sub line-in: filtered vs. unfiltered

Mike Fu

I need some help on how to hook up my recently purchased PSW505. The PSW505 manual (page 4) has instructions on Hook-up method #2 that "If your sub-out is an unfiltered signal, use either left or right Line Level Input, to use the low pass crossover in the subwoofer".

I am confused. The left or right line-in jacks on the back of the woofer are labeled "filtered", while the single Line-in jack is labeled "unfiltered". Does the manual seriously saying I should plug UNFILTERED signal into the FILTERED jack? I thought unfiltered signal should go in unfiltered jack. If you guys have a psw sub, regardless of size, please check your manual for that instruction (the manual is same for all subs in the PSW line). Probably I am just ignorant of the hookup terminology.

My receiver is Yamaha 2500 that has bass management options and I can set its bass crossover freq. Does that mean the sub-out signal from my receiver is FILTERED? If so, which jack on the woofer (PSW505) should I use? One of the two FILTERED jacks or the single UNFILTERED?

Thanks a lot.

John K.

Mike, the point of that terminology is that the frequencies sent to the sub should be filtered either by the receiver or by the crossover in the sub itself, but not by both(so that they don't interfere with each other). So, since your 2500 has bass management which filters the output to the sub, the internal sub crossover filter would just be in the way and the single unfiltered sub input should be used, which completely bypasses the internal crossover. Probably in setting up you should set YPAO to skip the crossover and size settings and manually set them at 80Hz with all speakers small, then let YPAO do the rest.

Mike Fu

Thanks, John. So the label on the woofer means what's going on inside the woofer (UNFILTERED means the woofer won't filter, and FILTERED means the woofer will filter), not what's coming to the woofer (the signal in my case from Yamaha 2500 is FILTERED).

In other words, I should connect filtered signanl from receiver to unfiltered LINE-IN on the woofer, and vice versa. Is this correct?

But if this is correct, is the connection terminology against intuition?

John K.

Correct, Mike, the filtered 2500 sub output goes into the unfiltered sub input and your description of what the terms really mean is right on . As to the terminology being counter-intuitive, that may be the case if intuition is that filtered should go into filtered, but as you now see, it makes sense once you understand that filtering shouldn't take place twice.

Mike Fu

John, thanks a lot. This clears my confusion, and I appreciate your patience with me and my ignorance on the issue.