Receiver with Stereo Sub Woofer outs (1 Viewer)

[Pat Donleycott]

I am looking for a receiver that has two (stereo) subwoofer
outputs and decent bass management controls.

I would appreciate a recommendation.

Pat

 

[Brian L]

My NAD 762 has two sub outs, but they are mono.

I will be pretty surprised if there are actually some that have true stereo sub outs...perhaps some of the high-dollars Denons or Pios?

BGL

 

[John Garcia]

Use a Y splitter. No need for two outputs on the receiver really.

 

[JohnSmith]

But that's not stereo bass though (Y splitter on LFE out)

You could use the left & right pre-outs into two subs (use subs own internal crossover)

The Lexicon MC-12 has stereo sub & LFE sub outputs. A bit expensive though

 

[Chad B]

The Yamaha DSP-A3090 I used to have had stereo sub outputs. LFE was divided up mono between the L and R sub outs, but the R sub out got the bass from the small speakers on the right side, and the same for the left.
That's a pretty old unit by Dolby Digital standards, though.

 

[John Garcia]

Low bass is not directional, so why would one need stereo bass? In general, not many recordings have different bass in each channel. With dual subs the best way to implement them is to collocate in one spot, sort of defeating the purpose of separate signals (if we are talking about separate subs in the same room).

Some of the older Yamahas had dual outputs, but my guess is they were both mono.

 

[Pat Donleycott]

My experience is that low bass information is different in
the front channels and it is best to align the woofers with the L/R front pair. That is assuming you have two woofers. The older Yamaha receivers did have two subwoofer outputs but they are mono (same source)

I guess what I will do is use the front L/R pair of preamp
outputs and and external crossover.

Thanks to all who responded

 

[Brian L]

FWIW, if your rig supports it (you must have either seperates or an AVR with pre-out/power-in jacks for all channels) and ICBM can be set configured for stereo subs.

BGL

 

[BruceD]

That is just about the exact opposite of everything else that has been written on the subject.

1) As John Garcia said, all DD/DTS is mastered with mono subwoofer bass.

2) Most PCM source material does not have stereo bass.

3) If you put the same mono bass out from two drivers located in different positions in the room, the most common result is constructive/destructive interference (peaks and nulls caused by the interaction of the two sources and the room).

Yes, there is some source material (likely less than 0.5%) with stereo bass source material. If you design your system for that content, it is certainly your perogative, but most equipment manufacturers understand how small that market is.


FYI: I have a separate external crossover for my Mains + sub(s) and even experimented with stereo subs. My final results came down to a crossver summed L&R sub signal into a mono sub output stream. This provided the smoothest and highest quality bass reporduction in my room. I listen to 90%/10% Music/HT.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

Pat,

Read BruceD's message above carefully- he knows what he is talking about. However, BruceD is presuming you plan to cross your subs low-

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I have only two CDs in my collection with stereo bass – and then it’s only on one track on each of them! So – two tracks out of more thousands than I can count... Zero point five percent is probably being generous.

I ran stereo subs for several years, not so much for a stereo effect as for a localization thing. Even with a 90Hz crossover with 24dB slopes I could still localize somewhat, but it was primarily a pressure issue more than actually hearing it.

Worked well for music, but in my case the penalty in performance for movies was pretty steep. Do to placement constraints, one sub was in a corner and the other was on a long wall about 6 ft. about half-way between two open doorways. Surprise - the one between the doorways could never get the extension the one in the corner did, so I had to equalize drastically to compensate. But then it would bottom out during movies with demanding passages.

When I finally bit the bullet and put both of them in the same corner, it quickly became evident the compromises I had been living with. Maximum SPL increased a full 5-6 dB. Of course, that’s what you can normally expect from going from one sub in a corner to two. But I had started with two subs - which meant that the second sub, when it was over between the doorways, had been contributing absolutely nothing to overall SPL level. It may as well not been in the room at all!

Overall, the improvement from “stereo” to co-location was dramatic both in terms of improved extension and SPL levels. It was also a cinch to equalize them, whereas before it had been a 40-hour nightmare getting each one to separately deliver identical response.

By the way, they’re still “wired” in stereo, even though they’re both in the same corner...

It should be noted that my set-up is in on one side of a family room, so the asymmetrical room boundaries contributed to the sub placement compromises. IMO about the only way stereo subs has a chance of working well is if you have a dedicated room that allows identical proximity to boundaries on both sides. But dedicated rooms – typically with shoe-box dimensions – have their own inherent and nasty bass problems.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt