DIY LFE out? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

I've moved into a new home and my livingroom is kinda laid out a little screwy forcing me to put my sub in a back-ish corner of the room.

My receiver in there is a basic 2 channel Pioneer. Nothing fancy, no frills, not even a remote control. I only use it for music and occasional video game audio. There's no LFE out on it.

Up until this point, I had been using the sub's hi-level input and filter circuit because the run to it was short and I didn't mind running 2 sets of speaker wire back and forth to the sub.

Now, I'd have to go thru the floor and across the room... so to minimize my run, I'm wondering what you think the best solution may be (all at low cost, of course)

1.) I thought about using some 4 pair cat5 so I would only pull one cable through and make all my connections. However, the guage is small and it might get a little difficult to make the connections with the solid copper wire. This would be low cost because... well... I could get the cable free from work.

2.) I was wondering if there was some way to DIY a LFE out out of the "B" channel hi-level output. I'd just run a L & R set of speaker wire out to the sub. My problem would be the load to the amp, however, because I wouldn't be using the hi-level out on the sub amp and I think the sub doesn't present any load to the receiver. Is there some way I can stick a resistor in there to "fool" the receiver that there is a set of speakers there?

3.) Just use one of the tape monitor lo-level outputs on the receiver. The problems here are: I wouldn't get low freqs filtered off of the mains.... which isn't a huge deal to me. And I wouldn't be able to control the volume of the sub through the receiver's volume control. That is a huge deal to me.

 

[ThomasW]

CAT 5 probably isn't your best bet especially for for long runs.

If you can go under the floor, run regular old 10-12 gauge Romex. It's pretty cheap. Where you come up from below the floor, transition to something a little more flexible.

Later cut a hole in the floor and put an IB sub between the mains. That will eliminate the placement problem..... :wink:

 

[Darren_T]

Dave,

Thomas knows more than most but I've had success with digital coaxial cable from rat shack but usually use Belden with RCA connectors at either end. It is pretty easy to do if you are handy with a soldering iron and have the proper cable cutters. It is basically the same as the DIY interconnects.

Hey ThomasW,

Not to hijack this thread but since you mentioned IB... What is your opinion on ceiling mounted vs floor mounted IB's?

Any preference?

 

[ThomasW]

Darren,

From a performance stand point, not much difference. Floor mounted do a better job as bass shakers, and no problems with popping drywall nails

But it's much easier to patch some drywall than to repair a hole in the floor...

Edit:
Oops I guess I misunderstood your question.

The answer still is don't use CAT5.

If your running line-level signals do as Darren suggested. I'd look for a buy on bulk coax RG6 is usually very cheap. If you're needing cheap speaker wire use Romex.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Trust me, I thought about it. There's actually a perfect spot underneath the entertainment center. But there's no way the wife is going to let me cut a hole in the floor of our new house.

Anyway, thanks for the input, guys (ha! I crack myself up).

I was thinking I might just go with 2 runs of THIS and use the hi-level inputs.