker input and output jacks -- just bear in mind your receiver will be powering the sub, and as a result you may get less volume out of your surround speakers.

Answer 4

Despair not my friend. There is a simple solution to your problem.

You can get from audio stores a cheap chinise made adapter with one end an RCA plug to connect to your receiver and at the other end wires to connect to your sub's speaker terminals. This of course will work only if your sub is powered.