RM6750 subwoofer connection

jbb7

Sorry for the "dumb" question but, I recently purchased the Polk RM6750 5.1 Speaker system. I also have the Onkyo TX-SR 504 Receiver. I am very confused about how I should best connect my Polk Subwoofer to my Onkyo receiver.

I would greatly appreciate any other recommendations regarding "crossover settings" and "variable low pass filter settings"

carlsonw

I was involved in the purchase of identical polk/onkyo equipment today, and was also confused about the hookup. The manual was overly brief and sketchy; the figures were conflicting, offering multiple setups, without explanation of what is preferable. I am disturbed that you posted your question over three weeks ago, with hundreds of views and no replies. Are you satisfied with your purchase?

Jim Shearer

OK, I am not a home theater type & know nothing about the Onk. Since no one else has chimed in, here's my opinion. Just remember it's worth every penny you paid for it.

IF there is a pre-amp out or an LFE connection on the Onk, then use those low level outputs to connct the sub. Set the cross-over on the sub to 150 Hz. Then run the speaker conncetions from the Onk to the satellite speakers and set the control on the Onk (speaker menu) to SMALL or use a 150Hz lower freq. limit for all of the speakers. Or there may be an option called 'sub on'.

If the Onk has no low level output for the sub, then run the speaker wires from the Onk front channels to the sub speaker level inputs. Run wires from the sub speaker outputs to the front speakers. Set the sub cross-over to 150 Hz and the Onk speaker control menu to LARGE for the fronts and SMALL for the others.

Either way will work. I don't know if you could hear any difference between the two methods. My preference for the first method is to avoid having the cross-over on the sub affect the signal to the front speakers. Just my opinion, no data to back it up.

If you are happy w/ the sound you get, then stop obsessing about it & get on w/ enjoying your system.

Cheers, Jim

Sansui

jbb7 wrote:

Sorry for the "dumb" question but, I recently purchased the Polk RM6750 5.1 Speaker system. I also have the Onkyo TX-SR 504 Receiver. I am very confused about how I should best connect my Polk Subwoofer to my Onkyo receiver.

Use the "bass management" connection. I'm new to this and that's what Polk strongly suggests to use. I own the Polk RM-10 Sat. speaker package and a the PSW10 sub. I also own an Onkyo TX-SR304 amp. Any connections I make to my amp is done with the power OFF.

First of all, look in manual (which I see online right now) and turn to page six then look at figure 6 (at the top left). That's how you want to connect your speakers.

To the right and at the top of page six is how you want to program your amp for "bass management". On my amp this is set in the "1. SP Config" menu. Subwoofer = No, Center = Small, Surround = Small, and Crossover = 40 Hz (more on this one setting at the bottom).

As for your amp (it should be like mine) you'll be using the termials labeled "Surround Speakers", "Center Speaker", and "Front Speakers A". These are all OUTPUTS for surround sound.

The type of speaker wire I used has a clear jacket around two wires. One of the sides of the clear jacket has a white line on it. I used the "white line" conductor as "+" for all of my speaker connections. If you amp is like mine, the speaker terminals you be using are not all colored just red and black so keep in mind you're hooking up to "+" or "-" labled connectors for each speaker. When I got done, all the speaker terminals in top row had a wire with a white marker connected to it. If my speaker wire had been red and black I would have used red for "+" and black for "-" for all connections.

Take two pairs of wires and run them straight from your amp's "Front Speakers A" terminals (front left and front right) and hook them up to the bottom row of speaker terminals on your subwoofer (labled "Speaker Level Input"). You're now done with those wires, forget them.

Now take the wires coming from your front left and front right speakers and hook them up to the top row of terminals on your subwoofer (labled "Speaker Level Output"). You're done with those wires too, forget them.

Again, make sure (as stated above) that you connected each of your two sets wires from your amp "+" is going to subwoofer's "+" and amp "-" is going to the subwoofer's "-" for each speaker pair's connectors on your subwoofer.

Your center and back (surround) speakers connect directly to your amp's speaker connections labled "Surround Speakers" and "Center Speaker" (again making sure "+" is to "+" and "-" is to "-"). You're now done connecting all your speakers.

I would greatly appreciate any other recommendations regarding "crossover settings" and "variable low pass filter settings"

I called Polk tech support for this information. I believe I talked to Ken (The Man!). He told me my speakers are (by design) set at 150Hz so I should set the knob on the back of my subwoofer (labled "Low Pass (Hz)" to "150". You're subwoofer, like mine goes all the way to "160". He then told me to go into my amp's programming ("1. SP Config" + Crossover for me) and set it to "40". I should then listen to 5.1 surround sound. If the sound sounded "strained" or "constrained" (whatever that sounds like) then I should go up to the next setting, "50" for me, and listen again. Do this until the sound sounds OK but don't go over "100". For me "40" sounded as "OK" as did "50" so I dropped my setting back down to "40". That's how come, as I said at the start of this message, my "Crossover = 40".

