Forgive the noobish question - Subwoofer hookup

[Pycroft]

Hello all...

I have been on a search for a subwoofer. My neighbor upgraded his HT and gave me his old sub - a Cerwin Vega LW12. I am trying to hook it to a Onkyo 606. The Onkyo has a subwoofer out (1 rca) and the cerwin vega has Line In/Line Out with 2 RCA's each (Left/Right). I thought it was supposed to be a 1-1 connection instead of a 1-2 connection. Does that mean I will need to buy a cable that has one RCA on one side and 2 on the other? Is there a way to hook it up with a 1-1 or even a 2-2? Forgive the stupid question I went to buy a subwoofer chord today and it just came 1-1.

Thanks,

Pycroft

 

[lsiberian]

Hello all...

I have been on a search for a subwoofer. My neighbor upgraded his HT and gave me his old sub - a Cerwin Vega LW12. I am trying to hook it to a Onkyo 606. The Onkyo has a subwoofer out (1 rca) and the cerwin vega has Line In/Line Out with 2 RCA's each (Left/Right). I thought it was supposed to be a 1-1 connection instead of a 1-2 connection. Does that mean I will need to buy a cable that has one RCA on one side and 2 on the other? Is there a way to hook it up with a 1-1 or even a 2-2? Forgive the stupid question I went to buy a subwoofer chord today and it just came 1-1.

Thanks,

Pycroft

You don't need to buy a connection. You can hook it into one side of the input. Good subs will have 2 of those connections so people can do all sorts of fun things. That make sound amazing

 

[Pycroft]

So one of the ends in the Onkyo Subwoofer Out, and the other to a line in on the Sub...does it matter which side I use, left or right?

Thanks,

Pycroft

 

[markw]

So one of the ends in the Onkyo Subwoofer Out, and the other to a line in on the Sub...does it matter which side I use, left or right?

Thanks,

Pycroft

No, it doesn't matter. If it would make you feel any better you can get an inexpensive "Y" connector (Male/Male/Female) to connect the receiver's sub out to both channels. That works, too.

 

[Pycroft]

...

Would getting that take away from teh signal at all or add to it?

Also, quick question about settings...

On my audessey calibration on the Onkyo 606, it used to have the speakers set at 60hz. Now, with the subwoofer it said for all of them 'Full Band'...which seemed strange. I read somewhere else that they should be set at around 80hz. Are there preferred settings? Here is the complete setup:

Onkyo SR606
Center: Polk audio CS1
Fronts: Polk audio monitor 50's
Surrounds: Polk audio monitor 30's
Sub: Cerwin Vega LW12

Please let me know, and thank you.

Pycroft

 

[lsiberian]

Would getting that take away from teh signal at all or add to it?

Also, quick question about settings...

On my audessey calibration on the Onkyo 606, it used to have the speakers set at 60hz. Now, with the subwoofer it said for all of them 'Full Band'...which seemed strange. I read somewhere else that they should be set at around 80hz. Are there preferred settings? Here is the complete setup:

Onkyo SR606
Center: Polk audio CS1
Fronts: Polk audio monitor 50's
Surrounds: Polk audio monitor 30's
Sub: Cerwin Vega LW12

Please let me know, and thank you.

Pycroft

You don't need a y-cable and I don't see it making any difference. 80hz is the usual, but not always. depends on the system.

 

[Pycroft]

Sub

Just listened to it and it sounds fine with just the one cable connector. Any comments from anyone on the calibration settings? What does 'Full band' mean? Should I set either the speakers or the sub to something different. I'm sort of new to all of this.

Thanks so far for the help!

Pycroft

 

[Adam]

Hi. "Full Band" on your Onkyo is what other brands call "Large". It means that all of the bass frequencies are going to the speaker and none of them are being redirected to your sub.

 

[Pycroft]

...

Interesting...

When I ran the audessey setup the subwoofer was blowing away...any reason that would happen? I guess I should manually change it...what should the settings be for both? Thanks,
Pycroft

 

[lsiberian]

Interesting...

When I ran the audessey setup the subwoofer was blowing away...any reason that would happen? I guess I should manually change it...what should the settings be for both? Thanks,
Pycroft

Audyssey should set it properly for you.

Of course you would hear it if it's hooked up. Audyssey check all the channels for you.

 

[Pycroft]

...

In the Onkyo 2.2 setup (Speaker configuration) it says this:

Subwoofer : Yes
Front: 80 hz
Center: 80 hz
Surround: 80 hz
Surr Back: None
Surr Back Ch: - - - - -
LPF or LFE: 100 hz
Double Bass: Off

For the 'LPF or LFE' that was set at 100 hz when the rest said 'Full Band'. Now that I changed the others to 80 hz, what should that be set at?

Thanks,

Pycroft

 

[Cruise Missile]

80 hz for the LFE also.

 

[Adam]

80 hz for the LFE also.

Just so that we're on the same page, the "LPF of LFE" is a low-pass filter for the LFE channel. It is not a crossover frequency for the sub. Per the manual:

With this setting, you can specify the cutoff frequency of
the LFE channel’s low-pass filter (LPF), which can be
used to filter out unwanted hum. The LPF only applies to
sources that use the LFE channel.​

I would think that you'd want that set to the highest setting of 120 Hz unless you experience hum. That way, you wouldn't be cutting off part of the LFE track.

I think that makes sense. Do you agree?

 

[Pycroft]

...

Adam,

If you are asking me, I certainly don't know, but I look forward to hearing the optimal setting.

Thanks,

Pycroft

 

[Adam]

Pycroft, I was asking the community - but no one answered.

Until you hear back from someone, I'd recommend experimenting with the different setting to see if (a) you can a difference and (b) if you prefer one over the others.

 

[Pycroft]

...

I redid the audessey test last night thinking there may have been noise when I did it the previous time. Here were the settings it came up with:

Center: Full Band
Fronts: Full Band
Surrounds: 60 hz
LFE: 80 hz

I find it interesting that before I had a subwoofer it would show everything at 60 hz, not full band. Full band, I think, means that the speakers will try to handle all the bass, even though the subwoofer will also do it. Is there a reason for this? The subwoofer is working well, and I think sounds just fine...it's quite powerful. Should I leave it at those settings...or change them to 80hz like previously stated?

Thanks,

Pycroft

 

[scott911]

go to axiomaudio.com

hi OP: go to axiomaudio.com and check out some articles from alan ______ . can't remember his last name but he has some great stuff on setting up your sub.

I was on that site because I have their aclaimed 350 subwoofer and felt I wasn't getting the most out of it. Ends up, I had the sub set (via a knob) to 120 Hz... and the crossover (in the amp settings) to filter the fronts ( W22's) to not get anything under 80 Hz...

So the 80 to 120 Hz sound was going NO WHERE!!!

Anyway - the key is to make sure that you don't have this gap... and also to make sure that you are indeed taking advantage of the amp so that you a free up the mains to do the higher end directional frequencies

Apparently you also do not want to try and have the fronts AND the subs try to do alot of overlapping as the bass waves can cancel eachother out...

but, read up at that site... i'm not an expert.