I need a howto on a passive woofer hookup (1 Viewer)

[HareBall]

I have tried to search for this in the forums, but couldn't find what I am looking for.
I have a set of JBL 5.1 speakers and just bought a Pioneer VSX-516-K A/V Receiver. The receiver is 7.1 and the only sub woofer output on it is for a powered sub. How do I go about hooking up the subwoofer since it is passive?
Larry S.

 

[Robert_J]

Buy a sub amp. They are available from Parts Express and dozens of other sources. The size/type you need depends entirely on the sub you have and your upgrade path. And yes, 99% of us want to upgrade the bass. I'm still testing a set of passive subs (driven by a Behringer EP-2500) and I have my next two upgrades already planned out.

-Robert

 

[HareBall]

I'll probably end up buying a powered sub. I priced the amps and can't justify the money for the power. I may be wrong in my thinking, but I also have to satisfy my SO. She has the final say when this is bought.

 

[Carl Johnson]

You wouldn't happen to have an unused receiver laying around the house would you? If so you could try hooking the sub out jack on the VSX-516-K to CD in on the unused receiver and run speaker wires from the unused receiver to the passive sub. A couple of years ago I happened upon two inexpensive passive subs and used that method to hook them to my 5.1 system. It took some fine tuning but the sound was and still is far and away more impressive than the powered sub that I was using at the time.

 

[HareBall]

I had thought of doing this at least for the time being until I can get the sub I want. I have an older Toshiba receiver the Pioneer is replacing

 

[sendmorebrains]

Hey there

I was wondering if one is going to run the sub thru a 2 channel - can you use the MONO button on the reciever and then wire it so the positive left and right goes onto the passive sub on one channel and neg. left and right goes into the other chanel THUS having the amp run at its total output as apposed to the amps stereo output -- ie: 45wpc x 2 instead would be bridged to 90 total ?????

 

[Brent_S]

Not likely. An amp has to be designed for bridging in order to combine the two channels into one. I don't think I've ever seen a receiver that was designed for bridging...if yours is, it would be covered in the manual and most likely also have a diagram on the back panel near the outputs explaining the proper connections for bridging.

That mono button is most likely just for the tuner...switching to mono can reduce noise on weaker FM signals to make them listenable.

-Brent