Connecting Energy ES-10 Subwoofer (1 Viewer)

[Craig Dag]

Hi all,

I have a set of the old Energy Take 5 speakers as well as the Energy ES-10 10" subwoofer. I bought these as a package back in 1998 but I've yet to replace them because they still sound good and all I currently have is a 10' x 12' living room to work with, so the speakers' size is a nice fit for a smaller room. The receiver I'm using is also pretty old (Kenwood VR-407).

Anyway, my question is as follows: on the back of the ES-10 subwoofer, there are inputs for two type of connections: high level terminals and a low level RCA jack. I assume that the high level output produces better sound, but I've never actually had the subwoofer connected to my receiver using the high level outputs. In the past, I've always had it connected to the receiver using the single subwoofer port on the back of the receiver and to the low level RCA jack on the subwoofer. I don't have the subwoofer in front of me right now, but IIRC, the high level terminals use speaker wire, as opposed to the RCA jack that the low level output uses. With my setup, should I be using the high level terminals (for presumably better sound), and if so, what do I connect the other end of speaker wire to on my receiver? Thank you very much for the help.

 

[DarrenAlan]

Simplistic answer: If you're using your A/V receiver for bass management, you want to use the low-level RCA jack.

If you'd prefer to use the sub's internal crossover, use the high-level connections. For many, this can be a pain since you have to run two sets of wires to the sub (which may be quite far from the receiver for best sound) and then to the left & right fronts.

IMO, you're probably getting better sound the way you have it set up now.

 

[DanI]

In some systems the worst place to hook up your subwoofer is the subwoofer output jack. Some people get mad at us when we tell them that. "Whadda ya mean, don't use the subwoofer jack? The receiver manufacturer, the salesperson and all my friends tell me that's the right thing to do. Where do you get off tellin' me different?" First, calm down. Second, please let me explain:

Some receivers and processors do not send a signal to the sub out jack when in the stereo mode. That means when you listen to music in stereo, you lose the benefit of the subwoofer. Not good. Additionally, in the vast majority of receivers and processors, the subwoofer output jack is low-pass filtered. That means that there is a filter (sometimes mistakenly referred to as a crossover) that blocks sounds above a given frequency from getting out of the sub out jack. Usually that filter is in the 100Hz-150Hz, range .

You can find the rest of this artical at the polkaudio website

 

[Craig Dag]

Thanks for the help.

I read the article from the PolkAudio web site and further investigated the issue. I can't locate the manual for my subwoofer (as I mentioned, it's about seven years old, so...) but Energy's web site has the manual for their ES-12" subwoofer available. That model sounds nearly identical to my model, excluding the size, of course.

I can't attach a file, so I'll have to link to the manual. The manual for the ES-12 is available from Energy's web site at (energy-speakers.com/source/ES-12%20and%20ES-12XL.pdf). The applicable informatin is on page 5 of the PDF. From what I can gather, the high AND low level ports each pass through a (separate) filter. If that is the case, can someone please make a recommendation as to which connection I should use to get the most of out my sub? I don't have the ES-12XL, so I doubt the last part of that section in the manual is applicable to my situation. Thanks again for your help!

 

[DarrenAlan]

Just to clarify -- in most receivers the low-pass filter can be bypassed. In my Yamaha, there's a menu option for bass management allowing me to ouput bass to a subwoofer, to both sub and mains, or to mains only. I run my KEF Q3s full-range as they have decent bass down into the 40s, then use my sub to just fill in as much of the lower octaves as it can.

This pertains, of course, to 5.1 audio; different receivers will handle 2-channel stereo differently. Since I've told mine to run bass to both sub and mains, my mains still receive a full-range signal. Your mileage may vary.