question about powered subwoofer

[arnyplmr]

i have a stupid question. can i use a powered subwoofer without hooking it up to a reciever? is it possible to get an adaptor that changes a minijack cable to an rca cable and hook the rca to the sub. i want a powered sub to use with my computer speakers, but dont know if this will work well or not.

 

[markw]

You can buy an interconnect that will take a 1/8" stereo mini jack and convert the computer's full range audio mini-jack output into two R/L RCA jacks to feed the line level input of a subwoofer for a pittance.

Hopefully, it will be of sufficient strength to drive the subwoofer.

But, you're still gonna need amps to drive the mains.

 

[Exit]

Yes, most subwoofer speaker combos made for computers have extra amps built in for powering the main speakers while audio system subs do not.

 

[arnyplmr]

ya i already have powered speakers and the sub i get will be powered also. i will use for mostly music on my computer. i just wanted to know if i could use my 1/8" jack and get a 1/8" to rca converter cable to hook up the sub. thanks for the help!

 

[Exit]

The one thing I can think of is that you need a crossover or high frequency cutoff for the subwoofer somewhere. Is your PC providing a subwoofer output that takes care of this? If so then I think you could make the connection. I don't know about ground loops or hum though. I think you should get your subwoofer at a store that has a good return policy in case something like that becomes a hard to solve problem.

 

[arnyplmr]

no my pc has no sub out and i have no crossover, but the subwoofer im getting ( a cadence csx-12) has a built in adjustable low pass crossover. so when i get my 1/8 mini jack converted to an rca, which i already have, i can run the rca to the sub adn the crossover on the sub will take care of the rest, does this sound right?