What type of plug is this? (1 Viewer)

[ohiograd06]

New guy here. I see a lot of you all with better equipment than I have now. I just purchased my first soundbar. We've always just used the TV sound, had a little extra money, and picked up a soundbar on the cheap. Before anyone says anything, yes, I bought an Insignia, best buy brand. It's an entry level unit. Specifically this one.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insigni...gital-amplifier-black/4849500.p?skuId=4849500

I picked it up on an excellent deal however. I ended up purchasing it on ebay as a new/open box item. All the accessories were there, purchased a couple of optical toslink/spdif cables to connect it. Just got it yesterday, and all went together pretty easy. That said, it did not come with a subwoofer. As it is right now, it sounds a whole lot better than just the TV speakers did. I am not an audiophile, but my dad did church sound for years, so I have learned a few things here and there, plus I'm a computer tech, so I know about hdmi cables, spdif, rca cables, s-video, composite, dvi, 1/4 inch jack, 3.5mm jack, etc.

However, I've never really delved into home theater. That said with this as my first foray into that, I got the soundbar above from online for 35 bucks, another 9 bucks for a year warranty with squaretrade. I'm on a bit of a budget at the moment, but if you look in the link above, and look at the rear of the unit, you will see it has a subwoofer output. Does anyone know what type of plug that might be? It looks too big to be an rca plug, I read some other reviews, and one guy said he was a musician and that 1/4 inch didn't fit it, and he was not sure what it was.

I'm probably going to be perusing around this weekend to see what I can find in the way of a subwoofer without going overkill. You can buy these sets for 99 that already have a soundbar similar to mine and a sub. Considering the price I got mine for, I'm probably going to look at some of the local places or maybe yard sales etc to see what I come across. I just am unsure with that subwoofer output what type of plug that actually is, and what adapter or term I would need to search for.

Thanks for the help up front. I know this isn't a pioneer unit, or polk audio, etc. My first foray into home theater though, and so far, especially for what I gave for it, it sounds good to me, compared especially to the TV speakers that compared to this, sound like they are in a tin can. Plus I can always upgrade later.

 

[ohiograd06]

Also, one thing to keep in mind, in case anyone recommends any subwoofers, I do currently live in a townhome, so I have neighbors. If I get any kind of sub that is too earth shaking, they might be unhappy lol.

 

[Alf S]

The sub out is just an RCA style plug. Back in the day when I had to connect my sub, I used the Yellow VIDEO RCA cable to connect it. Not sure why, but I'm sure any long RCA cable would work.

p.s. I'd drop the "extended warranty" and get your money back, not really worth it IMO.

 

[JohnRice]

The unit in the photo may not be production. The manual shows connecting a regular powered sub with an RCA cable.

 

[ohiograd06]

Ok, I'll test fit a standard rca plug when I am home to see if it works or not, as I do have some relatively nice, shielded style rca cables. That plug just looked bigger than that, which is why I was asking. I guess when I think RCA, I'm used to the red/white type of connectors. In case you didn't see the link, here's the picture of the back of the unit. But you are saying on that subwoofer output plug, a standard RCA should fit? I didn't know if there was different wire I needed. I'll try an RCA later when I am home to play with it more. Thanks for the advice on the warranty, unfortunately I already paid for it. The good news though, I wasn't really out of pocket on my setup. We have gotten away from traditional cable and are getting into streaming. We have a direct tv now streaming package that we stream using a roku, and so have a lot of our content that way. But we had 3 chromecasts(living room, bedroom and home office for my wife) that we used before they got the roku app completed. However, we got tired of those, and sold them. Actually got back almost what I'd paid to begin with. So they bought the soundbar.

The picture I attached is from Best Buy's site, but here is another auction with a soundbar the same model as mine. I'm certain mine looks the same. But I did notice the manual as someone said, said subwoofer cable. Whenever I searched, it looked like RCA/subwoofer cables were interchangeable essentially, hence my confusion. But I'll test fit an RCA tonight to see. Thanks again everyone for looking.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Insignia-NS...822165?hash=item4d49ded555:g:SdAAAOSw9NdXwJbt

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

It’s an RCA plug. The reason it looks bigger is because the insert is black, so you can’t see the hole.

Since you’re in a townhome, better stick with a smaller sub, no bigger than 8” or maybe even 6-1/2”.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ohiograd06]

Thank you all for the replies and taking time out to help the newbie. I did test fit an rca cable and it is in fact an rca plug it appears as that fits tightly in the socket, as someone said, it must have been because it was a black plug making it harder to see the inner portion of it. Plus I'm not accustomed to seeing a black rca type plug, I guess you learn something new. So now I will begin looking to see what I can find for a sub. If I can't find a proper sub, I may check into a set of pc speakers that have a sub for only the sub, as I've had pc speakers when I was a kid that would rattle the floor.

 

[ohiograd06]

So an update. Trolling around the local goodwill and scored this thing(see attached pictures).

To power it, thinking of one of these.

http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=252817251644&fromWatch=true

We used one line this at work for a cheap sound system. So I'm thinking grab it and use it for only left channel out to sub. Thoughts?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I’m pretty sure the laws of electrical physics preclude the likelihood of getting 200 watts from a $16, 12-volt amplifier.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ohiograd06]

No doubt, but the sound bar is only 39 watts itself. If I can get 15-20 watts I'm sure that will be more than enough for my needs.

Since it's only a mono output to the sub, I would only run to the left channel from my bar and run the left channel to the sub, then turn treble etc down and just run it for bass and adjust volume to control power.

 

[ohiograd06]

Just an update. I'm impressed. I ordered an amp similar to the one I was looking at. At first honestly I was disappointed. Wasn't getting much out of the sub. My dad has done sound in churches for years, kind of retired, but figured I'd ask him. Here's what I ended up doing.

1. At first I had it connected to the optical cable. I ended up running rca cables directly from the TV to the rca inputs of my 15 dollar amp(no doubt from China).

2. Took 2 rca cables and stripped the wiring back and ran the stripped wire into the speaker outputs, the rca ends that were still there, went into the red/white inputs of the sound bar.

3. The sub is the type that just takes speaker wire. The amp however had a connector that tightened with screws to connect speaker wire to the amp output.

Tightened everything up, and now I have a half decent sounding system. Sure it's not for an audiophile, but that small amp can crank out a good bit of bass and volume. Turned on a few bass heavy songs hooked to it, and ended up having to turn it down quite a ways not to disturb anyone.

So for a poor man project, no complaints. To summarize, sound bar was 35 on eBay for new/open box, passive sub was 10 bucks at good will. The mini amp was 15 give or take. So for a total layout of 60 bucks (actually 70 since I'd bought a squaretrade warranty on the bar itself), I can't say I would have done much better. My first foray into home theater for myself, but I learned a little and had fun. You know anyone who's looking for a very tight budget setup, I've got no complaints.