I'm trying to get two subwoofers for my surround sound set. However, I'm having complications doing so. The subwoofer that Im trying to add is powered and has one audio connector. I'm not sure what the wire is called, but its the same type as the Red, White and Yellow ones that you get with an Xbox or Playstation or most DVD players. I have a slot of my receiver that works with it, but when I plug it in, I get no results. I can't get a picture of me receiver, but here is a very close resemblence photo of it.

http://www.freespaces.com/columbiaisa/audio_onkyo_receiver_back.jpg


Mines almost the same, except on the right where you have those flaps you lift to put speaker wire in, there is an extra one for a subwoofer, which I'm using for my current subwoofer. Where would I put my second one.


Also, if you look at the picture, towards the very left, you see a purple slot called Subwoofer Pre Out, that is not on my receiver.

In order to connect 2 subs to your receiver you will need a 'Y' adaptor similar to this (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=240-127). You will then connect each of your subs to the ends of the adaptor.

Start with your subs gain knob at about 9 o'clock on each sub and calibrate your system using the auto setup from your receiver. You may not have heard anything because if you never had a sub connected to your receiver, then your receiver doesn't know that you have a sub.

Once you run the auto setup you should be fine. You may have to play with the gain knob of each if one sub sounds louder than the other. Anytime you adjust the gain knob on either sub, you will need to recalibrate.

Also, if you don't already have one an SPL meter would be very helpful.

Good luck

Looks like that reciever has 2 sub Pre-Outs...

also looks like you have a video out, which you should be hooking up to your tv to make adjustments to all your settings....

Go through your manual and go through your on-screen setup steps...

You might have to turn on your subwoofer on-screen... Also, have you bought a Radio Shack SPL meter to balance all your speakers as well as your subwoofer to the same levels..? Im not familiar with Onkyo, but I would imagine they are much the same as any other receiver, and you should be setting your speakers to small onscreen, and allow the subwoofer to handle the low freq. crossover at 80hz is usually the norm...

Maybe you could provide us with some more info of your equipment, what subs are you running, what is the model of your reciever.... what speakers as well...

If your running a single sub already, and its working, just go to Radio Shack and get a RCA splitter, and run both subs off the same output... works fine for many people....

My problem is, that my first sub, doesnt have those wires. It just has your basic wiring. So I can't use a Y-spliter. it's a cheap sub.

So your problem is, you have two subs, one only has 'low level' RCA jack inputs, and one only has 'high level' speaker wire inputs (an unpowered sub) -- is that correct? And your receiver does not have an RCA jack labeled "SUB", just a place to connect speaker wires to an unpowered sub, is that correct?

If that's your situation, you need a high-level to low-level adapter. Russound makes one http://www.russound.com/accessories.htm on the right hand list click on "ADP-1.2 Adapter" and I think I've seen one somewhere else, can anyone help out with a second source?

Edit: http://www.installer.com/hilo/ has a bunch
http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=3 15watts input max!

When you order this kind of adapter, make sure you communicate with manufacturer first. Some have built in low bass (infrasonic) filters -- this PROBABLY won't affect you since the subs you have probably won't go below 25Hz anyway -- and some have built in low pass filters (like 100Hz) to keep frequencies ABOVE that from getting into your sub -- a good idea unless your receiver's crossover frequency to your sub is significantly above that. It's not that complicated -- a plain high-low adapter without any filters should work fine.

Before you spend over $50 on such a solution, consider buying a used receiver with a sub out -- you won't be able to use your unpowered sub with it, but you will gain power and features useful as you upgrade the rest of your system :)

In order to connect 2 subs to your receiver you will need a 'Y' adaptor similar to this (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=240-127). You will then connect each of your subs to the ends of the adaptor.
Nope. Read his post again.

Looks like that reciever has 2 sub Pre-Outs...
The receiver in the picture he linked to only has one sub pre-out as well as a sub input with the multichannel analog inputs.

However, if you read the OP's post, he says that the picture is not like his receiver and he seems to be saying that his receiver only has speaker level outputs for a subwoofer and has NO sub pre-out.

Beardlesstulip, what is the make and model of your receiver?

So your problem is, you have two subs, one only has 'low level' RCA jack inputs, and one only has 'high level' speaker wire inputs (an unpowered sub) -- is that correct?
Yeah, that seems to be what he is saying, however it's not clear whether his sub with the speaker-level inputs is necessarily unpowered or not. Nor is it really clear that the speaker-level subwoofer output on his receiver is necessarily powered, although, I suppose, you'd think it would be if it's a speaker-level output.

But even if the receiver's speaker-level subwoofer output IS powered and capable of driving an unpowered sub, those outputs would also be suitable for a speaker-level connection of a powered sub. So it's not really clear what his first sub is, powered or unpowered. And I guess it doesn't really matter.

His issue is connecting the second sub which has no speaker-level inputs, and your recommendation of a high-level to low-level converter would seem to be his only choice, unless, as you also recommended, he gets another receiver.

Beardlesstulip, I still would like to know the make and model of your receiver as well as your two subwoofers. You may be better off using only your new powered sub instead of both of them.

I have a slot of my receiver that works with it, but when I plug it in, I get no results.
And how is that "slot" labelled?

I'm trying to get two subwoofers for my surround sound set. However, I'm having complications doing so. The subwoofer that Im trying to add is powered and has one audio connector. I'm not sure what the wire is called, but its the same type as the Red, White and Yellow ones that you get with an Xbox or Playstation or most DVD players. I have a slot of my receiver that works with it, but when I plug it in, I get no results. I can't get a picture of me receiver, but here is a very close resemblence photo of it.

http://www.freespaces.com/columbiaisa/audio_onkyo_receiver_back.jpg


Mines almost the same, except on the right where you have those flaps you lift to put speaker wire in, there is an extra one for a subwoofer, which I'm using for my current subwoofer. Where would I put my second one.


