Sub setup

[jadsnz]

Hi,

just bought a nice (budget) stereo amp and biwired my Kef bookshelf speakers to the A and B speaker terminals at the back and all sounds pretty good.

I;ve got a 100w active sub connected via a tape loop out, as there's not a dedicated sub out like you have on most reciever amps. I'm finding the output from the sub is overwhelming the music even turning up the input level by a very small amount, and also always having to adjust the sub level with different styles of music all the time - I never had to do this when I had a reciever, as it was pretty much set and forget? Is there something not quite set up right, or a tweak that might help me?

Also noticing that by turning the speaker balance to left or right speaker is producing very little sound from the left, and a muddy sound from the right, although in the middle, it sounds fine. Do I have a phase problem perhaps?

cheers

[alkalay]

Hi,

As I understand, you connected the sub via a tape output. The tape output is not controlled by the volume level and passes a fixed signal level regardless the volume level of your system.
Could that be your problem?

[msrance]

Hi,

just bought a nice (budget) stereo amp and biwired my Kef bookshelf speakers to the A and B speaker terminals at the back and all sounds pretty good.

I;ve got a 100w active sub connected via a tape loop out, as there's not a dedicated sub out like you have on most reciever amps. I'm finding the output from the sub is overwhelming the music even turning up the input level by a very small amount, and also always having to adjust the sub level with different styles of music all the time - I never had to do this when I had a reciever, as it was pretty much set and forget? Is there something not quite set up right, or a tweak that might help me?

Also noticing that by turning the speaker balance to left or right speaker is producing very little sound from the left, and a muddy sound from the right, although in the middle, it sounds fine. Do I have a phase problem perhaps?

Hi Buddy, I've been throught this myself and sought help on this very forum. I had the problem of having to change sound levels for the sub everytime i changed the system volume - besides my system used to overheat and protection circiutry would cut it off.

I have a powered subwoofer and all I had to do about it was - connect one of the speaker outs through the speaker out of the powered subwoofer. Now it works in perfect harmony with system sound levels. (the Tape out connectors are not influenced by the system volume levels)

If you dont have a powered sub - then you'll have to wait for a better solution though.

[Mr Peabody]

Your tape loop output is fixed, not variable, it will NEVER work like you want. If you don't have preamp outs, you will need to unhook one set of speaker wires from your amp (set B) and go from there (set B) to your high level speaker input on your sub. Tape loops don't function like preamp outs and you should really avoid doing that for reasons you already found out.