Stereo subwoofer cable?

[dis]

<font color='#000000'>I'm curious as why my powered sub has both a left and right RCA input when my reciever has a single mono output.

Is there a reason for this? Would you get better sound by using a y-adapter?</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>On my Yamaha sub, the left RCA in is bridged so the need of Y cable is not neccesary, I dont know about other models but I would assume most modern subs would have this feature.</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>My old velodyne CHT-12 seemed to work better at lower levels with the Y-cable. It had an auto-off mode, and often it wouldn't come on automatically at lower levels without the use of the Y-cable. The user manual actually suggested its use.</font>

 

[JOEH50]

<font color='#000000'>Hello,
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I have a MK (V-125 ) sub, and I was wonderin if your response applied. Would it mention in the manual if it were bridged or not? I'm using a 'y' at the sub. If I were to go without it, ( assuming L &amp; R not bridged ) which side do I connect a single line?</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>Usually the left. &quot;Bridged&quot; isn't really what I was implying, though - at least, not in the usual sense of the word with regard to amplifiers.</font>

 

[JOEH50]

<font color='#000000'>Would the V-125 be regarded as ''modern'' ?</font>

 

[dis]

<font color='#000000'>well I'm not sure if mine is &quot;bridged&quot; I didn't see anything mentioned anywhere.

I'm not having any real problems with it in terms of auto-off detection...just the wether or not it sounds better when you use 2 cables rather than one...

If I added the Y-adapter at the back of my amp and ran left&amp;right RCA cable to the sub would that theoretically do anything seeing as how the signal is being split in 2 resulting in more available bandwidth???</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>Put the Y-cable at the sub end, less cable to run and get interference.

Also, I don't believe the Y-cable enhances the sound, it's generally just used for older subs that may not default the L channel to mono and also for low-level issues such as those found with the Velodyne CHT series.</font>

 

[PaulF]

<font color='#000000'>As far as I know all subs are mono, so it shouldn't matter which input L/R you use. I would think that the sub simply adds the left and right channels together and passes them through a LPF to get a single low frequency channel.

Some subs may require that a mono input go to a particular channel, I think this is most likely related to the auto on switching detection than enything else.

I used a Y adapter cable on my sub but I'm pretty sure you can buy just Y adapters. I don't think it makes any difference to the sound. However if you sub also has L/R line outputs like mine, you can insert the sub between the pre/power amps to see if you can hear a difference.

Paul</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>One of the benefits of using a Y cable at the sub input jacks is for reducing the amount of noise or RF entering the system, because you are not leaving the other input port open and active. &nbsp;Remember, the data flowing into an input port is amplified many times over.

&quot;Bridged&quot; is not the correct term to use for the description of the input ports on a sub  &quot;Bridged&quot; implies you are taking a stereo amp and using it as a mono amp, but that is simply not the case with a sub.  

The proper term to use in this reference is &quot;summed&quot;.

The L&amp;R input ports on a sub are either electronically &quot;summed&quot; and then fed directly to the single amp (which means L&amp;R are both always active), or the sub selects one input (like hawke said typically the Left channel) and then shunts (turns off) the other input channel.

I'd say you can never go wrong with a Y cable connection, and it may provide some benefit (less potential for RFI).</font>

 

[audiosyn]

SUBWOOFER "Y" ADAPTER

Why use a Y you ask? Well it's simple. Most retail sales people want to attach anything they can to a sale. So they say you need one. You don't. The left and right rca inputs on the back of your sub is for a direct connection to a source that has no sub out but does have a tape/aux output within the jackpack. For those cases you may use a standard red and white rca cable to attach the sub to the source. If you have a Y adapter and a single subwoofer cable, attach the Y cable at the source of your L/R output on your reciever, (this may be better than using the two L/R RCA cables to make the run. Using a Y adapter for a LFE or SUB output to the LFE or L/R input on the sub just injects signal degredation into the path if going from the sub out on a source to the subwoofer. If you use a proprietary cable for sub bass frequencies, the cable usually has a solid copper core for better bass transmission. This is not the case with most Y adapters. They usually have a thin twisted pair cable strand wich negates any benefits of the sub cable. The subwoofer you use is mono and the sub out on a reciever is mono, so why split the signal to dual mono for it to be then combined to a mono signal again?

 

[Aliixer]

stereo subs

what if you have two subs, one next to the left channel and one on the right. Wouldn't you use the left input of one and the right of the other in correspondence? This is in the case your receiver has two sub outputs, as the Yamaha RXZ9. I have set mine up this way, I believe it to be right. Any thoughts????????

 

[markw]

Remember Stereo? That two channel thing that predates HT?

<font color='#000000'>I'm curious as why my powered sub has both a left and right RCA input when my reciever has a single mono output.

Is there a reason for this? Would you get better sound by using a y-adapter?</font>

It's been around for about 45 years or so, so I'm pretty sure you've heard ot it. These generally don't offer a subwoofer output.

By allowing two channels to be fed into the sub, it opens a whole new market for the subwoofer manufacturers by allowing those stereo users to avail themselves of their product.

as far as using a "Y" adaptor, you only can get so much out of that subwoofer. By feeeding both channels instead of one, you won't get any more out of it but you may reach that limit with the level control on the sub a little lower.