Sub from preouts?

Airplay355

How do I hook up my sub to my new preamp? There are two sets out preouts but when I plugged my subwoofer cable ( t splitter and then to a regular cable) into the second set of preouts, I lost tons of volume. I removed them and things were fine. Is it my cable? Is it my preamp?

I also wanted to know if the crossover on my sub will work if I'm using the line in's. Do I have to use the speaker level line ins for the crossover to work? are the rca line ins unfiltered? There is no designated unfiltered input, so I don't really know.

I'm using an AMC 1100 pre and a B&W asw300 sub.

BobMcG

You're using pre-outs so use of a pair of RCAs will work.
Perhaps if you were using a sub-out you could use one IC to the sub and a "T" and jumper at the sub.

Airplay355

why does plugging in the sub cable take away from the volume of my main speakers though? does that always happen, or do i just need to use a regular rca instead of the sub cable?

Airplay355

Well I took pictures but they don't really help much. I found out the problem is the T splitter. I'm not really sure what it's doing but it screws things up. The sub works fine if I don't use it. I guess I'll just need to get myself an RCA cable.

Hey Zero, how does the mixing feature work? And what are all the little black knobs on the back for?

michael_w

When I hooked up my sub from my preouts I used an rca splitter thing that took 2 rca's and turned it into one and ran into problems. It took my sound and turned it into some messed up mono. So I fixed that by only running one rca into the single input of my sub. (used the left channel preout)

Airplay355

Zero,
All the way up? They were all half way when the pre got here, I left them that way....ooops lol

Michael,
I think I was having the same problem you were. I have no idea why it's doing that, but something about the y and t splitters messes up the signal.


EDIT:just messed with the black knobs and they don't effect volume at all. they are all in a line that has "mix" infront of it so i think they control the percentage of the mix that input is. so if you want cd and multimedia to be mixed but you want the cd softer, then you turn the black knob by the cd down. thats just a guess, i really have no idea lol.

Airplay355

well i moved the splitter to the sub end of the connection...and theres no more problem, theres only a problem if the splitter is on the preamp end. just the same i think rca is a better way to go and i will probably end up going that route when i get a long enough cable.

BobMcG

Air, Where was it I said to place a tee ......

"T" and jumper at the sub

Airplay355

Yea, thats fine for now, except I'm technically only getting the left channel bass. If theres bass that is right channel specific, its never making it to the sub. So while this works for now, I'm gonna get an RCA and ditch the whole splitter idea lol.

BobMcG

Right you are. Stick with that plan. Running a pair of RCAs is the way to go in your situation. Thats why I also said, (and believe Zero also said)

You're using pre-outs so use of a pair of RCAs will work

You just have to use a pair of cables and you'll be all set. It's different ways for different applications.
For instance: I have four subs hooked up in my house and use pre-outs for three. Two of these are sharing pre-outs using "Ts" at the preamp with one sub IC going to each L&R sub and one is using it's own pair of pre-outs via RCAs (stereo) from the preamp. Another is using a sub-out at the preamp (obviously one sub IC) and using a "T" and a jumper at the sub. Different ways and all work excellently.