Speakers with integrated subwoofer help

[Fireye28]

I'm brand new to audio systems as a whole and I apologize but I don't exactly know what to search for in order to answer the questions I have.

I was given two Prophile speakers recently without any other equipment and would like some help in setting them up. I would like to buy a receiver for my system however I'm confused on subwoofer setup. My speaker boxes have both a tweeter? (Vifa BC25TG15-04 DPH19) and a subwoofer? (JBL125A) integrated into them. Sorry I don't have any more information, all I know is that they are very old speakers which were supposedly high quality when purchased and are still in great shape.

The kicker here is that both speakers are connected to a positive and negative lead on the back of the speaker box and what appears to be a hard wired crossover in them. This is my best guess as to how the speakers work since there is no separate subwoofer cable connection coming out of it. Now the problem is that pretty much all the receivers I am looking at have dedicated subwoofer outputs. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how to hook up these speakers as I have heard that some receivers don't output subwoofer frequencies through their left and right speakers ports, which is why they have the dedicated subwoofer output port.

I'm looking for a lower end receiver (working on a budget here) maybe $300 which leads to some nice looking 5.1 or 5.2 or 7.1 yada yada receivers. I'm not looking to build a whole surround system so maybe this is not the correct way to go. If I simply hook up these speakers to the left and right (front speaker) outputs of a receiver, will I be outputting the full range of sound to my speakers?

I've already got a projector and a chromecast and thought it would be best to integrate everything together in one unit, so a receiver seemed to be the logical choice here.

By all means, if anyone has any better suggestions on a setup for me please chime in. I'm looking to learn more about audio systems and build the best setup for my apartment.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm brand new to audio systems as a whole and I apologize but I don't exactly know what to search for in order to answer the questions I have.

I was given two Prophile speakers recently without any other equipment and would like some help in setting them up. I would like to buy a receiver for my system however I'm confused on subwoofer setup. My speaker boxes have both a tweeter? (Vifa BC25TG15-04 DPH19) and a subwoofer? (JBL125A) integrated into them. Sorry I don't have any more information, all I know is that they are very old speakers which were supposedly high quality when purchased and are still in great shape.

The kicker here is that both speakers are connected to a positive and negative lead on the back of the speaker box and what appears to be a hard wired crossover in them. This is my best guess as to how the speakers work since there is no separate subwoofer cable connection coming out of it. Now the problem is that pretty much all the receivers I am looking at have dedicated subwoofer outputs. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how to hook up these speakers as I have heard that some receivers don't output subwoofer frequencies through their left and right speakers ports, which is why they have the dedicated subwoofer output port.

I'm looking for a lower end receiver (working on a budget here) maybe $300 which leads to some nice looking 5.1 or 5.2 or 7.1 yada yada receivers. I'm not looking to build a whole surround system so maybe this is not the correct way to go. If I simply hook up these speakers to the left and right (front speaker) outputs of a receiver, will I be outputting the full range of sound to my speakers?

I've already got a projector and a chromecast and thought it would be best to integrate everything together in one unit, so a receiver seemed to be the logical choice here.

By all means, if anyone has any better suggestions on a setup for me please chime in. I'm looking to learn more about audio systems and build the best setup for my apartment.

Those speaker drivers you describe, are woofers and NOT subwoofers. There is a big difference.

Those old drivers actually never went that low.

You will need a subwoofer that is powered and contains its own amp.

You will connect your speakers to the left and right outputs, and connect the LFE/Subwoofer out to the sub.

$300 is too a low a budget for a receiver. If you purchase at the bottom end of the market they blow up in no time.

 

[Mark of Cenla]

The JBL in the box is not a subwoofer. It is s woofer. Almost all two-way, three way, etc. speakers have a woofer to play the low frequencies and maybe some of the midrange. Two-ways, like yours, also have a tweeter to play some of the midrange and all of the high frequencies. Connect your speakers to the front speaker connections, which output all the frequencies, unless the receiver is set to "small" on the speaker setup menu.

I prefer Yamaha audio-video receivers (AVR's). Go to accessories4less.com and check out the AVR's there. I have two AVR's and have always used them in stereo (2.1) because I do not like surround sound. What I do like about them is the subwoofer outputs, the HDMI, optical, and coax inputs, and the room correction/auto EQ. If you do not have a subwoofer (from what you said you do not have one), you may just want a stereo receiver. Yamaha, Sony, Onkyo, and Sherwood make stereo receivers that are less than $200.

