Wiring help????

[bumpandrun]

Ok, got my speakers ordered and am getting ready to setup my system. When I built my house I had it prewired for surround sound so I figured this would be easy.. well, it has me all confused now. The wiring looks pretty simple, but I have a few questions...

First: The wiring for the Sub has three cables available, One Coaxil type, and 2 cables with 4 wires each. I am using the Pioneer Elite TZSW05 for my sub and I have the Yamaha RXV-650 Receiver. Can you tell me which ones to use? What type of connectors will I need for each?

Second: I was reading somewhere else, not to use the Sub out for the Sub... does this make sense? Should there be another configuration?

Third: I want to make my system 7.1, can I use my Bose Acousimass for the center surrounds, and should I still run them through the sub, or do away with the sub all together?

Thanks in advance.

Bumpandrun

 

[markw]

Your question is kind of confusing but here's some ideas.

Ok, got my speakers ordered and am getting ready to setup my system. When I built my house I had it prewired for surround sound so I figured this would be easy.. well, it has me all confused now. The wiring looks pretty simple, but I have a few questions...

First: The wiring for the Sub has three cables available, One Coaxil type, and 2 cables with 4 wires each. I am using the Pioneer Elite TZSW05 for my sub and I have the Yamaha RXV-650 Receiver. Can you tell me which ones to use? What type of connectors will I need for each?

Second: I was reading somewhere else, not to use the Sub out for the Sub... does this make sense? Should there be another configuration?

Third: I want to make my system 7.1, can I use my Bose Acousimass for the center surrounds, and should I still run them through the sub, or do away with the sub all together?

Thanks in advance.

Bumpandrun

Virtually all subs use a coaxial cable that passes a "line level" signal from the amp/receiver's sub (or LFE) output. These need to be terminated with RCA connectors on both ends.

I'd like to know the reasoning for your friends suggestion to not use the sub out. Sounds like a bum steer to me.

I have no idea what you mean by "center surrounds". If you mean your center speaker, it should match your front right/left speakers.

Bose, being Bose, does not make it easy to use their stuff in creative ways. Since they are a stereo setup (one bass toaster and two satellites), they expect a stereo signal. Should you decide to try to use it for a center speaker, only hook up ONE side of them. Hooking both sides to the same speaker output could cause problems for your receiver.

Should you try to use that Bose system w/o the bass toaster, you'll find that for the short time they work before dying, they will have virtually NO bass at all. I doubt they put anything out below 250 hz or so. Think pocket transistor radio here.

Personally, I'd recommend you pick up a real center (that matches your mains) and learn to love that sub output.

 

[bumpandrun]

Markw,
I currently have th Pioneer Elite series with 4 TZMS09, 1 TZMC09, and TZSW05 ... these will work fine for a 5.1 system, but I wanted to know if I could use the bose to make it a 7.1 system, probably not according to your answer... I just have no experience in setting up the system.

Also, any idea why there are the other wires running to the sub? am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.

Bumpandrun

 

[markw]

I'll assume that your Acoustimass system is a two channel unit, so I'll respond accordingly.

You can use it as a stereo pair, but you'll have to use it and hook it up as a complete unit, that is as a pair of speakers. Placment might be an issue as all the bass, mid bass and part of the midrange will be eminating from the bass toaster. This might work well as rear surrounds, with the bass toaster placed somewhere in between them.

As far as flanking speakers, they will function but you'll have to run both sets thru the bass toaster and, from there to the individual satellites. Again, all the "bass" will be coming from one location, probably on one side of the room or the other. If this is acceptable to you, then go for it.

If you are using them as "presence" speakers (mounted in the front, between and above the L/L/ pair, them this might be acdeptable as I don't think these require quite the bandwidth of the other speakers.