questions about stereo terminology.

Aldous_Huxley

What does it mean when someone calls a sub "PASSIVE"?

Does that mean that it does not have a built in amplifier?
or does it mean that it goes with a satellite speaker system?
or does it mean that it has a built in amplifier?
Or does passive mean something entirely different that what i asked above?

Also,
I have seen some very very expensive speaker cables that have a small, rectangular, electronic device built onto them. Beneath is a link so you can see the speaker cables that i am talking about.


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c198/zhangy34/Tony Cable/CV4/1493.jpg

What do these electronic devices do? and how much of a difference do they make when compared to regular, High Quality, speaker cables without these devices.

Would you recommend that i use speaker cable that i cut off of a roll and add connectors myself? Like a roll of MOnster Cable? Or do pre-made speaker cables, like the AudioQuest "Gibralter" model sound that much better? So, Do these pre-made speaker cables with lots of protective layers and electronic radiation sheilds sound that much better than just plain old thick speaker cable that you cut off of a roll? Is it really worth it to spend 200 or 300 bucks or 1k or 2k dollars on speaker cables such as these?

Luis Pernia

Motzart

Passive means non powered!
It catches whatever bass is from unit it's hooked to and you hear it as it is and it's non amplified.

Not sure on the cables....that's a new one on me.

BigMac

What do these electronic devices do?

Here is your answer: http://www.needledoctor.com/Audioquest-CV-4-Speaker-Cable-with-36V-DBS

Sorry I cannot answer all your questions but here is what I do know. Monster cable is almost all marketing hype (with a few exceptions) and is for someone who does not know any better and will use anything to hook their equipment up. Yes cables and speaker wire make a difference (some will disagree....an age old debate) imo, and will sound different with each piece of gear. There are a few recommendations of cables and speaker wire that seem to "stay at the top" here at CP. If you read through some threads concerning this, you will figure out which ones they are. Like others will say, "Let your ears be the judge" of what sounds good to you. And while it's up to you to decide if the cables/wire sound good and justify the price, at some point though you will need to make a choice, the red pill or the blue one. Good luck in your quest.

Here are 2 recommendations that come up frequently and the rest I will let you discover on your own. **MIT and Blue Jeans Cable**

Motzart

Gezzz this died rather fast....was looking forward to seeing if anyone else would chime in about those cables.

lightman1

BigMac wrote: »

"Let your ears be the judge" QUOTE]

Atta boy BigMac!

apphd

Motzart wrote: »

Passive means non powered!
It catches whatever bass is from unit it's hooked to and you hear it as it is and it's non amplified.

Not sure on the cables....that's a new one on me.

I may be mistaken on this myself, but I think this needs a little clarification.
A passive sub is non powered, no built in amp, needs a power amp or a dedicated ch. from a multi ch amp.

"It catches whatever bass is from unit it's hooked to and you hear it as it is and it's non amplified."

I think you are talking about a Passive Radiator here. Which is used in combo in an enclosure with a driven speaker (driven by an amp) to radiate the sound using the air pressure in the cabinet created by the driven speaker to drive it. (the passive radiator)

McLoki

Actually I took it as it does not have a crossover built into the sub.

While not a requirement of passive, the crossovers are almost always built into the amp. Since Passive subs do not have amps - they are typically woofers wired straight to the speaker terminals and you hook a amp of some kind to those speaker terminals. Due to that, they will attempt to play anything you send to them. (i.e. - make sure you hook it to the LFE output on your AVR or have an external crossover if you are hooking it up to the left/right speaker outputs)

Michael

Motzart

Ok maybe I'm mistaken then? :rolleyes:
Things have changed a lil over the years.
So much electronic this and that anymore.
I got in when Subs were just beginning to be THE THING with the common consumer.

From what I remember then there was powered.....then Passive Non powered.
The passive was just a big **** speaker in a big **** box with no amp or crossover.
Thus it just carried the low notes put out by the receiver.

I'm still catching up Guys be kind to me! :rolleyes::o

hockeyboy

I run two passive subs driven by amp channels from my Sunfire. They rock my world and I saved enough to buy two!

http://svsound.com/products-sub-cyl-cspas2.cfm