Hooking up a subwoofer (1 Viewer)

[Vince_B]

My SVS subwoofer arrived today, and I was about to hook it up to my pre-wired family room. I pulled out the wires in the wall.... found 6 lines labeling FR, FL, C, RR, RL, and SW. Pretty straight forward, except that the SW line (subwoofer I assumed) is not like the other 5 lines. I mean it doesn't even look like speaker wires. It's a coaxial line, similar to cable TV, or DirecTV line. I thought they might have mixed up the lines, but there already is a coaxial line close by, and connecting to the TV. Could this coaxial line be connected to a subwoofer or did the home builder screwed me? It's an SVS PS1-ISD subwoofer by the way. Thanks.

 

[Matthew Todd]

The coax line for the subwoofer is correct. You just plug it in (RCA connector) to the subwoofer input (either right or left, doesn't matter I believe).

It uses a coax line because the subwoofer has its own amplifier built in.

Matt

 

[ScottCHI]

that's correct.

coax is exactly what you want. how does your SW coax terminate?

HERE is a post that is somewhat pertinent to your question.

 

[Vince_B]

Thanks guys. I feel a lot better now. The coax doesn't have anything at the ends yet. I'll have to attach RCA connectors to the ends.

Can only use 1 RCA connector on each end correct? The back of my sub has a Left and a Right for both in and out on Low Level and High Level. One end of the coax line goes to the receiver, and the other end connects to the IN on Low Level right? Does it matter if it's Left or Right?

 

[ScottCHI]

nope

 

[Matt`G]

You might want to get an RCA Y-splitter though, to allow you to plug into both R and L inputs. It will give you a bit of gain. My grandfather had this problem a while ago - his subwoofer's auto turn on would not kick on at low volumes until he put the Ysplitter on. BTW there's a related thread to this going on elsewhere in this forum:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=200749

 

[Dan Halchak]

The SVS manual tells you that if you have a mono (single source) you should hook it into the Left input.

 

[ScottCHI]

use of the Y-splitter is undesirable in almost every instance unless you have a reason for using it; ie. auto-on problems.

and please do what the manual says.

 

[Ted Lee]

consider yourself lucky. you got someone who knew what the f they were doing.

my buddy just bought a 500k home and had the builder wire up his living room. let's see:

they ran a single four strand wire from the front, then looped it to the back. they did this for both sides. :rolleyes

then they just shoved all the wires into the junction box - no labels or designation as to which wire is which. :rolleyes

then they ran a standard speaker wire (instead of a coax like they should have) to the sub location. :rolleyes

believe me, you got a good install.

 

[steve nn]

believe me, you got a good install.
__________________________________________________ ______

Sounds like they did.

If you listen at a low volume and have problems with the (auto on) use a Y. Most likely the extra gain you put to your sub with out the Y will suffice.

 

[Vince_B]

I don't think it's a good installation, because I couldn't use anything that they put in. The locations they terminated for the speakers are not in the ideal locations. I was going to relocate those terminations somewhere else, but they didn't even give me enough line to do that. So now I have to buy new wire for the speakers, new coax for the sub. I also wanted to run the wires inside the walls, but I have no rooms to do the drilling, or use the old wires to fish in new lines. It might be a good installation if I'm using in-ceiling speakers at where they have them located. There's no flexibility. What a waste of money.