AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Receivers, Amps, and Processors › Help with connecting Subwoofer to Receiver
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Help with connecting Subwoofer to Receiver

post #1 of 11
1/15/13 at 10:13am
Thread Starter 
I know this sounds like a basic issue, and it probably is. I have a Sony STRDH520 7.1 receiver and a Polk PSW10 sub. The sub has connections for both stereo wire and an AV adapter. I initially hooked my sub to the receiver by routing the right and left speakers through the sub and it seems to work ok. But I bought a Mediabridge Male to 2 Male gold plated cable to connect the sub directly to the receiver without routing speaker wires. Unfortunately, when I connect it to the receiver this way I get a constant loud bass noise. Did I buy the wrong cable or should I be doing something else?

I've also linked to the cable I bought on Amazon below for reference. It does mention the cable is for IPods and such devices, but my receiver's sub port looks to be a male connection and not a female so after hours of searching, this cable seemed to be the best bet. And of course the reference manuals helped zero. I really appreciate any assistance you all can offer.

(http://www.amazon.com/Mediabridge-Stereo-Design-accommodates-SmartPhones/dp/B004YEBK66/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358273310&sr=1-10&keywords=rca+cable
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 11
1/15/13 at 10:31am
I don't know what you're plugging that cable into, but the subwoofer port looks like a typical RCA port, just like the cluster of analog audio (red/white) and composite video (yellow) ports on the back of your receiver. As near as I can tell from the picture at Newegg, the subwoofer port should be that one just to the right of the other audio ports. You don't need an adapter cable, just a straightforward 75 ohm RCA terminated male-male cable. This may be called a 'digital audio' cable or a 'subwoofer' cable, or you can use a yellow composite video cable.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
1/15/13 at 10:32am
I do not think that cable will work at all. what you need is one RCA cable from the "sub out"

to the 'L' or 'R' input of your sub
or do you have a different looking PSW 10 back?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
1/15/13 at 10:56am
Thread Starter 
That's why I was confused. I thought the subwoofer cable you just mentioned would be what I needed, but since the sub has an L and R line In, I figured I needed a cable with two inputs as well. So I just have to buy the sub cable and connect it to either the L or the R? Would it work the same that way? Thanks for the timely responses, guys.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
1/15/13 at 10:58am
You should have gotten an rca phono cord with a 'y' connection on the other end to hook to the subwoofer out on the Sony.

Here's an example;
http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-splitter-female-15-24cm-cable/dp/B000BATDZ2/ref=sr_1_21?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358275939&sr=1-21&keywords=Two+RCA+Mono+Male+Y-Cable

Then you would just hook up whatever length of male to male rca phono cord you need.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:01am
Get a Y-splitter and plug into left and right. I found that sub performs much better that way as It doesn't have LFE.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
Thank you for this information. This is very helpful. I'll go ahead and order both of the mentioned cables. Now, for quality purposes, will this produce better sound than routing the speaker wire through the sub? I read that it does, but wasn't sure how much of an impact it had.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by raiderstudent View Post

Thank you for this information. This is very helpful. I'll go ahead and order both of the mentioned cables. Now, for quality purposes, will this produce better sound than routing the speaker wire through the sub? I read that it does, but wasn't sure how much of an impact it had.

It doesn't look like that receiver supports any kind of automatic room correction, but there's still a benefit to be had. The amplifiers in your receiver will not need to work as hard if they're not trying to amplify bass frequencies. So plug your sub in to the dedicated port, set your receiver to crossover from your speakers to your sub at 80 Hertz or so (experiment to see what sounds best to you), and feel good knowing you've got a bit more headroom to turn up the volume and enjoy the sound without clipping the output and frying your speakers' voice coils.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:35am
It looks like that receiver doesn't have a sub out through the speaker wire so it would be sending all frequencies to your sub.
Using the subout port will just send the low frequency to the sub at whatever crossover it's set at.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:37am
Let the receiver handle the speakers. Not the sub.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
1/15/13 at 11:41am
Yes +1^^^^
I didn't even consider that in your question. Speaker wire from receiver to speakers not from the sub to the speakers if that was your question.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Receivers, Amps, and Processors

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Receivers, Amps, and Processors › Help with connecting Subwoofer to Receiver