RM6000 hookup question

Orange Peel · July 2002

I have the RM6000, and the directions say to hook the front channel wires into the sub and then from the sub to the reciever front hookups. The rear surrounds are hooked up normally to the rear surround on the reciever, center to the center on the reciever, and the instructions say to not hookup the sub to the LFE out jack on the receiver. I am using a Harman Kardon AVR 125 to run this system.

My question is should I re-wire the system so that the fronts go directly to the front on the reciever and the rear to the rear on the reciever and center to center? And then buy a subwoofer cable and plug it in the back of the sub and to the LFE jack on the reciever?

Which way would make the sound better? It sounds real nice right now with the instructions wiring hookup, but a friend told me I should hook it up with a sub cable and such, and that the instructions are probably for a reciever that doesn't have the capabilities to do a surround setup.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Scott Goldsmith

nascarmann · July 2002

My question is should I re-wire the system so that the fronts go directly to the front on the reciever and the rear to the rear on the reciever and center to center? And then buy a subwoofer cable and plug it in the back of the sub and to the LFE jack on the reciever?

No.....

Orange Peel · July 2002

Why?

nascarmann · July 2002

I don't know the spec's on the 6000 satalites....but I would say they will play down to 200 or so? Your LFE is probably cut off at 80? So...you will not have anything in the middle of 80-200. That's a lot of freq loss.....

GuitarheadCA · July 2002

Yeah, keep the sub patched in between the reciever and the front speakers. Make sure you sub is switched to "none" on the reciever, Fronts set to "Large", and your rear and center speaker are set to "small" for proper bass management. I actually think the HK is crossed over at 100 hz, but the 200hz figure for that sat's seems reasonable, and that's still a ton of loss.

mantis · July 2002

So let me get this straight,
200hz cutoff guess......what happens to the centerchannel(the most important speaker in the system)??
And the rears???

I think reading the real spec's might be alittle more helpfull.....

GuitarheadCA · July 2002

Mantis, you brought up a good point, but I don't see a way to fix it.

I just looked at the specs and it doesn't give them for the sat's by themselves. So Let's assume, that the sats cut off at 200. Since the sub only has speaker levels for the mains, it seems like you would just have to set the front to small and hold your breath.

mantis · July 2002

Orangepeel,
See if your receiver has an adjustable crossover point.Set it as high as It will go.

Most receivers can adjust up to 150hz.Polk doesn't give you the responce of the satellites.Call tem and find out.

Orange Peel · July 2002

Mantis - I will check on my reciever to find out if it has an adjustable crossover. I have the Harman Kardon AVR125, maybe you're familiar with it, maybe not. I will look over my instruction manuel on the RM6000 to see what it says about the sats, maybe it has some info in there.

Just FYI, before posting this thread I had the system wired like Polk instructs, with the fronts going into the sub, and then from the sub to the front on the reviever, and everything else normal. But I didn't set the fronts to "large" like they say, I had them at "small", and I also had the subwoofer to "on" or "LFE" on the reciever. So I re-read the instructions after I posted this and people telling me to wire it like Polk says, and the instructions said to set the fronts to "large" and turn the subwoofer to "none" or "off", which I did, and man, it really seems to sound a lot better. MUCH more bass for some reason, and the system seems to be louder than it was before.

I was just curious why they would want me to set it up like this.

What happens when I buy new Fronts, like a nice floor speaker, can I just double up the fronts on the back of the reciever, or should I just take the sat fronts out of the system and leave the center and rears in?

As you can see I'm not too up on HT stuff, I'm VERY comfortable with car audio, I have been messing with that stuff for years now.

All the help you guys are providing is great, I'm sure you have to repeat yourselves all the time to newbies like me, and I appreciate your patience!

Scott

mantis · July 2002

No man,
If you buy new front speakers,they need to run on the amp all by them selves.Dump the sat's and keep the sub for lfe untill you rebuild the entire speaker package......if thats where your going with this.

nascarmann · July 2002

Look guys.....don't try and make this dfficult. Front speakers to the sub and the to the sat's. Center and rear from rec to the speakers. Adjust the sub to 150 or 200 if it goes that high and be done with it?

Orange Peel · July 2002

Mantis, thanks dude. Yes I plan to rebuild the whole system, that's where I'm going with this. I will start with a new sub, most likely the PSW650, and then get new fronts, either a decent set of Polk's or Klipsch. Then I will get new center and rears. I just wonder if the rear's from the RM6000 will be ok to use until I get new rears? Or should I just use the 2 fronts and the sub, and nothing else. My receiver has an option on it that's supposed to make a 2 speaker system sound like a surround system. It may be good or not, I really don't know until I try it I guess

Nascarman - It's not difficult anymore, I know how to wire it now, I'm now trying to figure out if new fronts will go with the RM6000, or some of the pieces of it, or if it should be fronts only and nothing else until I get better rears and center.

Scott

mantis · July 2002

Orangepeel,
you rears will be fine untill you match them with what ever you buy for mains and center.

Nascarman,
Boy do I hear yeah Bro........alot of things around here lately need not be so difficult.Simple is best.

hotbread · July 2002

Hi guys,

I also just bought the RM6000 package and set it up as you explained with the fronts going into the sub etc...

However, my receiver has sub controls on the remote that don't work now because I don't have the sub output connected to the sub by the rca jacks. I have the receiver set to subwoofer no.

Also is the sub amp running the satellites since they are connected in series? Is the volume on the back of the sub controlling the sub and the fronts in this case.

I'm a little confused about this blended setup and what amp is running what and how each is controlled.

I'm a real newbie so sorry for any naive questions.

Thanks,

GuitarheadCA · July 2002

hotbread

Let me just answer your questions: You're right, running the sub inbetween the reciever and the sat's takes away to sub volume adjustment via the reciever. it's just something you have to live with, no way to fix that.

No, The sub amp is NOT running the satellites. The volume on the back of the sub will only influence the sub.

Each channel should still be able to be controlled independently, just know that if you boost or drop your front two, the output of the sub will change accordingly. And if you want to boost the sub, you either have to manually turn up the volume, or boost the bass on the reciever.

GuitarheadCA · July 2002

Basically, the sub is just getting the SIGNAL from the speaker cables, it's not pulling or adding any POWER. It sends out exactly what it recieves.

Don't worry about naieve questions- welcome to the forum.

hotbread · July 2002

Thanks Guitarhead,

Helpful info! Makes sense now that it is just the signal running through the sub to the fronts.

I tried upping the crossover like suggested above and the results are better.

Cheers,

RM6000 hookup question

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