Connecting Non Amplified Sub Woofer to A/V Reveiver

RCCola

This is my 1st attempt at setting up Home Theater. I am going to purchase the Onkyo TX-SR500 and JBL S-Series Center Speaker. I plan on using my Polk Audio 5a Monitors for the fronts and Polk Audio RM2000 Satellites for the back Surrounds. I also have Polk Audio RM1000W Sub Woofer that is not a powered sub. The way it is connected now on my old receiver is I have left and right wires from the receiver going to the sub woofer and then the satellites going off that. Two questions and I think I have 1st one answered myself. Can this non-amplified sub woofer get connected to the subwoofer preoout connector on the receiver? I am thinking not but not forsure. Second, if I hook the satellites and sub woofer up like mentioned above, it would seem to me that when tweaking in the speaker size with the receiver ie.. large, small... that this would not only affect the satellites but also the sub woofer. Is this something I need to worry about? Is there some other way to hook them up? Thanks for any help in the area.

liv4fam

you are correct, you have to hook up the sub in speaker level. Receiver to sub then out to the satellites. Being that you have a passive subwoofer you do not have any crossover control or volume attenuation at the subwoofer so you need to set the receiver up to LARGE and no subwoofer. The subwoofer will do all the frequencies until the crossover cuts it off like 200HZ or whatever the specs are on that sub. It would be beneficial to get a powered subwoofer so you can have more control over the sub and have a dedicated LFE channel.

nascarmann

Can this non-amplified sub woofer get connected to the subwoofer preoout connector on the receiver?

No....unless you use a power amp between the receiver and sub...

If I were doing it.....I would hook the l/r front speaker out to the sub and then to the 5A's and set the fronts to large. Then run center and rears from the receiver and set to small....maybe the center to large....try it both ways

RCCola

Thanks to both of you, whoo hooo, sounds like a plan there nascarman, now I can order the center speaker and the receiver and I should be able to look like I know what I'm doing.

Dr. Spec

My 2 cents - buy a sub amp if you plan on keeping the passive RM1000W sub. Your receiver doesn't have the high current capacity and dynamic headroom required by today's demanding LFE tracks, and it will run out of juice at higher volumes, starting to clip much sooner than it would if you had a separate amp for the bass chores.

Short on $$ and can't afford a plate amp? Buy a 2 channel 100W stereo receiver for $100 and run your LFE jack to that and use it to power the sub.

Doc

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Thanks for posting the question to the Forum. Keep in mind the Monitor 5A is not a magnetically shielded speaker, this means you will have to keep it at least 24" from the sides of your television set. Look for any greenish or purplish tinting of the set's picture, if nothing is seen then there isn't a problem. If you need to place the speakers closer than 24" contact me at kswauger@polkaudio.com or 1-800-377-7655 extension 891 for information on adding "bucking" magnets to the tweeters and drivers of your speakers. I echo the comments left by fellow Forum members, adding a receiver (could be a second hand integrated amplifier or receiver) to the RM1000 bass module will give improved adjustment capability and allow a sub-woofer connection to your surround sound system.
Regards, Ken Swauger