Help needed with subwoofer and Home Theatre

[WarrenC]

My KOSS home theatre system packed it in so I went and bought a Panasonic receiver to use with the existing speakers. All went okay until hooking up the subwoofer. All the other speakers hook up with speaker wire, but the subwoofer connection on the receiver is a RCA type plug. The subwoofer connection is also in area away from the other speaker connections. I tried cutting an end off an RCA cable, plugging it into the receiver and connecting the cut end to the red and black connections on the back of the woofer, but when I run a test, I don't get any sound. What's wrong?

Warren

 

[MDS]

What's wrong is you are trying to use a low level output (the subwoofer pre-out of the receiver) to connect to a high level (speaker level) input on the sub.

If your sub does not have a low level input that you can connect directly to the receiver's sub pre-out using the cable with an RCA connector on the end (the one you destroyed by cutting off the plug. ) then you can use the L/R speaker outputs of the receiver to connect to the subwoofer and use speaker wire from the sub's L/R speaker outs to go to the main speakers.

Alternatively, you may be able to find line level to speaker level converters.

 

[j_garcia]

The RCA output from the receiver does not have any power to drive a speaker, it is signal only. If your sub is not self-powered, then it can't do anything with the signal you have provided to it (not a good idea trying this, BTW). If the sub has a R&L speaker level (wire) inputs, you can connect it directly to your R&L speaker outputs, then in the setup menu in the receiver, set your main speakers to "Large" and it should work.

If the sub only has one + and - input, or if you want to use your new receiver's bass management capability, you can connect the RCA to an input with a Y connector to an old/cheap receiver or amp and power the sub with that instead. This will keep your main receiver from working as hard to drive the sub itself.

A line level to speaker level adapter could also be used, but if the sub isn't powered, this won't work either.

 

[Spiffyfast]

Is the subwoofer a passive sub (it has no internal amp) that was drivin off of your koss receiver just like another speaker?

 

[WarrenC]

Yes, the sub was a passive, running off the receiver just like all the other speakers.

 

[Spiffyfast]

thats your problem then, your new receiver is not set up for a passive sub, it needs an active sub so you can go buy a cheap amp for it and run the sub-out on your receiver to the amp then just send a speaker wire to ur sub, or set your self up for future upgrades and buy an active sub which will probably put the koss sub to shame

 

[WarrenC]

thanks for all the help !

 

[Spiffyfast]

thanks for all the help !

no problem, best of luck to ya