Audio

[Question80373]

i have a 12" paradigm subwoofer that is not powered. will a 5.1 reciever be sufficient, or should i get a pre-amp, and use the sub out from a reciever to go to the pre-amp to ensure that the sub gets sufficient power and appropriate crossovered input?

[jts_360]

I would highly recommend buying a powered sub if possible.

If its not Then this what I would do, you have a 5.1 receiver so it should have a/b speakers, run some speaker wire from speaker "B" left and right on the receiver to the wire terminals on the sub. Then make sure your receiver is set to "speakers A/B". The problem with doing it this way is that you wont get 5.1 sound, instead you will just get 5 channel sound plus some extra bass from your front speakers. Instead of investing more money into an amp to power your sub I would just invest it into a powered sub.

[sonimax]

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jts_360 wrote:

I would highly recommend buying a powered sub if possible.

If its not Then this what I would do, you have a 5.1 receiver so it should have a/b speakers, run some speaker wire from speaker "B" left and right on the receiver to the wire terminals on the sub. Then make sure your receiver is set to "speakers A/B". The problem with doing it this way is that you wont get 5.1 sound, instead you will just get 5 channel sound plus some extra bass from your front speakers. Instead of investing more money into an amp to power your sub I would just invest it into a powered sub.

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Not completely true. If you configure the receiver without a sub and the front speakers to large, you should get the LFE channel or the 0.1 from the 5.1 format from the receiver's speakers output. But like you said, a powered sub is a better way to go.

[jts_360]

Lets not forget that the .1 takes LFE from all 5 channels not just the front l&r therefore it would not be a true 5.1 sound as I was trying to point out.

[sonimax]

But the LFE is a discrete channel and is not coming from the 5 others channels. Like I said, if you configure the receiver to large front speakers and no subwoofer, the LFE will be redirected to the two front speakers and you'll get the reproduction of the LFE plus the bass from the 5 others channels. So yes, you'll get 5.1 sound even without a sub. But the bass will be less powerfull than using a true subwoofer with internal amplification.

[jts_360]

If your going to have your fronts set as large then you need to make sure that your front speakers are full range. Just to inform people, the large and small speaker setting has nothing to do with the physical size of your speakers and everything to do with if your speakers are full range.

I know its a discrete channel and yes I have heard that you can redirected to the 2 fronts but without full range speakers that are capable of producing those low frequencies from the LFE channel that way will not work. Unfortunately the poster doesn't say what kind of front speakers they have.

Hmmm.....I wonder if the poster wired the sub the way I said in the first post and changed their speaker setting to large like you(sonimax) said if it would work??? Personally, I don't own a passive subwoofer so I can't test that theory.

[sonimax]

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jts_360 wrote:

If your going to have your fronts set as large then you need to make sure that your front speakers are full range. Just to inform people, the large and small speaker setting has nothing to do with the physical size of your speakers and everything to do with if your speakers are full range.

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You're correct, true full range speakers are very rare indeed. And even if they are, it's not sure they can endure a movie soundtrack like Transformers without being blown to pieces...

[sonimax]

BTW, some subwoofers manufacturers don't use the sub preamp output from the receiver but instead use the two fronts amplifier output to feed their internal amplifier. That force the user to configure his two fronts speakers to large and the sub is just there to complement the bass response of the fronts channels. It's the case with some subs from REL for example.

[jts_360]

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sonimax wrote:

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jts_360 wrote:

If your going to have your fronts set as large then you need to make sure that your front speakers are full range. Just to inform people, the large and small speaker setting has nothing to do with the physical size of your speakers and everything to do with if your speakers are full range.

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You're correct, true full range speakers are very rare indeed. And even if they are, it's not sure they can endure a movie soundtrack like Transformers without being blown to pieces...

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If you really want to be impressed by a soundtrack try U-571. AMAZING SOUND!