Sub Connection Question

[anamorphic96]

Thought I would run this by everyone since I have never seen a sub hooked up this way.

A friend of mine has his speakers connected his amps speakers outputs like normal.

But he then took two runs of speaker wire and ran them from the speakers to the high level speaker inputs on the sub. He states everything is running normal. But I'm thinking he might be straining the amp by running things in parallel like he did. Thus dropping the impedance to low.

He's running a NAD integrated amp which will handle lower impedance loads just fine. But I'm thinking he might be better off running things in the more traditional manner.

So whats the consensus ?

Thanks

 

[adwilk]

That method is just fine based on the info given. The sub is only using that as a signal and not power. The amplifier in the sub is still taking over power duty for the sub, not the NAD.

 

[highfigh]

Thought I would run this by everyone since I have never seen a sub hooked up this way.

A friend of mine has his speakers connected his amps speakers outputs like normal.

But he then took two runs of speaker wire and ran them from the speakers to the high level speaker inputs on the sub. He states everything is running normal. But I'm thinking he might be straining the amp by running things in parallel like he did. Thus dropping the impedance to low.

He's running a NAD integrated amp which will handle lower impedance loads just fine. But I'm thinking he might be better off running things in the more traditional manner.

So whats the consensus ?

Thanks

Depending on the sub amp, it will either have a passive crossover to feed the main speakers or not. If it has this and no speakers are attached, the receiver won't see the speaker's impedance through the second cables. What it will see is about a 1KOhm-10KOhm load in parallel with the speakers, which won't cause a problem. What may cause a problem is that the main speakers aren't limited as to the low frequency info they get and by producing some of the same signal as the sub, some of it will be affected by phase cancellation. That's the reason high level inputs usually have a passive crossover and a set of speaker output terminals.