Connecting it all togeather - receiver to subwoofer

[paradox]

Hi,
At the moment I'm just trying to understand all the different parts of a home theater system and how they fit together and work with each other.

I took a look through the receiver setup and connection guide , and would like to know, how you connect in a subwoofer? The Onkyo TXSR701R in the guide seems to have outputs for front, surround and center speakers, but I cant see any labeled subwoofer. Is it the brown and black ones?

So can please somebody explain how you could connect in a subwoofer, something like the STF-1 mentioned in the $3000 guide on what to buy. How would the wiring change if you bought two subwoofers as the guide recommends?

Thanks!

 

[MDS]

The back of the Onkyo should have a a jack labeled 'sub pre-out' and it will be color coded purple. Note that this is different from the jack marked 'subwoofer' in the DVD or Multi-Channel input section - that jack is an INPUT.

All you need is a single coax cable (composite video, 'digital' coax, or specifically labeled 'subwoofer' cable) and you connect from the receiver's subwoofer pre-out to the line in or lfe in on the subwoofer.

If you want to use two subwoofers, just buy a Y cable. The single end goes into the receiver's sub pre-out jack and the two ends of the Y go into each sub.

 

[paradox]

Ok, so looking at the pic of the back of the subwoofer I would plug the receiver into the 'sub in' and wouldn't touch the large sections titled 'High level inputs from amplifier' and 'Output to speakers'. I guess they would only be used if the receiver didn't have a purple 'sub pre-out'.

Thanks MDS, thats my third question where you have been the first to jump in and answer! If you lived in Taiwan I would definitely buy you a beer or two

 

[MDS]

Yes, you would connect to the 'sub in' on that sub. That input is a 'low level' aka 'line level' input.

Note that 'high-level' inputs are also known as 'speaker level' inputs. You would only use them if your receiver did not have a subwoofer pre-out jack. You run speaker wire from the receiver's front left/right speaker terminals to the high level input on the sub and then from the sub's high level output to the front speakers. The signal the sub receives in that case has already been amplified whereas with the line level input it is a very low level signal that the sub must amplify itself.

One other consideration though is whether or not to use the crossover on the sub or in the receiver. Normally you want the receiver to do all bass management (speaker size Small, Xover=80Hz) so you'd want to disable the built in xover on the sub. It's hard to tell from the picture but there is something that says 'crossover in/out'. If that is a switch, you want to set it to out as I assume 'out' means the sub's xover is not active. If you leave it in the 'in' position, turn the xover dial on the sub all the way up so that you do not have two xovers acting on the signal (one from the sub itself and the one in the receiver).

 

[paradox]

Hmmm, I see! Thanks a lot for you help, there is a lot to understand but I think I'm starting to get it.