Amp, subwoofer and two satellites - how to connect?

[moomusic]

Hi everyone

I just got a Minx 212 system, and (as a complete noob), am at a loss on how to connect these to my Olive One player/amp.

My amplifier has both a line out and one set of right/left speaker connectors. They can both be used at the same time. The amp has no LFE or sub out.

Now, do connect the line-out or the speaker-out of my amp to the X200 subwoofer? And once the sub is connected, where do I connect the satellite speakers? To the sub or to the amp?

The one thing I have tried (which seemed the most logical thing to do judging from the manual) is to connect line-out of the amp to "input" of the X200 and the "output" of the X200 to the satellites. But this does not give me sound on the satellites.

Other combinations (not tried in fear of breaking something) are: line out of amp to X200 and speaker out of amp to satellites; or speaker-out to X200 "input", "output" on X200 to satellites.

Thanks for any help,
Toni

 

[markw]

Never connect speaker outputs to line inputs.

Connect the line outs of your amp to the line ins of your subwoofer.

It appears that you can also connect line outs from the sub to your power amplfier inputs. If so, you would want to do that. Check your manual. This may not be possible with your Olive.

You cannot connect speakers to the line out of the subwoofer since it has no amplification for them.

In any case, you would need to connect the satelitte speakers directly to your main amplifier. You cannot connect speakers to the line out of the subwoofer since it has no amplification for them.

 

[ImcLoud]

Connect the speakers to your olive ones speaker terminals and connect the sub to your olive ones RCA outputs {I believe it comes with a mini to rca adapter}...Does the Olive one have a built in corssover so you dont send any bass to your mains, because them little cambridge speakers are not going to like full range input, and your sq is going to suffer for it, {unless them sats have built in bass blockers, I am not too familiar with them..}

On a side note, how is the olive one? how long did it take you to receive it?

 

[agarwalro]

The Olive's speaker connections need to be connected directly to the Cambridge Satellite speakers.
The Olive's analog out will be connected to the subwoofer L, R in. You'll need a 3.5mm headphone to RCA cable of appropriate length. Something like this,

Adjust the subwoofer volume and crossover such that you have good blending of bass with sound from satellites.

 

[moomusic]

Never connect speaker outputs to line inputs.

Whew. Didn't do that so far. Even if it's not clear from the manual whether the subs "input" connection is line in or speaker in.

In any case, you would need to connect the satelitte speakers directly to your main amplifier. You cannot connect speakers to the line out of the subwoofer since it has no amplification for them.

Did it like that, and it works now. If the labelling on the sub or the manual would be clear about that these were line in and out, that would have helped.

{I believe it comes with a mini to rca adapter}

Yes, it does.

Does the Olive one have a built in corssover so you dont send any bass to your mains, because them little cambridge speakers are not going to like full range input, and your sq is going to suffer for it, {unless them sats have built in bass blockers, I am not too familiar with them..}

I don't think so, but I'll investigate.

On a side note, how is the olive one? how long did it take you to receive it?

I pledged on Kickstarter in December 2012 (I was among the earliest backers). Original delivery date was July 2013, but I received it at the end of June 2014. In between, the communication from Olive was gravely lacking. I think the first non-kickstarter backorders are being delivered just now.

From my own experience, and pretty much all other feedback I've read, the hardware external and internal and sound quality is excellent. However, the software is close to unusable at the moment. There are frequent hangs and crashes, and metadata management is catastrophic. I have a library of cleanly tagged mp3s and alacs, but the One made a mess when I copied it over to its internal HD. Many albums were not even copied (claimed to be fixed in the upcoming software update), non-ascii chars are incorrectly displayed, albums with more than one disc are treated as two separate albums, multi-artist discs are a mess. The process Olive described to add music to the One's library is a mix of reading file+folder structure and tags. My library works just fine on both iTunes and XBMC. And what's worst, I cannot even start over since there is no way to delete the whole library in one go (also promised for the upcoming release, but I wonder how they can even develop without such a feature). Promised weekly updates are usually delayed for two weeks. There is no open bug tracking platform, you cannot check which bugs have been reported and whether your issue is already known or worked on. Features that have been promised from the beginning (proper uPnP support, multi-room capability with multiple Ones) are only half-implemented.

