SUBWOOFER Connection issue.

[johnny p]

Part 1,249 in my series of dumb questions:

I looked at the back of my subwoofer so I could try to connect an RCA cable I have laying around to my subwoofer, and my receiver, and rid myself of the four speaker cables I'm currently running, and finally get true 5.1 surround...... here's the problem.

The back of my Sub has Red/White Audio In, and Audio Out...... well, that's a no brainer, I'll connect the RCAs to Audio In right...... via Red/White....

HERE's THE PROBLEM.... The back of my receiver has black RCA female parts, one port for Sub, one for Center, one for L, one for R, and one for each surround......

WHAT???? Do I need a "Y" RCA cable to connect my sub?? I don't remember what the Monster Cable I purchased (and returned) was, but it might have been a "Y" deal..... Can I test my connection, or is it purchase the cable, and then see the results??? Am I connecting it to the wrong RCAs in the back of my receiver??? If so, I don't think there are any other places to connect the RCA to.... I'm gonna look again when I'm home, as I only crawled behind it with a flash-light, and didn't disconnect everything b/c I was lazy.


Please help, and as always THANKS!

[GMichael]

Most subs will default to the left input. You can just run the one cable from the receiver to the left (white) in.

[markw]

You can run that one LFE/sub out to either RCA input on the sub, Some even say which to put it in but it really doesn't matter. Either one will work fine.

But, if you can't sleep at night worrying about that other lonely, dejected, unused,d other RCA input, you can use a "Y" splitter to send the sub signal to both inputs.

Get an inexpensive "Y" connector with one female RCA jack and two male RCA plugs.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Does your sub have a "line-in" RCA? It's a line level analog input. If not then GM's right, use the left input.

[Groundbeef]

You can run that one LFE/sub out to either RCA input on the sub, Some even say which to put it in but it really doesn't matter. Either one will work fine.

But, if you can't sleep at night worrying about that other lonely, dejected, unused,d other RCA input, you can use a "Y" splitter to send the sub signal to both inputs.

Get an inexpensive "Y" connector with one female RCA jack and two male RCA plugs.

I think on the back of my Pioneer, it has a "Sub-Out" and its just one RCA jack.

I'm not going to go down and check of course, but I'm pretty sure I remember hooking it up that way.

[johnny p]

yeah, one out on the receiver, and the sub has two ins (one left, one right) and two outs...

They are "Line In" I believe..... is that different? Does that mean my Dinosaur of a Sub can't be connected by RCAs ???

I need a reason to get a new one anyways!

[Groundbeef]

yeah, one out on the receiver, and the sub has two ins (one left, one right) and two outs...

They are "Line In" I believe..... is that different? Does that mean my Dinosaur of a Sub can't be connected by RCAs ???

I need a reason to get a new one anyways!

Maybe yours doesn't have LFE? I think thats just the 1 RCA.

[GMichael]

Some subs have the two inputs. Most default to the left. But you may be able to use either as Markw pointed out. Don't sweat it. It's going to work.

[basite]

in HT uses, the subwoofer is only ONE channel (mono), hence the name 5.1, so that's why there's only one rca output for the subwoofer on the receiver. with stereo material, the receiver will send all the low frequencies to the subwoofer, as a mono mix.

as GM said, connect it to the left input on the sub.

Keep them spinning,
Bert.