using pre amp outs and speaker terminals at the same time

P

passionsoul

Audiophyte
hello

has anyone out there used a rca preamp output and a speaker terminal at the same time. i went to a stereo store and i was told be the sales man to set up my left and speakers as large(full range) , the connect the speakers to the the speaker terminals on the back of my receiver and the connnect my 2 subs to the left and right preamp outputs on my receiver as well. this way the sub and the speakers will receive the signal at the same time and this would add more depth to my speakers. my speaker are BG corps Z-7's

all help would be appreciated
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Audioholic Jedi
hello

has anyone out there used a rca preamp output and a speaker terminal at the same time. i went to a stereo store and i was told be the sales man to set up my left and speakers as large(full range) , the connect the speakers to the the speaker terminals on the back of my receiver and the connnect my 2 subs to the left and right preamp outputs on my receiver as well. this way the sub and the speakers will receive the signal at the same time and this would add more depth to my speakers. my speaker are BG corps Z-7's

all help would be appreciated
Not correct. The sub out carries the low channel effects, so you need to connect your sub to the LFE out.
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
hello

has anyone out there used a rca preamp output and a speaker terminal at the same time. i went to a stereo store and i was told be the sales man to set up my left and speakers as large(full range) , the connect the speakers to the the speaker terminals on the back of my receiver and the connnect my 2 subs to the left and right preamp outputs on my receiver as well. this way the sub and the speakers will receive the signal at the same time and this would add more depth to my speakers. my speaker are BG corps Z-7's

all help would be appreciated
If the receiver has a subwoofer output jack, you don't need to do this. The fact that you were told to set the speakers as large, assuming they knew what they were talking about, says it's an AV receiver and they all have subwoofer output jacks. This means that you would use a Y cord from the single subwoofer output jack and it would also seem that the sales person didn't know what they were talking about. If you don't have an AV receiver and the receiver doesn't have actual subwoofer output jacks, you can use a Y cord to allow the preamp level audio signal to return to the power amp input for each channel. However, you'll have phase cancellations because of the overlap if the speakers receive and produce full-range audio.

What is the brand and model of your receiver.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
It will work.

hello

has anyone out there used a rca preamp output and a speaker terminal at the same time. i went to a stereo store and i was told be the sales man to set up my left and speakers as large(full range) , the connect the speakers to the the speaker terminals on the back of my receiver and the connnect my 2 subs to the left and right preamp outputs on my receiver as well. this way the sub and the speakers will receive the signal at the same time and this would add more depth to my speakers. my speaker are BG corps Z-7's

all help would be appreciated
This can easily work. This is how I blended a sub with my maggie 1.6's on the right aqnd left channels of my stereo system.

There are two things to keep in mind:

1) The full range will still be sent to your main speakers. Thiey will be playing what they always did. If they don't "fart out" now, then you should do fine.

2) You will also be sending a full range signal to the subwoofers. You must limit the higs going to the subwoofer otherwise it will sound awful. You will need to use the powered sub's internal crossover as a "low pass" filter to limit the sub's high end, preferably to where your mains fall off in the low end.

In my case, I set the sub's crossover to around 50 hz or so and they picked up just about where my mains started to fall off.

But then again, I did this with a two-channel stereo system. If you have an HT with a subwoofer/LFE out, you should use that.
 
Last edited:
selden

selden

Audioholic
Modern AVRs include bass management which expects you to connect your subwoofer(s) to the subwoofer line-level output. (Some receivers and pre/pros have outputs for more than one subwoofer.) You can use a Y connector to split the receiver's subwoofer output signal if necessary.

You can configure your speakers in other ways, but that usually introduces unnecessary complications.

A problem with connecting both the subwoofers and the fronts to the same preamp and speaker output channels is that you'll get either excess bass or bass dropout in the region where the speakers' and sub's frequency responses overlap. The subwoofer's low pass filter rolloff seldom matches the natural low frequency rolloff of a full range speaker.

It's usually better to use the type of subwoofer which includes its own bass management. Hook the subwoofer speaker-level inputs to the receiver's front speaker-level outputs and hook the front speakers to the subwoofer''s speaker-level outputs. Don't use the receiver's line-level outputs. Use the subwoofer's builtin crossover to extract the low frequencies for its own use and pass the high frequencies on to the front speakers.

Many people prefer to use external electronic bass management when they're driving fronts and subwoofer from the same outputs, but that usually uses the line level outputs for both plus an external stereo amplifier to drive the front speakers.

If you disable the subwoofer channel's output in the receiver, the bass management in most receivers will redirect the LFE channel to the full-range front speaker channels, so you'll still hear the LFE audio. Note that this redirection of the LFE channel audio works only if you're using the HDMI or digital audio inputs. The subwoofer/LFE input of a multichannel analog input won't get redirected to the fronts. Also, a few receivers don't do the LFE redirection, so you should verify that it actually works for you.
 
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