How to connect a rca sub to a 2 wire outlet in the wall.

Hello Everyone,

Newbie alert, we just moved into our new place and the previous owner had wired for a home theater. Everything is good until I get to the point of connecting my sub. The sub has a rca female connect and I need to connect it to the a 2 plug (+, -) wall connector. I pulled the cover and the plugs are hooked up to speaker wire. My question is how do I go from a rca wire to a +,- speaker wire? Any suggestions?

Thanks

How to explain this? That connection was probably for a high level connection for an un-powered subwoofer, where the amp was part of the system and ran a speaker level signal to the sub. If you make sure that you match your connections on each end, you should be ok. That is to say, if you use an RCA out of the receiver, you could strip the other end of the cable and put a wire in each +/-, as long as you do the same on both the receiver end and the sub end. You do not want to connect a speaker level output to the RCA input of your sub. You might want to change the wall socket at each end to female RCA, usually the tip of the RCA male is positive, but you should verify this.

lordtyman said:

Hello Everyone,

Newbie alert, we just moved into our new place and the previous owner had wired for a home theater. Everything is good until I get to the point of connecting my sub. The sub has a rca female connect and I need to connect it to the a 2 plug (+, -) wall connector. I pulled the cover and the plugs are hooked up to speaker wire. My question is how do I go from a rca wire to a +,- speaker wire? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Bummer. Does your sub have speaker terminals on its back? That would be your best option, really. Speaker wires in the wall may give you hum if you use it as an interconnect with RCA plugs on it.

Just tie a sub cable on to the speaker wire and pull it through.

Greg Gable said:

Just tie a sub cable on to the speaker wire and pull it through.

Click to expand...

This is what I'd do. The other option is to just run a sub cable outside the wall if that's feasible. There is no "good" way to do this with the wire in the wall. If it were Coax, you could make it work.

Pat

You can get a line level converter to go from speaker wire to RCA like this one:



http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=302-307 Only needs to be used on one side, but if you do get hum from the speaker wire, this won't eliminate it.

I would recommend just pulling coax through the wall too though because line level is a better connection method.

j_garcia said:

You can get a line level converter to go from speaker wire to RCA like this one:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=302-307 Only needs to be used on one side, but if you do get hum from the speaker wire, this won't eliminate it.

I would recommend just pulling coax through the wall too though because line level is a better connection method.

Click to expand...

That should do it and no hum should be picked up if that is at the speakers.

j_garcia said:

You can get a line level converter to go from speaker wire to RCA like this one:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=302-307 Only needs to be used on one side, but if you do get hum from the speaker wire, this won't eliminate it.

I would recommend just pulling coax through the wall too though because line level is a better connection method.

Click to expand...

Would that work for him? He's going from a line-level output to a line-level input. That converter takes a speaker-level signal to a line-level signal, and is quite pricey. Doesn't seem like the right solution, but I'm probably missing something.

I'm going to be running speaker wire under my carpet later this year, and I contacted Impact Acoustics and Geckocable about running a line-level wire for a sub. Both of them recommended running regular flat speaker wire versus running the 75 Ohm wires that they sold. That may have just been due to the size of the wires and my desire to run them under a carpet, and I asked them about shielding, but both thought that the speaker wire would be better. So, I say that he try Dave's advice of terminating the speaker wires in RCA connectors (he could even do that using extension wires and leave the wall jacks untouched) and give it a try. If he doesn't get any hum, then he's all set.

Adam said:

Would that work for him? He's going from a line-level output to a line-level input. That converter takes a speaker-level signal to a line-level signal, and is quite pricey. Doesn't seem like the right solution, but I'm probably missing something.
.

Click to expand...

Good catch No, it would not as you indicated he still has line level outs from the receiver, speaker wires in the wall. I overlooked this too and fixated on the speaker wires

If he uses speaker level out from the receiver, he can then use it to convert to line level on the sub side, but that then leaves you with the issues of using speaker level output from the receiver. Like I said, it would be better to correct the wire situation.

j_garcia said:

If he uses speaker level out from the receiver, he can then use it to convert to line level on the sub side, but that then leaves you with the issues of using speaker level output from the receiver. Like I said, it would be better to correct the wire situation.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is a way, but then, he needs to reset his speakers to large and no LFE and what would he do with his other side of the front channel.
Unless he uses one of those at each end, and LFE out, but not sure if that would work.

Repeat after me:

Pull a cable through the wall using the speaker wire that is in there

I think there is no other good way to do it.

Sorry,

Pat

You all are awesome!

Guys,

You all are awesome! Thank you for the suggestions. I went ahead and ran coax and ordered up a few f connector to rca connectors.

Thank you again

Luckly you were able to pull new wire, If the wire was run properly (As in secured) you wouldnt have been able to simply pull it through with new cable on the end so I guess this is one time to be thankful for shoddy work!