Connecting a Passive Subwoofer to Receiver

[CharlesT.]

Hey Guys,

I have a passive SW P3600 BL Yamaha Sub Woofer (130W) and a Yahama HTR - 5740 receiver.

From my understanding, there is no way for me to plug the sub into the receiver's sub jack because that is only for powered subs. So my only option is to connect it to the remaining speaker ports. FYI, I'm using two front speakers and a center speaker.

My question is should I connect the sub to the receiver's front speaker jack and the front speakers to the receiver's surround jacks?

Thanks!

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, Charles!

Just using what you have listed, here's what I'd try - connect the sub to the "B" speaker terminals on the receiver and leave your front speakers connected to the "A" terminals. I don't know if you can have both the "A" and "B" speakers on at the same time, but if so, that might work for you.

Here's one issue. Hooking that sub up to that receiver doesn't allow you to do any sort of bass management - namely, specifying which frequencies go to the sub and which frequencies go to your speakers. Also, using the above technique, you'd only be sending the bass from either the right front or left front channel to the sub.

Others here might have better ideas, but that's what I would try to start.

 

[mjcmt]

I better option using a passive sub is to connect your receiver's sub output to a separate power amplifier (even a used budget power amp will do fine), then hook your sub to the power amp. That way you can use your receivers bass management to control x-over and match volume. Plus a separate power amp for your sub will not tax your receivers power supply like hooking the sub directly to the receiver, thereby leaving the receiver to handle just the 5.0 speakers. You will also have better control of the sub with its own amplifier. Just my 2¢

 

[Adam]

Good point, and thanks for posting it! I didn't say that yesterday because I assumed (yep, my bad) that Charles was adding that sub to his system in that way because he didn't want to go out and spend money on another solution. I should still have pointed it out, and I'm glad that you did.

Charles, if you're interested, I did something similar (linked here). That was actually my first ever thread here at AH.