Hooking up a sub with speaker wire

raspeed

Ok, I'm not a high-end audiophile and don't have the budget to be one, but this is what I have:

Sony STRDG-720 7.1
Sony SA-W2500 subwoofer
Polk M10 (using as fronts)

I made a mistake when I wired my house (I'm sure you heard that one before) and I ran normal 14 guage speaker wire to my sub-location through the wall. My STRDG-720 has a normal line-level RCA output.

Now I've read that putting RCA ends on this wire will either WORK FINE, NOT WORK AT ALL, or somewhere in between.

The other alternative is to wire my fronts in to sub first, and then to the front speakers.

The sub can handle either way.

See the attached drawing. Can I do this?

If I put my Left speaker in-line with the sub is easy enough. The problem I have is wiring the Right speaker in to the sub. I can't run my Right channel in line with it. All I can do is "tap" my Right at the receiver end with my original sub speaker wire (normal 14ga speaker wire).

I think I can do this, but I'm not sure if some sort of special tapping/switching is taking place at the sub, or if it is basically doing the same thing I want to do.

So can I do it this way or will I blow something up?

Thanks
v

Eric W

I wouldn't recommend putting RCA connectors on the speaker cable- speaker cable is unshielded and will pick up a great deal of noise, particularly if run anywhere near (or worse, parallel to) electrical AC wiring.

What you describe should work fine, you're just paralleling off the left and right channels- though at different points in the speaker stream. Just watch the polarity and try not to short circuit

raspeed

Great! Thanks for the help. So with my 7 channel receiver this is what I'd want then?

Front L and R to LARGE
Center and 4 surrounds to Small
Sub OFF

Eric W

With a speaker level hook up as you describe, yes.

donedroolin

Hey raspeed, Get a long enough RCA cable and some electrical tape. Tape the new RCA to the end of the speaker wire. ( Tape it GOOD) I even put a small plastic bag over the ends to protect them. Then use the existing speaker wire to pull the new RCA thru the wall. Again TAPE IT WELL. This has worked for me many times. GOOD LUCK!!

raspeed

Thanks again for the help ...

donedroolin ... that just might work, it's only through the floor joists and down the wall, maybe 15 feet .. i sealed it but I can still get in and chip enough a way. I think I might give it a shot.

donedroolin

raspeed, Just make sure you make the tape wrap able to go threw the holes in joist. You can wrap the tape further up and down the wires on both sides and make it skinny like a foot or so, wires side by side then tape. Go alittle past the double wires also. Good luck hope it works.

donedroolin

Also if you have to cover a hole get one of the plastic coax cable wall mounts, take out the small metal coax connector run your RCA cable threw hole then screw the plastic cover to wall to cover hole. with small sheet rock scews just dont overtighten and strip sheetrock.