Best Subwoofer Hookup?

scamarao
scamarao Posts: 2
So I just got the RM6900 system from Polk and connected it to my Denon AVR-1700 Receiver.

What is the best way to hook-up the subwoofer to get the best clear bass?

My Denon has Left Right Pre-Out and a subwoofer pre-out. I connected both to the Denon.

However, the Polk manual recommends connecting the left right speakers to the sub then connecting the sub's left/right to the Denon.

What should I do? What is everyone's recommendation?

Thanks
Post edited by scamarao on

Comments

  • scamarao
    scamarao Posts: 2
    edited October 2005
  • aaharvel
    aaharvel Posts: 4,489
    edited October 2005
    Connect an RCA cable from the Denon's "Sub Pre-Out" and put it into the Left Input jack on the back of the subwoofer. Set your subwoofer's crossover to however you prefer. I have my sub set at 60hz, and the "Small" speaker setting in the receiver set to 60hz as well. I stagger the 2crossovers- to me it sounds INFINITELY superior, Velodyne recommends doing this as well, but that's a minority opinion.

    Welcome to the forums.
    H/K Signature 2.1+235
    Jungson MagicBoat II
    Revel Performa M-20
    Velodyne cht-10 sub
    Rega P1 Turntable

    "People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
  • PolknPepsi
    PolknPepsi Posts: 781
    edited October 2005
    Hi,
    The only way I know to hook up a sub are:

    1. use the subwoofer output of your receiver to the sub.
    2. use 2-RCA cables from the receiver to the sub.
    3. use the speaker binding posts from the receiver to the sub.

    Now that I think about it when I first got my sub they recommended running the receiver to the sub then out to the speakers and it didnt work too well for some reason. (it's been a while)

    Welcome to the Forum....hope this helped.
    Denon #2900, Denon stereo receiver, Conrad Johnson Sonographe 120 amp, Blue Jeans cables, and Klipsch RF-7's
  • Eric W
    Eric W Posts: 556
    edited October 2005
    The RM6900 has a LFE input on the back. Here is a good way to hook it up:
    Connect all the speakers directly to the receiver. Connect the "sub out" of the receiver to the Yellow LFE in on the sub.

    On the receiver's speaker setup menu: Set all the speakers to "small", the subwoofer to "yes" and then the "crossover frequency" to 120 Hz.
    -Eric
    -Polk Audio
  • ldi
    ldi Posts: 14
    edited October 2005
    Eric Wong wrote:
    The RM6900 has a LFE input on the back. Here is a good way to hook it up:
    Connect all the speakers directly to the receiver. Connect the "sub out" of the receiver to the Yellow LFE in on the sub.

    On the receiver's speaker setup menu: Set all the speakers to "small", the subwoofer to "yes" and then the "crossover frequency" to 120 Hz.

    How about RM6800? It seems not powerful enough when I connected "sub pre-out" on receiver to left line-in on sub. Does Y splitter any help on that? Or any other better connection?
  • aaharvel
    aaharvel Posts: 4,489
    edited October 2005
    Ysplitter will add about 6db. This is very noticeable.
    H/K Signature 2.1+235
    Jungson MagicBoat II
    Revel Performa M-20
    Velodyne cht-10 sub
    Rega P1 Turntable

    "People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
  • ldi
    ldi Posts: 14
    edited October 2005
    aaharvel wrote:
    Ysplitter will add about 6db. This is very noticeable.

    Thanks. Does speaker wire connection any better comparing with that?
  • aaharvel
    aaharvel Posts: 4,489
    edited October 2005
    imo speaker wire connections are not good. They're sloppy looking, more complex, and don't take advantage of your processor's internal bass management.

    Y-Splitters are available most anywhere: from specialty stores to the local RAT Shack.
    H/K Signature 2.1+235
    Jungson MagicBoat II
    Revel Performa M-20
    Velodyne cht-10 sub
    Rega P1 Turntable

    "People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
  • ldi
    ldi Posts: 14
    edited October 2005
    aaharvel wrote:
    imo speaker wire connections are not good. They're sloppy looking, more complex, and don't take advantage of your processor's internal bass management.

    Y-Splitters are available most anywhere: from specialty stores to the local RAT Shack.

    Thank you very much. One last question: Some people mentioned the left and right line-in on sub are usually bridged internally. It means there will be no difference between connecting to the left and both left and right? Any comments on that?
  • Pinktulip7
    Pinktulip7 Posts: 249
    edited October 2005
    Either one will do.......................I used Y cable to connect both L/R...
    TV :>Panasonic TC-P55VT50
    RECEIVER :> HARMAN KARDON AVR 7300
    FRONT :> L & R :> POLK RTI A9 500 W
    AMP :1> PARASOUND HALO A21 250 W
    AMP :2> EMOTIVA UPA-1 200 W
    CENTER :> POLK LSiM 706c 250 W
    SURROUND SIDE :> POLK RTi A3 150 W
    SURROUND REAR :>POLK FXI A6 150 W
    DVD PLAYER(HD) :>TOSHIBA HD X-A2
    DVD PLAYER(BLU-RAY) :>Panasonic DMP-UB900
    POWER CONDITIONER :> PANAMAX M5400-EX
    SUBWOOFER :A> SVS SB16-Ultra 1500 W Front
    SUBWOOFER :B> SVS SB16-Ultra 1500 W Rear
  • aaharvel
    aaharvel Posts: 4,489
    edited October 2005
    yup. either one. I used to use a y adapter. Now I just use the "L" input on the back of the sub and just turn the sub's volume all the way up, leave the back of the sub alone and just control the level of bass in the receiver.
    H/K Signature 2.1+235
    Jungson MagicBoat II
    Revel Performa M-20
    Velodyne cht-10 sub
    Rega P1 Turntable

    "People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,727
    edited October 2005
    aaharvel wrote:
    yup. either one. I used to use a y adapter. Now I just use the "L" input on the back of the sub and just turn the sub's volume all the way up, leave the back of the sub alone and just control the level of bass in the receiver.
    I don't remember why...but there's a good reason that you should always set the sub level in your receiver at an even 0 and control the volume on the sub...

    On the Y splitter thing, that may add 6db to the signal being sent to the sub, but it's not going to have any effect on the output capability of the sub. I'm sure that was implied, just wanted to make sure it's mentioned fully. There's no need to go the y splitter route - just hook up the sub cable to the sub, set the sub trim to 0 in the receiver, and turn up the volume on the sub until you get desired output.

    If you have issues where it sounds too loud with music and not enough with movies, or visa-versa, that could be indicative of some frequency peaks caused by room gain, acoustics, etc. You may need to look into plotting a frequency response graph and calibrating your sub - you want equal output across the range played by the sub.

    A properly calibrated should not have to be adjusted frequently based on source material - with a few exceptions of course [cough]Underworld[cough] :D