Also, if you look at the picture, towards the very left, you see a purple slot called Subwoofer Pre Out, that is not on my receiver.

Maybe I am missing something, but the OP states that his receiver has an RCA port as well as one of his subs (highlighted above). If you look at the photo it is under the input for the center channel speaker, the OP mentions that he doesn't have the subwoofer pre-out to the far left.

I missed that his first sub may not be powered though so my Y adaptor suggestion wouldn't work.

Maybe I am missing something, but the OP states that his receiver has an RCA port as well as one of his subs (highlighted above). If you look at the photo it is under the input for the center channel speaker, the OP mentions that he doesn't have the subwoofer pre-out to the far left.In the picture, that is a subwoofer input (like the center input that it's under) that goes with the pictured receiver's multichannel, analog inputs.

I suspect that his particular receiver doesn't even have the multichannel, analog inputs, and if it does, then maybe that's what he's trying to connect his subwoofer to.

The OP did say "I have a slot of my receiver that works with it, but when I plug it in, I get no results.", but it's pretty unclear exactly what this "slot" may be, which is why I asked him how the "slot" was labelled.

So your problem is, you have two subs, one only has 'low level' RCA jack inputs, and one only has 'high level' speaker wire inputs (an unpowered sub) -- is that correct? And your receiver does not have an RCA jack labeled "SUB", just a place to connect speaker wires to an unpowered sub, is that correct?

If that's your situation, you need a high-level to low-level adapter. Russound makes one http://www.russound.com/accessories.htm on the right hand list click on "ADP-1.2 Adapter" and I think I've seen one somewhere else, can anyone help out with a second source?

Edit: http://www.installer.com/hilo/ has a bunch
http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=3 15watts input max!

When you order this kind of adapter, make sure you communicate with manufacturer first. Some have built in low bass (infrasonic) filters -- this PROBABLY won't affect you since the subs you have probably won't go below 25Hz anyway -- and some have built in low pass filters (like 100Hz) to keep frequencies ABOVE that from getting into your sub -- a good idea unless your receiver's crossover frequency to your sub is significantly above that. It's not that complicated -- a plain high-low adapter without any filters should work fine.

Before you spend over $50 on such a solution, consider buying a used receiver with a sub out -- you won't be able to use your unpowered sub with it, but you will gain power and features useful as you upgrade the rest of your system :)


I actually have two subwoofer inputs on my receiver, one for the basic copper speaker wire and one for an RCA Jack sub, but when I hook my sub up to the RCA Jack, with the unpowered sub in the standard wire hookup, I can't get the second sub using the RCA Jack to work.

I actually have two subwoofer inputs on my receiver, one for the basic copper speaker wire and one for an RCA Jack sub, but when I hook my sub up to the RCA Jack, with the unpowered sub in the standard wire hookup, I can't get the second sub using the RCA Jack to work.
Don't you mean outputs? You're confusing the terms which makes it a bit hard to help you. Since you say you don't have a subwoofer pre-out (output) like the one in the picture you linked to, are you certain that the RCA subwoofer jack you're referring to IS an output and not an input, like the other subwoofer jack in the picture.

How is the subwoofer RCA jack on your receiver labelled?

Could you please give the make and model of the receiver as well as the subwoofer you are using? That would really help.

Th receiver model I am using is Ht-R340. I was finally able to take some pictures, which I have included. I'm sorry I dont really know the model of the second subwoofer which I am trying to hook up. It's just one I found in my basement, but I'm pretty sure it's not broken.


Also, these are big sized photos, so I'm sorry about the file size.



This is a picture of where I have my current NON-Powered subwoofer hooked up too. It is just connected with Monster Speaker wiring.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6619/dsc00570ma5.jpg

This next picture is to the right of the first picture, it's just a brief photo of my remaing RJA jacks and that sort.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/1323/dsc00571py4.jpg

This next one is the only Jack I have that is labeled subwoofer. It's the purple jack towards the bottom right, this is where I plugged the second subwoofer of mine into and it did not work.
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/488/dsc00572kc7.jpg

That RCA jack labeled subwoofer is an INPUT, not an output.

That RCA jack labeled subwoofer is an INPUT, not an output.
What he said.

You can't use that jack to connect your subwoofer, Beardlesstulip. You'll either need a new subwoofer with speaker-level inputs, or you'll need to do what was recommended earlier in this thread, and get a high-level to low-level converter. Unfortunately your receiver was made for a HTiB, and, as you said in your first post, has no RCA output for a subwoofer.

The best recommendation I could give you is to "scrap" both your subs, and buy one more capable powered sub with speaker-level inputs.

What he said.

You can't use that jack to connect your subwoofer, Beardlesstulip. You'll either need a new subwoofer with speaker-level inputs, or you'll need to do what was recommended earlier in this thread, and get a high-level to low-level converter. Unfortunately your receiver was made for a HTiB, and, as you said in your first post, has no RCA output for a subwoofer.

The best recommendation I could give you is to "scrap" both your subs, and buy one more capable powered sub with speaker-level inputs.

He's right, but you should probably get a new receiver with the RCA Sub out and a new subwoofer with the RCA sub in (powered sub) ;)

He's right, but you should probably get a new receiver with the RCA Sub out and a new subwoofer with the RCA sub in (powered sub) ;)
That's certainly another option but, except for the lack of a sub-out, his receiver is actually not that ill-equipped. I downloaded the manual and it has quite a few features that you might not expect from it. He can get a good subwoofer that has both RCA input(s) and speaker-level connections and he'll be set if he does upgrade his receiver down the road.

What would be a good receiver that could fix my problems, preferbly one with HDMI connections.