Best Subwoofer Hookup?

[scamarao]

So I just got the RM6900 system from Polk and connected it to my Denon AVR-1700 Receiver.

What is the best way to hook-up the subwoofer to get the best clear bass?

My Denon has Left Right Pre-Out and a subwoofer pre-out. I connected both to the Denon.

However, the Polk manual recommends connecting the left right speakers to the sub then connecting the sub's left/right to the Denon.

What should I do? What is everyone's recommendation?

Thanks

[scamarao]

No one?

[aaharvel]

Connect an RCA cable from the Denon's "Sub Pre-Out" and put it into the Left Input jack on the back of the subwoofer. Set your subwoofer's crossover to however you prefer. I have my sub set at 60hz, and the "Small" speaker setting in the receiver set to 60hz as well. I stagger the 2crossovers- to me it sounds INFINITELY superior, Velodyne recommends doing this as well, but that's a minority opinion.

Welcome to the forums.

[PolknPepsi]

Hi,
The only way I know to hook up a sub are:

1. use the subwoofer output of your receiver to the sub.
2. use 2-RCA cables from the receiver to the sub.
3. use the speaker binding posts from the receiver to the sub.

Now that I think about it when I first got my sub they recommended running the receiver to the sub then out to the speakers and it didnt work too well for some reason. (it's been a while)

Welcome to the Forum....hope this helped.

[Eric W]

The RM6900 has a LFE input on the back. Here is a good way to hook it up:
Connect all the speakers directly to the receiver. Connect the "sub out" of the receiver to the Yellow LFE in on the sub.

On the receiver's speaker setup menu: Set all the speakers to "small", the subwoofer to "yes" and then the "crossover frequency" to 120 Hz.

[ldi]

The RM6900 has a LFE input on the back. Here is a good way to hook it up:
Connect all the speakers directly to the receiver. Connect the "sub out" of the receiver to the Yellow LFE in on the sub.

On the receiver's speaker setup menu: Set all the speakers to "small", the subwoofer to "yes" and then the "crossover frequency" to 120 Hz.

How about RM6800? It seems not powerful enough when I connected "sub pre-out" on receiver to left line-in on sub. Does Y splitter any help on that? Or any other better connection?

[aaharvel]

Ysplitter will add about 6db. This is very noticeable.

[ldi]

Ysplitter will add about 6db. This is very noticeable.

Thanks. Does speaker wire connection any better comparing with that?

[aaharvel]

imo speaker wire connections are not good. They're sloppy looking, more complex, and don't take advantage of your processor's internal bass management.

Y-Splitters are available most anywhere: from specialty stores to the local RAT Shack.

[ldi]

imo speaker wire connections are not good. They're sloppy looking, more complex, and don't take advantage of your processor's internal bass management.

Y-Splitters are available most anywhere: from specialty stores to the local RAT Shack.

Thank you very much. One last question: Some people mentioned the left and right line-in on sub are usually bridged internally. It means there will be no difference between connecting to the left and both left and right? Any comments on that?

[Pinktulip7]

Either one will do.......................I used Y cable to connect both L/R...

[aaharvel]

yup. either one. I used to use a y adapter. Now I just use the "L" input on the back of the sub and just turn the sub's volume all the way up, leave the back of the sub alone and just control the level of bass in the receiver.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

yup. either one. I used to use a y adapter. Now I just use the "L" input on the back of the sub and just turn the sub's volume all the way up, leave the back of the sub alone and just control the level of bass in the receiver.

I don't remember why...but there's a good reason that you should always set the sub level in your receiver at an even 0 and control the volume on the sub...

On the Y splitter thing, that may add 6db to the signal being sent to the sub, but it's not going to have any effect on the output capability of the sub. I'm sure that was implied, just wanted to make sure it's mentioned fully. There's no need to go the y splitter route - just hook up the sub cable to the sub, set the sub trim to 0 in the receiver, and turn up the volume on the sub until you get desired output.

If you have issues where it sounds too loud with music and not enough with movies, or visa-versa, that could be indicative of some frequency peaks caused by room gain, acoustics, etc. You may need to look into plotting a frequency response graph and calibrating your sub - you want equal output across the range played by the sub.

A properly calibrated should not have to be adjusted frequently based on source material - with a few exceptions of course [cough]Underworld[cough] :D