Subwoofer connection conundrum

[Wheatenterrier]

Hello,
I have read for hours on here and searched a lot but have not found the awnser to my question. Since I lack expierience in this feild I seek help.

I thought I was so smart running all my speaker wires in my newly framed walls of my basement for the 7.1 system I was going to put together. I used 12awg copper stranded wire from monoprice.com My basement "quasi theater room" is 15x35. Based on what I know the corner might be a good place to put the sub. Now that I have started purchasing equipment I realized that I made a big mistake. I used the stranded copper wire on the run to the corner where my sub was going to go.

Is there a way I can use this wire that is already in the wall to connect my sub to my receiver or am I hosed?
By hosed I mean trying to hide proper cable for the subwoofer under the baseboard and running down to the corner if that is where it ends up going.

Is it going to be weird that I'm facing the middle of one of the long walls instead of facing the middle of a short wall. I'll have tons of space to my left and right and only 15 ft between the wall I'm facing and wall behind me.

ps, all I have so far is the receiver which I got free through my work. Sony STR-DG820 It's in the mail on its way here now. I learned about subs on here and am looking at a 12" svs sound sub. Still searching for speakers.

 

[MDS]

You can use speaker wire to connect a sub (known as 'high level' as in already amplified connections) but the downside is you then have to run speaker wire from the sub back to the front speakers and the sub does all the xover work instead of the receiver. If you only ran one pair of speaker wire to that location you are in trouble.

Is there any way you can use the wire to the sub location as a pull string to feed an RG6 coax cable to that location? That would be better because you can terminate it with an RCA plug and then just connect the sub straight to the receiver's sub pre-out, which is the preferred way of doing things.

 

[Wheatenterrier]

Thanks for your input. That is an idea. I suspect though, that even with some kind of lube on the new cable pulling it through there would not work. There would be to much friction on the current cable to be able to pull it out. Even so it might be worth trying if the existing one is useless to me. When I ran that cable I went up to the ceiling then over to the corner then down so there are 2 90's.

What about the low level inputs? Binding posts?

The carpet is not in yet so If I do have to stuff a coax cable under the baseboard it would be easy, but then I would worry about the tack board that the carpet layers put down damaging the cable. I may have to take that risk and see what happens.

 

[MDS]

The low level inputs would require a coax cable that you connect from the receiver's sub pre-out. That is the preferred connection because then the receiver deals with bass management and the sub just amplifies what it is sent.

 

[mazersteven]

When I ran that cable I went up to the ceiling then over to the corner then down so there are 2 90's.

No way anyone can get up into the ceiling, and help guide the cable?

 

[unreal.freak]

If you can solder, you may want to give these a try

http://www.scosche.com/products/sfID1/210/sfID2/266/sfID3/170/productID/763

I use them when i make my own Car audio cables.

Peace,
Tommy

 

[TLS Guy]

If you can solder, you may want to give these a try

http://www.scosche.com/products/sfID1/210/sfID2/266/sfID3/170/productID/763

I use them when i make my own Car audio cables.

Peace,
Tommy

I fail to see how that helps the OP at all. The real moral of this story is what I say again and again. Run ALL cables in conduit.

 

[unreal.freak]

I fail to see how that helps the OP at all. The real moral of this story is what I say again and again. Run ALL cables in conduit.

If he has a 12/2 speaker wire ran in the wall to the location he wants the sub to be located, he can solder on the RCA connector to the current wire. Unless i read his post wrong tis will solve his issue of not having a premade rca cable being run.

Peace,
Tommy

 

[TLS Guy]

If he has a 12/2 speaker wire ran in the wall to the location he wants the sub to be located, he can solder on the RCA connector to the current wire. Unless i read his post wrong tis will solve his issue of not having a premade rca cable being run.

Peace,
Tommy

He needs a screened cable or it will hum. Speaker wire is not screened.

 

[unreal.freak]

He needs a screened cable or it will hum. Speaker wire is not screened.

None of my car audio cables hum. What makes you think it will hum?

 

[mike c]

it will hum if there are power cables nearby.

but i think it's worth a try.

how many 12 gauge wires are going to the subwoofer location? 1 or 2?

 

[TLS Guy]

None of my car audio cables hum. What makes you think it will hum?

In a car you should use screened cable for inter unit connection except non powered speakers. A home is an AC environment that has lots of opportunity to induce hum in unshielded cable. The LFE output needs connecting to the sub with 50 ohm screened cable, not speaker wire.

