SWA 500 Amp Hookup Question

Zimurgy

Hello everyone, new here, pretty new to home audio. I am building a home and I would like to use a Polk CSW 100 in floor subwoofer for my home theater. I currently use a floor model 10" sub and the hookups are pretty simple. I run speaker wire from Left and Right out on my receiver into the powered sub, then run speaker wire from the Left and Right sub-out to the Left and Right speakers.

When I look at the documentation of the SWA 500 I see they show the diagram as connecting the Left and Right out from the receiver to the AMP, then the AMP will send Left and Right out to the in floor sub to power it up.

This may sound dumb, but how do I still utilize the Left and Right surround speaker if the sub doesn't go back to those speakers? Do I split off off of the Left and Right where one set goes to the speakers and one set to the AMP?

Thanks for any clarifications.

Joe

[Deleted User]

Hello Joe,
Welcome to Polk's forum. The SWA500 should receive either the front right and left signal or the LFE (low frequency effects) signal depending upon what you use for your surround sound processing. Maybe if you could let us know what your surround sound receiver or separate processor is we can make a recommendation?
Regards, Ken

Zimurgy

Thanks Ken,

I have an older (12 years) Onkyo receiver, the model eludes me right now, the back of the unit has Left, Right, Center, and Surround Left and Surround Right outputs (screw type/banana connectors). When I get home I will look at the back to check if it has a sub out, if so, I think it is a simple RCA looking output. It is definitely a 5.1 receiver. I have always used the L/R to the sub but this AMP is changing what I am used to. When I look at the manual and picture showing the L/R from receiver to the AMP, I scratched my head wondering who would give up the front L/R speakers to have the sub on. I will follow up with more detail soon. Thanks so much for your prompt and willing help.
Joe

[Deleted User]

You're welcome, Joe. In all likelihood a single RCA connection from the Onkyo's sub-out to the LFE input on the SWA500 will accomplish the connection. You might have to access the receiver's setup menu and turn the sub-out "on". This should provide a suitable low pass signal to the SWA500, which in-turn powers the subwoofer.
Cheers, Ken

Zimurgy

Thanks so much. I am hopeful this will work. I found the documentation for the Onkyo TX-DS484 and it appears that it does show a menu item to turn on the Subwoofer Pre Out. Hopefully it is quality enough to make the sub sound good, I would prefer not to buy a new receiver in order to enjoy this setup. Just out of curiosity, would splitting the L/R out from receiver to L/R speakers and SWA 500 work? Or would that be considered bad practice? Thanks.

[Deleted User]

That can sometimes depend upon the ancillary equipment. For example, some surround sound processors will only activate the LFE output when decoding 5.1 surround sound material. In a 2 channel mode the LFE is turned off, leaving the front speakers full range. But, the real benefit of using an LFE connection is that it will introduce a high pass filter to the main speakers, usually at 80Hz (not always, but usually). The result is that the bass distortion of the main speakers is significantly reduced, always a good idea.
I hope this is helpful information.