To sum it up, I would absolutely not recommend buying it at this time. If you're interested, wait at least half a year and see if things have improved.

Adjust the subwoofer volume and crossover such that you have good blending of bass with sound from satellites.

Thanks, I will experiment a bit!

Thanks to all for your quick help!

 

[markw]

As a general rule, if the plug is an RCA jack (like the line ins and outs) you can count on it not expecting a speaker level signal.

 

[moomusic]

As a general rule, if the plug is an RCA jack (like the line ins and outs) you can count on it not expecting a speaker level signal.

Ah OK. That's what my intuition told me. Thanks!

 

[ImcLoud]

I pledged on Kickstarter in December 2012 (I was among the earliest backers). Original delivery date was July 2013, but I received it at the end of June 2014. In between, the communication from Olive was gravely lacking. I think the first non-kickstarter backorders are being delivered just now.

From my own experience, and pretty much all other feedback I've read, the hardware external and internal and sound quality is excellent. However, the software is close to unusable at the moment. There are frequent hangs and crashes, and metadata management is catastrophic. I have a library of cleanly tagged mp3s and alacs, but the One made a mess when I copied it over to its internal HD. Many albums were not even copied (claimed to be fixed in the upcoming software update), non-ascii chars are incorrectly displayed, albums with more than one disc are treated as two separate albums, multi-artist discs are a mess. The process Olive described to add music to the One's library is a mix of reading file+folder structure and tags. My library works just fine on both iTunes and XBMC. And what's worst, I cannot even start over since there is no way to delete the whole library in one go (also promised for the upcoming release, but I wonder how they can even develop without such a feature). Promised weekly updates are usually delayed for two weeks. There is no open bug tracking platform, you cannot check which bugs have been reported and whether your issue is already known or worked on. Features that have been promised from the beginning (proper uPnP support, multi-room capability with multiple Ones) are only half-implemented.

To sum it up, I would absolutely not recommend buying it at this time. If you're interested, wait at least half a year and see if things have improved.

Thanks for the review, I originally was putting in an order and my wife ordered it for me, I then cancelled it after suspecting it would never arrive... I think I will wait for it to be fixed and readily available before i jump in, I like the idea and the look, plus rite now I just use pure docks with dac's and an ipad or laptop where ever I am listening in the house, which works great BUT something like the olive one would really clean it up... thanks again and good luck...

 

[moomusic]

Does the Olive one have a built in corssover so you dont send any bass to your mains, because them little cambridge speakers are not going to like full range input, and your sq is going to suffer for it, {unless them sats have built in bass blockers, I am not too familiar with them..}

Doesn't look like the Olive has built-in crossover (at least there is no setting for it to be found, I asked in their forum but didn't get a reply yet). And it also doesn't look like them Minxes have a built-in bass blocker (I cannot post a link to the specs yet, not enough posts in the forum. The system is called camebridge audio minx 212 stereeo system).

Can I damage the satellites by sending full frequency to them? If yes, do they take damage only at high volumes? And is there a way out without buying an additional amp?

 

[moomusic]

Can I damage the satellites by sending full frequency to them? If yes, do they take damage only at high volumes? And is there a way out without buying an additional amp?

But of course, I figured out the solution myself by now. Since the X200 sub already has the crossover, what I need is another amp to drive the satellites. Kind of what has been suggested here all along, just took me a while to grasp it.

Thanks guys, I am hunting for that small form factor amp that can be hidden under the couch now.

 

[ImcLoud]

lepai 2020 would be my choice for what you are looking for, I have a few of them they are awesome, if your sub doesnt have high outputs than grab a pair of 100hz high pass fmods...
Amazon.com : FMOD Crossover Pair 100 Hz High Pass : Vehicle Audio Video Accessories And Parts : Car Electronics
Amazon.com: Lepai LP-2020A+ Tripath Class-T Mini Audio Amplifier with Power Supply Black: Electronics

if you want to spend more {no need, I love my lepais, my son has one hooked up in his room driving a pair of 4 ohm polks for hours a day}, you can look into topping t amps..

 

[moomusic]

lepai 2020 would be my choice for what you are looking for, I have a few of them they are awesome

Just ordered one. Awsome tip, thank you!