Proper Subwoofer Hook-up

[FearoftheNight]

Hi guys just a question about setting up a sub. Maybe I've been doing it wrong this whole time but I've been using the subwoofer pre-out plug on my receiver and running a single cable to the sub and just having the speaker cables directly from the receiver to the front l/r speakers. Now it seems that I read that the right way to do it is run the cables for the l/r speakers to the sub then to the speakers....is this true?

I tried this for a while and it seems that if I only have the pre-out plugged in there's nothing coming out of the sub while music is playing while if the speaker cables go in first then there is bass coming out. Which is weird because my dvds with dolby 5.1 seem to have bass with the previous configuration. Have I been doing this all wrong? Or do I have some kind of faulty cable or receiver preout connection?

 

[calvie]

If your receiver have sub out, then that would be the way to go. If you are not getting bass out of the sub that way, you probably need to set the sub crossover/level.

 

[FearoftheNight]

ok where would this sub crossover lvl be set?

 

[Number1]

Your original configuration is right. Sub out (RCA) to sub and speakers out to speakers.

Check you receiver manual for the sub level adjustment. Also, your receiver probably has many different music configurations setting and you are probably using the wrong one. Try them all and see if it makes a difference.
What receiver are you using?

 

[calvie]

if you are setting the crossover on the receiver, make sure to set the crossover to the highest point on the sub or disable the sub's own crossover if there is one.

 

[Aikouka]

I tried this for a while and it seems that if I only have the pre-out plugged in there's nothing coming out of the sub while music is playing while if the speaker cables go in first then there is bass coming out. Which is weird because my dvds with dolby 5.1 seem to have bass with the previous configuration. Have I been doing this all wrong? Or do I have some kind of faulty cable or receiver preout connection?

If you're just using MP3s with a sort of "direct" setting on your receiver, you will not get any bass. If you use one of those modes that fakes full range audio (such as PLII M), you should get bass. DD5.1 does have said full range already, so the Pre-Out -> Sub would work just fine.

Your original method is the usual way of hooking it up... it just sounds like you're playing source material that requires some special processing (at the receiver) to produce bass.

 

[Corn]

More than likely, you have set the L/R speaker setting in the receiver to "large" or "full range". Set the speaker to "small" or if an actual crossover frequency can be set in the receiver menu for the main speakers, set it to 80hz, then the receiver will direct the low bass frequency to the sub. Some Onkyo receivers also have a "double bass" setting that allows you to set your main L/R speakers to "full range" and still direct the low bass frequencies to the sub as well.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Yes. Is there a difference between sub out vs sub pre-out? I notice that DVD have normal audio bass while sources such as mp3/youtube do not. What is the best way to add bass?