Coax as a subwoofer cable??

[geoff2664]

Looking for advice on what to use for a long subwoofer cable run (~45’). An associate in a local retail store told me to get a good shielded coax cable and use “F to RCA” connectors. Or should I get two 25’ subwoofer cables instead and connect them through a female RCA adapter? Which will provide the best sound -- or reduce the chance of signal loss?

This cable run is for the back of my theater room. Still haven’t decided on putting 1 or 2 subwoofers in the back to complement the powered mains in front. Will it be best to go with 2 subs or is that not necessary? If 2, should I use a Y splitter at the receiver and run 2 cables or run 1 cable from the receiver and split in the back of the room? Or, run 1 to the first sub and daisy chain to the 2nd?

 

[GlocksRock]

If you do 2 subs, just daisy chain them, that would be the easiest. As far as your long cable run, I would think that using two 25' cables connected together would be just fine, but why not just get one of these? http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023603&p_id=2684&seq=1&format=2

I use a 25' version of that same cable for my subwoofer cable and it works great.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Looking for advice on what to use for a long subwoofer cable run (~45’). An associate in a local retail store told me to get a good shielded coax cable and use “F to RCA” connectors. Or should I get two 25’ subwoofer cables instead and connect them through a female RCA adapter? Which will provide the best sound -- or reduce the chance of signal loss?

This cable run is for the back of my theater room. Still haven’t decided on putting 1 or 2 subwoofers in the back to complement the powered mains in front. Will it be best to go with 2 subs or is that not necessary? If 2, should I use a Y splitter at the receiver and run 2 cables or run 1 cable from the receiver and split in the back of the room? Or, run 1 to the first sub and daisy chain to the 2nd?

It isn't clear to me from your post, whether you have a sub(s) currently. If you do, have you experimented with placement yet? Or, if you don't have a sub, are you planning to place it/them at the back of the room because of space issues? If you have some flexibility with placement, perhaps you should try different spots, before deciding on final placement. As for connecting them, I agree with GR.

As for going with a single or dual subs, duals can certainly enhance the SQ of your bass. But if it means buying two mediocre subs, instead of a single superior sub, you will probably be better off with the single.

There is no question that more $$ generally buys you higher output and extension, but dual subs can even out the FR created by room modes. It's a balancing act, I suppose.

 

[InTheIndustry]

Looking for advice on what to use for a long subwoofer cable run (~45’). An associate in a local retail store told me to get a good shielded coax cable and use “F to RCA” connectors. Or should I get two 25’ subwoofer cables instead and connect them through a female RCA adapter? Which will provide the best sound -- or reduce the chance of signal loss?

This cable run is for the back of my theater room. Still haven’t decided on putting 1 or 2 subwoofers in the back to complement the powered mains in front. Will it be best to go with 2 subs or is that not necessary? If 2, should I use a Y splitter at the receiver and run 2 cables or run 1 cable from the receiver and split in the back of the room? Or, run 1 to the first sub and daisy chain to the 2nd?

What's the saying? 6 one way, a half dozen the other.

RG59 Coax is basically all that's in most of those pre-made interconnects. If you really want some overkill get some RG6 Quad shielded wire and use that. There's absolutely NO discernable difference. One word of advice: Don't use a crip on connector, those can sometimes pierce the jacket/braid or kink and cause feedback hum. Not a fault of using coax, but more of a technical error durring installation.

 

[jergee]

I have been using RG-6 for my Paradigm pw-2200 for years. The cable is about 35' long. I have never compared it to anything else, but sounds good to me.

 

[highfigh]

Looking for advice on what to use for a long subwoofer cable run (~45’). An associate in a local retail store told me to get a good shielded coax cable and use “F to RCA” connectors. Or should I get two 25’ subwoofer cables instead and connect them through a female RCA adapter? Which will provide the best sound -- or reduce the chance of signal loss?

This cable run is for the back of my theater room. Still haven’t decided on putting 1 or 2 subwoofers in the back to complement the powered mains in front. Will it be best to go with 2 subs or is that not necessary? If 2, should I use a Y splitter at the receiver and run 2 cables or run 1 cable from the receiver and split in the back of the room? Or, run 1 to the first sub and daisy chain to the 2nd?

If you would be using compression fittings anyway, I would pass on the F connectors with F-RCA adapters and just use compression RCA connectors. Using two cables with a feed-through connector is asking for trouble, especially if the cable connection won't be accessible after installation. If you run two cables to the back of the room, just terminate one, if that works well enough. If you decide to upgrade later, you won't need to run new cables and all you'll have to do is terminate the second one. If you really want to make future cabling upgrades easy, run some kind of conduit that's large enough for multiple wires and remember- PVC conduit is a lot thicker than metallic and it's a lot easier pulling if you have larger internal diameter. Make sure that any bends are gentle and not tight 90 degrees- that makes pulling a lot easier, too.