 

[unreal.freak]

I would certianly try it before i went a tore out the wall and installed conduit and a sub cable. If it does hum then i guess he could try something different. I think it would be really easy to conceal some rg6 under the base molding, providing it wouldnt have to cross any door/archways.

peace,
Tommy

 

[Wheatenterrier]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I'll try and awnser the questions that came up. I'm not allowed to post links yet but the wire is 2 strand 12 awg, and I ran one of them. I think I know where you might be going with that question. one wire to the woofer and one back?

There are no doorways or any obstacles in the way of running the cable along the floor. I took special care to keep my speaker wires far away from any power cables. This interconnects might be worth a try. I just wouldn't want to harm any equipment using them, not sure if that's a risk though.

The walls are now closed up and since this is the basement that we are talking about, no one could help guide the cable.

I hope that helps. I could try each of your suggestions, first try the interconnects, then pulling the wire and dragging through rg6, then running a cable along the baseboard. I wonder if any other creative ideas will come up.

 

[unreal.freak]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I'll try and awnser the questions that came up. I'm not allowed to post links yet but the wire is 2 strand 12 awg, and I ran one of them. I think I know where you might be going with that question. one wire to the woofer and one back?

There are no doorways or any obstacles in the way of running the cable along the floor. I took special care to keep my speaker wires far away from any power cables. This interconnects might be worth a try. I just wouldn't want to harm any equipment using them, not sure if that's a risk though.

The walls are now closed up and since this is the basement that we are talking about, no one could help guide the cable.

I hope that helps. I could try each of your suggestions, first try the interconnects, then pulling the wire and dragging through rg6, then running a cable along the baseboard. I wonder if any other creative ideas will come up.

There isn't any chance the interconnects will harm your equipment. The RG6 coaxial cable would be really easy if the carpet guys haven't been there yet. Its not much trouble even if they have put down your carpet. I hope you get it worked out, i sure don't like having to run cables on an after thought. It happens like that sometimes though.

I still have to mount my surrounds and whatnot when we move into our new home. I haven't even terminated a single wire on any of my equipment yet, and im already having second thoughts on the way i planned the room out.
Its tough to go into a home building project and design a multi purpose room for HT and living area. One day I would like to have a dedicated room for my HT. I think it would be a lot easier to design, Especially if you have your equipment already picked out.

Good Luck,
Tommy

 

[Wheatenterrier]

That is so true. A dedicated HT room wouldn't have some of these obstacles and challenges. Thanks for your help.

 

[Adam]

I agree with the folks that are saying to at least try out the speaker wire with RCA connectors before you tear into your walls. I want to run a line-level subwoofer cable under my carpet, and one of the folks at Impact Acoustics actually recommended that I use speaker wire instead of a 75-Ohm cable. I'm leary of doing that for my install because the speaker wire isn't shielded. However, you already have the cable - so it is definitely worth trying out first. I know that I would if I had the cable already there.

 

[AVRat]

Is it going to be weird that I'm facing the middle of one of the long walls instead of facing the middle of a short wall. I'll have tons of space to my left and right and only 15 ft between the wall I'm facing and wall behind me.

Just curious if there was a reason you oriented it this way instead of the other? Whenever possible, facing the short wall is preferred. (BTW, mine is also sideway). Where, with respect to your listening position, are you locating the surrounds?

 

[Wheatenterrier]

Thanks Adam. I'll try the connectors on the speaker wire, I could also post about how it works or does not work once I try it.

AVrat, I situated the room sideways because of windows on one wall and a corner installed fireplace on the other. My side surrounds are going to hang from the ceiling, it's either that or run wire under the carpet to stands on the sides. The surround speakers will be Klipsch, rsx-4
Because that foot makes them so easy to wall mount and ceiling mount then point directly at the listening area. I won't have any speakers on the ground. The wife is not big on floorstanding speakers.

 

[Wheatenterrier]

You can use speaker wire to connect a sub (known as 'high level' as in already amplified connections) but the downside is you then have to run speaker wire from the sub back to the front speakers and the sub does all the xover work instead of the receiver. If you only ran one pair of speaker wire to that location you are in trouble.

Is there any way you can use the wire to the sub location as a pull string to feed an RG6 coax cable to that location? That would be better because you can terminate it with an RCA plug and then just connect the sub straight to the receiver's sub pre-out, which is the preferred way of doing things.

Now that my receiver has arrived I noticed that it has an extra set of front speaker outs, You can run the A set or the B set or Both sets. I wonder if I could connect the B set to the subwoofers high level inputs as you suggested. Would this work?