Help, logitech z2300, using only the sub woofer

[yuki]

Ok so I have a budget stereo system but I want a sub woofer for it. I was wondering would it be ok to use the sub from my z2300's without the satellites plugged in. Or would this damage the amp on the sub as it was designed to have satellites plugged into it ? This by the way is only a temp solution until i can buy I proper sub, thanks in advance ^^.

 

[Djizasse]

You can do that, but it won't be satisfatory. The sub was made and configured to work with the satellites, the crossover is tuned with them in mind.
But try it and see if you like it.

 

[yuki]

thanks ! I was guessing the sub takes on some of the mids as well given the poor mid response of the sats on the system

 

[jcPanny]

Logitech "sub"

That sub likely has a 6" or smaller woofer and is not a real subwoofer. A decent pair of bookshelf speakers will play just as low as the Logitech "sub" module so don't worry about connecting it to your system.

 

[Sheep]

That sub likely has a 6" or smaller woofer and is not a real subwoofer. A decent pair of bookshelf speakers will play just as low as the Logitech "sub" module so don't worry about connecting it to your system.

It's very likely you didn't bother reading the Logitech website. The Z-2300 subwoofer has an 8 inch driver with a large, fully flared port. It produces no wind noise, even at maximum output. It also reaches very high SPL but has a fixed over point for the sats. I've made my Z2200 subwoofer work in my stereo, but it sounded like crap.

SheepStar

 

[yuki]

well thanks ^^, I will give it a shot and maybe build a line level low pass filter for now, my next pay check is in 2 weeks so I could wait as well, but i have some resistors and a **** load of caps laying around. I think most should be rated high enough to take a line level output from my receiver, and then only pass below 60hz to the sub line in. It is a bit ghetto, but only a temp solution. So I am guessing that the amp should be fine on the speakers if they are not driving the sats ?

 

[Djizasse]

Well, i can't assure you that it will harm the Logitech amp, but i guess if it did, the manual would mention it. Moreover, i've done that with two creative systems and 2 altec lansings and it never harmed anything, except for ruining the low end of music. It did sound good on games with lots of explosions

The only thing i remember that should not be turned on without any load is a computer's PSU.

 

[yuki]

So I tried it, and it sounded like crap like you said -_-, but I got it to sound great after a bit of messing with it ! with the default aux out on the amp it would send lower mids to the sub like i feared.

If you are interested I did this using the HD audio device on my computer. I plugged in the sub to the center / sub port on the sound card and configured the following:

I selected 5.1 but i turned off center and rear, and turned off the check box for full-range surround speakers. Then I turned on bass management which enables a filter on the internal dac to become a cross over on the sub.center out. Now it sounds like a proper sub filling the lows rather than the lows and low mids. Also you can enable room correction and set everything to default so it does not mess with the audio but now you have a gain control for the sub out:

using it for a few hours, the sub amp has not gotten any hotter than normal with the sats connected. if alli use is my computer I do not think for my first budget system I will need a dedicated sub... that said i am looking to make this my bedroom setup and start looking for a high end 2.1 channel setup. I love the logitech sub, but the satellites had shitty *** mids and harsh highs. Now it is perfect for the price !

 

[Djizasse]

Very nice Thanks for the tutorial.
That software is much better than the usual creative lab's offerings.
It offers a good array of customization.

I'm glad you got everything to work, without spending any money.