Your speakers may sound very good because they have good quality drivers in them. A picture of the back terminals would be very helpful. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Fireye28]

Thank you for the information about the tweeter woofer combination. I was going to include pictures of the internal crossover? wiring and the drivers within the unit as well as the connections on the back but the pics are too large to attach to a post and imgur is messing up for me so I can't really link photos. Either way I'm pretty sure the inputs on the back are normal speaker cable inputs.

I started looking into the denon avr-s710w receiver because this had some extra functionality that I liked and would allow for upgrading the system if I did want to add on a sub or something else in the future. I looked into a few of the yamaha models of similar price range but they only show 6ohm output wattage and i'm not sure if there is 8ohm capabilities. The JBL 125a driver is an 8ohm driver. I also contacted denon to ask for a little advice and they gave me some good info about their wattage specifications, unknown to me (newbie mistake) the wattage specs provided are split between the front speakers so I would get half of the stated value at each speaker. The rep I was talking to made this sound like an issue for my speakers and suggested bumping up to a higher priced receiver to get better wattage output. I couldn't find much information on the driver itself but it looks like my system is closely related to the JBL L26 decade speakers (similar driver setup) so i looked into specs for that. The manual shows that the speakers are capable of running 35 watts rms to each speaker so 70 watts total and another site suggested that running 60 watts total to both speakers would be adequate. The s710w shows output at 75 watts with 8ohm impedance selected. This sounds like it should work for my system or am I missing some other details here?

I understand my price range is low, but to be honest I was not looking for a huge setup. I'm in an apartment at the moment and don't want to disturb my neighbors too much. Also I was given these speakers and was hoping to simply get them up and running in a decent manner. It looks like there are some good reviews out there on the models in my price range, specifically the one I am looking at and it adds wifi capability which would be nice because I use spotify on a daily basis. This may not be the right website to look around for a budget setup but there sure is some good information here.

 

[Mark of Cenla]

I am a budget guy all of the way. The system in my signature cost less than $700 (not counting the computer). Both of my AVR's are bottom of the line, one a Yamaha and one a Pioneer. I have been a hi-fi guy since the mid 70's. I have never run across an amp or receiver that did not function well with 8ohm speakers. So I am saying that every receiver would work well with your speakers, as long as it gets loud enough for you and does not distort (sound scratchy and/or harsh).

Getting the features you want in an AVR is important because most of them will sound about the same, and they will work well with your speakers. Most people around here recommend Denon, Yamaha, and Marantz. I love my Yamaha RX-V375, which I have used in my TV/living room system for almost three years. It manages all of our inputs and our speakers quite well and plays as loud as I will ever need. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Fireye28]

So it turns out these speakers were custom built ones and would be able to handle a lot more wattage than those JBL L26 speakers simply due to the fact that the internal components are extremely high quality. I was told that back in the day they were easily run at 40 watts per speaker and could probably go up to 100 watts per. This obviously is overkill and I would never even be able to run them at such a high power output unless I was out in a field somewhere.

However the question comes down to low level sound quality. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was told that having higher power output capabilities like 100 watts per speaker (200 per channel) would increase the sound quality at lower volume. This sounds a bit weird to me, isn't volume adjusted by varying voltage through the driver? Wouldn't I simply be getting say 5 or 10 watts of power at that volume no matter what system I hooked up to it? Basic laws of circuits say that with a set impedance you would have to drive voltage up to drive current up. The only thing I can get out of this information is that having a system that can handle 100 watts per speaker would allow for the rms wattage needed but also cover any spikes. Does that even sound reasonable to play 10 watts through a speaker and expect upwards of 70 to 100 peak wattage?

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Don't worry about the wattage in receiver. Wattage rating in speaker means how much power it can handle and receiver wattage means how much power they can produce. Normal listening levels only use few watts unless you have really big place and you are far from the speakers.

I would look for receiver from Yamaha, Denon or Marantz that has all the features you need from here http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/category/avreceiver/home-audio/receivers-amps/home-theater-receivers/1.html

For example this one looks pretty nice: http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/denavrx2000/denon-avr-x2000-7.1-ch-x-95-watts-networking-a/v-receiver/1.html

 

[Mark of Cenla]

I could be wrong, but it seems as though you are over thinking all of this a bit. It just will not matter that much which receiver you buy, as long as it has the features you want. If you do not desire to play it very loud, the receiver's output wattage does not matter much. More speakers have been blown by too little power than by too much power. I love music so much that I would have probably already gone out and bought something at Best Buy. I really do not pay much attention to receiver nor speaker wattage. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Pogre]

the denon you're looking at will work well with those speakers. if you plan to add on down the road, you have plenty of wiggle room with it. they'll sound fine at lower listening levels and it has enough power to make them sing a little if you choose.