Hi everyone, I wanted to ask a rather different question as my situation I think may be unique.

I currently am trying to set up my home audio in my new basement apartment. Now what I've found are 3 sets of speaker wires that run under the carpet to the back of the room (behind the couch) , 2 of the sets go to the rear speakers, and the 3rd which I want to go to my subwoofer. I want the subwoofer back there because the room is rather narrow and the sub gets in the walkway if I put it up front. Anyways, I've been using a typical phono plug (kinda like an rca jack head) to go out from my receiver to the line in of my sub (also an rca jack plug-like connection). Now though, it seems that I have to use the speaker wire that's been run under the ground to connect it..so I was wondering, if it is possible to use speaker wire and connect phono plugs on each end rather than buying a new rca cable and having it run above ground?

So basically is there any way to use the speaker wire and convert it into an rca plug on each end so I don't have to purchase a new cable to run above ground?

Any help would be great, thanks!

I am going to say no even though somebody will probably chime in on how it works for them.


The sub is a line leven signal, massive noise will result attempting to use speaker wire in it's place. You will need an amp at the rack, then run the speaker connection back there.

thanks John for the quick reply. That's too bad. however, There may be another option. There are also a slew of other connections on the back of my sub, including areas to put speaker wire into it. However I don't think they are for the sub as it is labelled "mid" or "left rear and right rear" rather than "sub in". I'm not sure of the exact terminology as I am at work now, but it seems the easiest way to get the sub working was to use the rca.

Right now in my current home I am actually using a normal rca (red and black) cable and using just the red head to connect to the sub in and to the receiver...and it works..so really I don't know if I have any options from here. thank you for your help though, wondering if anyone else has any ideas I can try?

Could you try taping the RCA cable to the speaker wire and pulling it under the carpeting? Otherwise you could just run the RCA cable around the room and get some of those nifty little plastic channels (Go to Amazon and do a search on "wire channel") to conceal it.

Speaker level inputs will work. Get a cheapo 2 channel amp for your rack. You can run sub out line split into the inputs of the amps and go speaker wire to the sub. Maybe an Audiosource amp 100 or something like that.

that is definately something worth trying, I am just afraid that the rca plug would get stuck since it is jagged and has edges it can get caught one. I will definately see if it is possible though. It's just too bad the sub can't use a speaker wire when its basically a speaker anyways right? I don't know..its so frustrating!

Speaker level inputs will work. Get a cheapo 2 channel amp for your rack. You can run sub out line split into the inputs of the amps and go speaker wire to the sub. Maybe an Audiosource amp 100 or something like that.

John, you've been a great help and have open my eyes about all of this. Thank god I didn't just buy some phono plugs and solder them to the speaker wire.

I humbly request though, as someone who is not too well versed in audio or speaker/subwoofer setups, what "speaker level input" means, and how do I split a sub out line into the inputs of an amp? So is it speaker wire to amp, then amp to sub? or ?

okay, now that I am at home and can look at the sub woofer, this is what I find:

There are two inputs, a low level line in, which looks like a standard red+white rca plug connection, and a high level line in, which looks like a speaker wire connection.

However, my receiver only has ONE slot for subwoofer out, and its kind of like an rca connection (but not colored).

Is it still impossible to use speaker wire as the main line going from the receiver to the sub? and is it still impossible to just solder the speaker wire to some rca plugs and do it that way? Please let me know

is it still impossible to just solder the speaker wire to some rca plugs and do it that way? Please let me know

Not ideal but it will probably work fine. Try it, you have nothing to lose.

haha, that's true, well..I could risk breaking the subwoofer or receiver and that's something I don't want to do haha....so I was just making sure that connecting it like this won't make the sub or receiver explode and cause massive damage to my house

get a single channel amp. I missed that there is only one pair of speaker wires.

I mean you can go crazy and unmount the amp and move it to the rack and run direct to the speaker too. You have to find a way to seal up the hole left by the amp though.

I could risk breaking the subwoofer or receiver and that's something I don't want to do haha....so I was just making sure that connecting it like this won't make the sub or receiver explode and cause massive damage to my house

As long as you don't short the wires together somehow it's safe to try. Do a clean solder job and cover the connectors with shrink wrap.

that is definately something worth trying, I am just afraid that the rca plug would get stuck since it is jagged and has edges it can get caught one. I will definately see if it is possible though. It's just too bad the sub can't use a speaker wire when its basically a speaker anyways right? I don't know..its so frustrating!

When I do stuff like this I wrap the whole works in electrical tape tapered down to the wire on each side. Just a thought...

thank you everyone for their help. I have decided that trying to tape the rca jack to the speaker wire and running it under will be the safest option for me. My question now is that my sub in line has a red and a white input, but my receiver ONLY has one subwoofer output...what can I do about this? is this normal? And if I had to choose one, which should I choose (red or white)?

You can either use red or white, or both with a splitter. Most I think opt for white as I believe it's the default for mono RCA inputs.

There are two on the sub because some use a stereo receiver with analog (red/white) outputs run into the sub, but for multichannel receivers with a single dedicated sub out, you can hook into either, or both using a Y-splitter (which might boost the signal a tiny bit, but bumping up the sub's gain does the same thing.)

Just use the line in connection on the back of the sub.