Subwoofer connections (1 Viewer)

[Francisco M]

First post from a relative newbie from Portugal.
I have a Denon AVR 1802, 4 Acoustic energy Aegis one speakers, one Aegis central and a REL Q150E subwoofer. Due to esthetic and technical constraints (not enough space in the wall tubing), I have connected my REL to my Denon via high-level (speaker) connection (Neutrik speakon), through the left and right front channels, in parallel with the speaker cables. I have a few doubts, and any help would be appreciated.
In the Denon setup, I have: subwoofer = no; front = large; center and surround small: I think that in this way all the bass and the LFE is directed to the front channels and to the subwoofer. Is that correct ? Which should be my crossover settings ?

Thanks.

 

[John F. Palacio]

You want subwoofer=yes.

And if you want ALL the lows to go to the sub, then front=small as well.

Crossover settings depend on the sub, the mains, the room and personal preferences. I prefer 80 Hz or lower.

 

[GregLee]

In the Denon setup, I have: subwoofer = no; front = large; center and surround small: I think that in this way all the bass and the LFE is directed to the front channels and to the subwoofer. Is that correct ? Which should be my crossover settings ?

Yes, that's correct. I don't know about the crossover setting for your speakers. In general, the sub's crossover should be set to twice the lowest frequency limit of your front speakers.

 

[Francisco M]

Thanks for the quick replies. One reason for my doubts is that I read in a german site that the 1802, if subwoofer = no, does not direct the LFE channel anywhere (could not verify this, though). Another is that supposedly in my setup all bass is directed to the left and right front channels. The "division" between speakers and subwoofer relies mainly in the natural roll-off of my main speakers (about 40-50 Hz, I think). In this case, the subwoofer crossover should be set to what ? 80 Hz ??

Thanks again. This forum is exceptional.

 

[RichardH]

He doesn't have *anything* plugged into the subwoofer pre-out. So, he definitely doesn't want to set it to "Sub=yes" because that bass will go nowhere.

You want
Front = large
and
Sub = yes

It's not the best situation but it'll have to do for how you have it set up. Set your sub's crossover to around 80 and tweak it until you have a good balance of bass.

Watch the volume too since you're sending all that low bass to the fronts as well.

 

[RichardH]

Something else occurred to me. You're running two speaker wires from the reciever to the sub, but you couldn't run a single RCA cable from the receiver to the sub??

 

[GregLee]

I have connected my REL to my Denon via high-level (speaker) connection (Neutrik speakon), through the left and right front channels, in parallel with the speaker cables.

I'm sorry, but I didn't read this carefully enough. If you hook the sub to the receiver's front speaker terminals and hook the front speakers, in turn, to the sub's speaker terminal outputs, that should be ok -- it's a standard arrangement. But I didn't notice you said "in parallel". I don't know about that.

 

[Francisco M]

To Richard and Greg:
The Nutrik speakon is a rather slim cable, with a special hook-up for the subwoofer ant 3 wires on the other end (to connect to R and L + and R or L - front output on the receiver). It is slimmer than any regular RCA cable. But the real problem with the RCA cable is the plug: they can not negotiate an (unfortunate) angle that the tubing has. This is the REL way to make a speaker (high-level) connection; the REL does not have speaker terminal ouputs. Also, I still think that sub sholud be NO; if it is YES, I think that some bass will go to the subwoofer out and be wasted.
Does any one knows if the bass management on the 1802 really redirects LFE to the main channels if sub = NO ??
Does anyone have one and has tinkered with it ??

 

[Michael Roderiques]

Main Left/Right to large
Sub to NO.

I would try centre both large and small and see which you like best

Surrounds up to you.
For the most part the surrounds do not have a lot of LF, they are starting to release some films with more LF in surrounds, but at this time, its not a lot.

 

[Marvin E]

Check the Polk Audio Bass Management Website:
http://www.polkaudio.com/home/faqad/...cle=bassmanage
According to the article:
"In some systems the worst place to hook up your subwoofer is the recievers subwoofer output jack. If your powered subwoofer also has a built-in low pass filter, and when the receiver and subwoofer filters combine their interaction can cause irregularities in the frequency response which results in lower performance. For most people, the easiest and best sounding thing to do is connect the subwoofer to the Front Left and Right speaker outputs. You can connect your front main speakers to the subwoofer's speaker output terminals. You may get some performance advantages by using low level (line level) connections from the Front Left and Right preamp outputs instead, if your receiver has them.
Hook-Up/Set-Up Recommendations
Left And Right Front Speakers When you're using the Front L&R outputs to "feed" the subwoofer (with speaker wire or line cable), always select front speakers as "Large" and subwoofer "Off." If you connect your subwoofer this way, LFE and bass from channels selected as "Small" will now go to the Left and Right front channels, and be filtered out and played by the subwoofer."
I would set the subwoofer crossover so that it blends with the front speakers (40-50Hz).

 

[GregLee]

But the real problem with the RCA cable is the plug: they can not negotiate an (unfortunate) angle that the tubing has.

You could maybe cut the cable, feed it through the tubing, and rejoin the cut ends. Or put a new RCA plug on.

The recommendation for setting the sub's crossover to twice the lowest frequency handled by your mains is not correct for your parallel connection. It should be lower, to avoid boominess caused by fronts and sub playing the same frequency range. Maybe 40-50Hz, as Marvin E recommended, or listen and keep turning it down until boominess goes away.

 

[Francisco M]

Well Greg, the problem with cutting the cable is that I do not want soldiering, and I do not know of any endings for RCA cable that are of a screw or similar type. Does anybody know of any cable with screw-in plugs fow sw ??
Thanks for all the replies

 

[Ryan_Garcia]

hi francis,

im using 1802 right now and an hsu vtf-2 sub.. i just connected the woofer just like any body else here in the forum. im using B&W for my fronts and rear. i connected my fronts using the the corresponding outputs on the speaker terminals at the back then connected the sub using the sub-preout at the back. set the mains to small and yes on the sub. the 1802 has a crossover set to 80hz and cannot be adjusted. so set your crossover on the sub to out. calibrate it then enjoy digital sound. hope this helps.