Sub Hookup with PSW303 and HK AVR 325

sbin

Hi All,

I've got the PSW303 subwoofer and a Harman Kardon AVR325. Both about 6 years old. In my house, the speaker wiring is already in the walls (done by the contractor) and there is a plate that has two connectors on it titled "subwoofer" on the front wall and one in the back corner wall with two connectors on it called "subwoofer". Obviously the contractor thought that back corner of the basment was a good place for a sub. It's not possible for me to use the recommended hookup by Polk in my instructions (running the signal first to the sub and back to the fronts) so I am left with wanting to use my "Pre Out" single jack on the back of the AVR325 labelled "subwoofer".

My question - I've got one preout subwoofer jack on the back of the AVR. But two connectors on the subwoofer plate on the wall. Would I run a RCA Y-Adapter cable from the subwoofer pre-out into the wall...and then an RCA pair out of the wall and into the back of the sub (Line in - filtered)

I'm pretty confused...as those of you who know what you're doing can already tell I am sure. Thanks for any help/advice you can give. I appreciate your time.

rooftop59

That option will work fine. However you can probably also just run a single cable out of the preout and the into the bottom input in the wall, and out of the bottom output and into the sub, thus eliminating the need for a splitter. You may also want to experiment with placement; chances are your contractor is not an installer!

Good luck and welcome to CP!

sbin

Hey thanks Rooftop...I appreciate that. I will indeed look into better placement options as part of this too - but it was the single out on the receiver and two connectors on the wall that was troubling me! Thank you!

John K.

Sbin, welcome to Club Polk. Apparently the wiring in the wall is coaxial cable with RCA jacks on each end(rather than speaker wire with speaker terminals). If so, as R59 said, there's no need to use two cables, since the two RCA inputs on the 303 are joined inside the sub and one works well.

However, there's no good reason to feel restricted by the installer's choice of wiring location. Just ignore it and run a single cable directly from the 325 to the single unfiltered LFE input on the 303 in your choice of location, not his. Typically, in a room that isn't square, one of the front corners is a good location for a single sub.

sbin

Thanks John. Appreciate it. Just to clarify - I want to run one nice single RCA subwoofer cable from the SUB-OUT output on the AVR-325 into the single unfiltered LFE input on the back of the sub. Set the sub to "ON" in the settings on the receiver. And the Low Pass setting on the back of the sub won't work, correct? I will let you know how it goes - hooking up this afternoon. Thanks!

rooftop59

Yes that is right. Your volume nob on the sub will still work, but not the crossover. The sub will be receiving a filtered signal from your receiver. So be sure to set the crossover and gain in the receiver. typically you want to start pretty low to avoid distortion, like -7 or -5 and not go past 0 (just increase the gain on the back on the sub). Have fun!