Coax for Sub Cable?? (1 Viewer)

[Bryce_H]

Ok, in another thread that I posted too, I mentioned I had prewired coax for sub locations. Some one mentioned that a coax cable is the wrong cable to prewire for a sub. I thought it was fine. I'm using Quad-shielded RG6 and will be terminating in RCA plugs with a waterproof crimper from Parts Express.

What are people's thoughts??

I still have the oppertunity to run something else before I put up the drywall.

 

[John S]

Coax will be fine. Add RCA plugs for excellent line level audio performance.

Coax is typically video cable, so they could technically be right, but I have run a lot of audio through it without issue.

 

[John Garcia]

Should work great. When prewiring, that's what I recommend.

 

[Neil Joseph]

That's what I used in my last two setups.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I'm afraid I missed that post. I believe this is totally wrong. Almost all audio interconnects are made with coax cable to protect the line-level signals.

This could be a mis-understanding. There are 2 ways to hook up a sub:

- Speaker wire from the L/R terminals to the sub, then more wire to the L/R speakers.

- RCA Cable from the LFE/Subwoofer output jack to a self-powered sub.

When playing with sub positions in one house, I made a 25' sub cable from pre-terminated Radio Shack CATV coax ($8) and two "F-to-RCA-Male" adaptors. It worked great with my SVS sub.

Other advice: Pick a corner with the two longest, un-broken walls and run the coax here. Pull enough coax to create a un-broken run from your receiver to the sub. Pull enough slack that you can put the sub about 1/3 of the way along the longest wall.

Run the coax in a zig-zag pattern between the studs. Use insulated staples pounded in half way. The idea would be that years later if you need slack you tug the cable to pop the first staple and give yourself about 8" of slack. Tug again to get more.

Run the coax through standard electrical outlet box's. Buy a blank wall-plate and drill a hole to thread the coax through for a "custom" look. You can always add a wall plate with a connector later (not recommended - but it can be done).

Waterproof RCA jacks: Not really needed for indoor use, but if you have the tools, go for it.

Oh - buy some extra jacks in case you have to cut the end off. Sometimes people get a subwoofer hum and one of the standard solutions is to cut the end off the cable, trim back the shield and attach the RCA plug to the end of the cable but only connecting the center wire. (It is the shield that tries to tie the zero-volts between the receiver and subwoofer amp and causes a ground-loop).

Thats all the suggestions I can come up with now. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

 

[Bryce_H]

Thanks for all the posts. I was beginning to think I was going to need to pull back all the insulation I had installed (whew!) to run different cable.

The current locations are L and R Main (I have Def Tech 2002s, each with line in to the 125watt sub). I also ran two more locations - one on the right wall about 1/3 back and one on the left wall about 2/3 back. Due to the layout of the door, these made the most sense. I have about 5 feet of extra cable at the location and plan on running straight to dedicated subs in the future (i.e. no wall mounted jacks)

Agreed, not so concerned about the waterproof part, but I didn't want to use standard crimp or screw-on connectors (plus I couldn't find crimp RCA, only F) So I bought the compression tool from Parts Express.

Thanks again.