A Question About Sub Cable (1 Viewer)

[Rex Quinn]

Alright, I'm going to need a Y cable to connect my sub properly. The sub had two female connects and the reciever has one female connect. I wanted to get an adapter with one male and two female and put it at the reciever end and send two cables to the sub, but that would require me to buy a pair of sub cables instead of one, and they're sold in singles. Would it be bad if i only bought one sub cable and have it going from the reciever to the one female of the Y cable, and then plug the two males from the Y into the sub? An easier way to explain it is either have the signal split at the reciever end or at the sub end. Are either alright, or does it matter? Splitting it at the reciever end seems more logical, but would run me, at two sub cables and one Y adapter, about $110.00 (CDN) as opposed to one sub cable and one Y adapter at $70.00.

The only reason I'm using "subwoofer" cable is because regular RCA cables don't come in the length I need.

Thanks for your help.

 

[ChrisClearman]

1. You'd be crazy to buy two cables and run them. There is nothing wrong w/ using one from the receiver and a Y at the sub.

2. You don't need both inputs into the sub, you just need to use one. It makes no difference. Apparently if you use two it really just takes an average - and since they're the same it's pointless

My cable came w/ a Y though so I go ahead and use it.

 

[Brian Bunge]

If you want to connect it to both inputs, then use a y-cable with one female connection and two male connections.

 

[Rex Quinn]

Alright cool, I'll probably end up just using one sub cable without the Y adapter if it doesn't make a diffrence. Where would you connect it though, the Sub In or the Direct In (on the subwoofer)?

 

[Darrin_R]

Sub in or Direct in???

What type of sub is this. It almost sound like the 'sub in ' uses the xover and 'direct in' bypasses the xover. In which case it would be bad to use a Y adapter.

 

[Rex Quinn]

It's the Athena AS-P400, you can check out the back of it here : http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/im...?sku=ATHASP400

Just switch to back and zoom in.

[edit] Darrin, you actually nailed it on the head. From a review: "There is also a single RCA line-level Sub Input as well as a Direct Input for use with the LFE output of a surround-sound receiver or processor. The Direct Input bypasses the subwoofer’s internal crossover. "


Another from the review: "The crossover frequency is variable from 40Hz to 120Hz (the sub’s claimed frequency response being 23Hz to 150Hz). A convenient feature of the crossover control is that it is marked to indicate the position that matches each speaker in the Athena Audition line as well as Athena's Point 5 satellite speakers. For example, the position for the AS-B1 is marked at approximately 65Hz while the AS-F2 is marked at the control’s lowest setting."

I'm assuming for this to work, I'd have to plug it into the Sub Input so the internal crossovers could actually function.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

I'm assuming for this to work, I'd have to plug it into the Sub Input so the internal crossovers could actually function.

Actually, no. You don't want the sub's internal crossover to function. Your receiver has already prepared the signal for your sub, and you don't want the sub's electronics to do anything with it except amplify it. Use the direct in.

 

[Rex Quinn]

Hmm, are you sure? The lowest the reciever xovers at is 100 hz. After that, it's 150, then 200 hz. As from my last post,

"The crossover frequency is variable from 40Hz to 120Hz. A convenient feature of the crossover control is that it is marked to indicate the position that matches each speaker in the Athena Audition line as well as Athena's Point 5 satellite speakers. For example, the position for the AS-B1 is marked at approximately 65Hz while the AS-F2 is marked at the control’s lowest setting."

My setup consists of the Audition series, so woulden't it be better to use the sub's xover setting as it's ment to blend with the fronts from the series? If i did use the sub in though, would the reciever's xover still be in tact (like it would send any info under 100hz, but the sub would only play anything under 55hz (the setting for my fronts)) thus giving me a sound hole?

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

Yes I am sure.

If i did use the sub in though, would the reciever's xover still be in tact (like it would send any info under 100hz, but the sub would only play anything under 55hz (the setting for my fronts)) thus giving me a sound hole?

You just answered your own question. In fact its worse than that because when crossovers are in sequence they can interact in unpredictable ways. In crossovers, more is not better. Since your receiver won't go below 100, your options are to replace the receiver, or feed the sub the full range speaker level signal, then feed your mains from the sub, set sub off in receiver. The problem with this is that your sub amp has to down convert the speaker level signal beofre amplifying it, and your main signal is at the mercy of whatever crossover circuitry athena put in that thing.

Everybody hates to divert deep bass from their large, bass capable main speakers, but it is the right thing to do. As great as your mains are at doing below 80 Hz, your sub is BETTER, so let the specialist do its job. Too bad your minimum is 100 which is a little high.

 

[Rex Quinn]

Ok, thanks alot for clearing that up for me. I'm out to get the sub right now, it would have been a pain not knowing this stuff. So direct in it is. The high xover on the reciever shoulden't affect it too much, it's an extremely small room (about 9 x 12 if I remember correctly with 8 foot ceilings) so the sub will most likley have no problem compensating for the bass the mains would otherwise produce.

Thanks again

 

[Rex Quinn]

Ok, set everything up. Direct in with speakers set to small (xover at 100hz) is optimal for movies, while the Sub In with the mains set to large and the xover at 55hz is optimal for music. Switch them around and they don't have the same impact.