When I got done doing everything, my system sounded (and sounds) so much better than the way I had hooked up my speakers and set my amp!

I tried to be as detailed and "unconfusing" as I could because I don't know how familiar you are with connecting things up and such. Hope this helped!

Pastogr

I had the same experience. I went back to Tweeter where I bought it and they explained it. My Technics receiver has a sub-out cable connection. Buy a $50 subwoofer cable (it's got an RCA connector at each end) and plug in to the sub-out and the other to either the L or R connection on the back of the sub. That's it. If your receiver doesn't have a sub-out connection, I would go to a store with your receiver book and the Polk book and ask.

Carl333

I have the same speaker set. You may want to try base management as the speaker manual suggests. I know it sounds kinda wierd but after reading about it and trying it, I'm convinced this is the way to go with a sat./sub combo from what I have read outside this forum and just listening to folks on here. That $50 cable may not be necessary. Tweeter didn't suggest BM with your speaker set?

Sansui

Pastogr wrote:

I had the same experience. I went back to Tweeter where I bought it and they explained it. My Technics receiver has a sub-out cable connection. Buy a $50 subwoofer cable (it's got an RCA connector at each end) and plug in to the sub-out and the other to either the L or R connection on the back of the sub. That's it. If your receiver doesn't have a sub-out connection, I would go to a store with your receiver book and the Polk book and ask.

$50.00?! If you need to buy cables you need to check out monoprice.com or bluejeanscable.com.! I got two 12' TOSlink cables from monoprice.com for the a little less than 1/2 the price that stores want to charge me for a 6' cable and that included the shipping charge!

Bolt

I just hooked up the RM6750's last night. Use the "bass management" setup that Polk suggests and what Sansui descrobed for you. You won't be dissappointed.

Carl.....how do you like the Pioneer receiver you have with the Polk's???

Carl333

Hi Bolt,

I confess to be a complete newbie when it comes to audio and HT. I didn't audition the receiver or any other receiver with the Polk's prior to buying. I relied solely on the reviews which seemed quite positive. Besides, I wouldn't quite know the difference between 1 receiver and another at its price range anyways. From what I am hearing, it appears that the receiver is processing great 5.1 surround from my STB with an optical cable. Installing an optical cable vs. composite made quite a difference.

The Polk 6750's 5.1 give off very impressive sound despite their small size. The receiver pushed this speaker set with ease to quite a high level without distortion. Again, with their size it keeps the wife happy and me with no extra furniture to run the vacuum around. I still haven't quite nailed down the placement of the sats. yet for best 5.1 performance. I keep moving them around at different heights, angles and distance from the sitting area. Thinking about a ceiling install with articulating brackets for the surrounds to hide the wiring. Cosmetically yes, but not sure if that's the right thing to do.

I see you only have 3 posts here. I'm a newbie here as well. There is a lot of good folks that frequent the Polk forums with a genuine desire to help guys like us out. Folks, I appreciate your assistance and comments. Thanks for lending a helping hand to a a pathetic newbie like me. I have learned a lot from reading here so far.
And Polk if your listening, a big thank you for bringing this very imformative forum along with the newsletters and tons of information together by making this site available.

Bolt

Thanks for your input Carl. I am a newbie also. I used to read all the latest and greatest info on HT when it first came out. Over the past years, I have strayed:( . Now I feel that it is finally time to upgrade, I feel that I have been left behind because the technology has advanced so much. I love hooking equipment up. I go to friends and hook theirs up and go to family to do the same. I can hear when something is amiss....I just don't understand it yet. I do agree with you on the RM6750....wonderful speakers for their size. I have only had them hooked up for a couple days but I love them. I haven't been able to wait to leave work so I could go listen to them again. It's amazing what just a set of speakers can do. The receiver is next.....that will be absolutely glorious when that happens.

mbarber

Bolt wrote:

I just hooked up the RM6750's last night. Use the "bass management" setup that Polk suggests and what Sansui descrobed for you. You won't be dissappointed.

Carl.....how do you like the Pioneer receiver you have with the Polk's???

I hooked up my rm2350's the way Sansui did and they sound awesome,I was using the sub out jack before.

charliez

Hi! I own RM6800, sub out is my way. 130 xover, sub on. Front speakers setting to large and center and surround to small. Setting the fronts to large seems to blend better with the sub.
Suggestion: Avoid the temptation to turn up the sub´s volume!