Upgrading and my LG LHT764 (1 Viewer)

[Halifax]

Hey guys. Im pretty new to the home theater arena and have a few questions that are probably pretty basic. Im looking to upgrade my audio system and was curious whether or not I need to purchase an amplifier or not and what to look for in one. I am mainly interested in upgrading my subwoofer. The component speakers are ok, a little tinny sounding but fine for my use. I was wondering how I would go about doing this and what kind of amplifier to look for.

Thanks in advance

 

[Lew Crippen]

Welcome to the forum Nick.

It will help our responses if you let us know what kind of audio equipment you have now.

 

[Halifax]

Thanks. It's in the LG line, since I'm new I cant post links :frowning: hah but its the
LHT764 1000 WATT home theater system. It has 5.1 sound and 5 component speakers with a single driver subwoofer. The subwoofer is really what I'm interested in upgrading, it's pretty weak.

Hope this helps!

 

[troy evans]

Nick, I looked up your system online and can't figure out if your subwoofer is powered or passive. From what I see it is more than likely passive. If it is then your options become limited with your current receiver/dvd player. There are some tricks to getting the most out of a passive subwoofer. However, none of them can touch a good powered sub on performance levels.

 

[Halifax]

Thanks for looking it up! Would it be possible to buy a powered subwoofer, then add an amplifier to power it? This is the area I'm unsure about setting up.

 

[Lew Crippen]

It looks as though your sub is a powered sub. But the specs that I could find were not clear. Here is how you can tell.

If your sub is plugged into an electrical outlet, it is powered (it will also be connected to the receiver via an RCA type plug). If there is no plug to a wall socket, but it is only connected to the receiver just like your other speakers or is connected via the main speakers, it is a passive sub.

Powered subs come complete with amplifiers. If you have a powered sub, you can most likely replace the one you have with another powered sub.

If you have a passive sub, there are still some options. Let us know if this is the case.

 

[JohnRice]

The only concern I have is that the "sub" crossover is fixed, which I'm sure it is, and at such a high frequency that a real sub won't be able to go that high. We're really talking a bass module, not a sub. The crossover could be 500Hz or higher.

It appears to me that it is passive, so a powered sub with high level inputs is probably needed. It should "work" but I wouldn't say it will work well.

 

[Halifax]

According to what you guys have said I think the sub is indeed passive. It's only plugged in to my receiver. Since if I were to go ahead and get a subwoofer that allowed high level inputs it wouldn't work quite as well, would it be better off to buy an entirely new receiver / system altogether? Thanks again for the help.