Passive subwoofer too loud.


Hi,

I have two front speakers rated at 4 ohms and a subwoofer made by the same designer (unknown specs) that should go well with his fronts, but... the subwoofer is laughably loud.

 

The designer recently passed away so I cannot get any support. I am using the same amps to drive the fronts and the subwoofer so it should not be an amp gain issue.

The subwoofer has two 12 inch drivers. Each driver has its own inputs for speaker cable. So I am running one channel of my stereo amp (again sub has its own amp - same kind of amp as fronts) to one woofer on the sub and the other channel to the other woofer on the sub. Is that the issue ? Or,  I am wondering if the sub was internally wired in series when it should have been wired in parallel or vice versa? - Just trying to understand why it is so damned loud when the same guy designed it and knew that the amplifier that I would be using with it is a typical amp - no volume control.

I am so aggravated... hope someone can help.

brjoon1021

Showing 2 responses by brjoon1021

Thanks Gentlemen,

A note of clarification (if helpful): I do have a separate amplifier for the subwoofer. It is a typical amp not having volume controls (not an integrated amp).

As an alternative solution: I do have a decent to good Onkyo receiver that is not currently being used. It could be the subwoofer amp. Would putting the receiver inline from the preamp via a line level be a good or better solution (not in how "good" a subwoofer amp the receiver may or may not be compared to my current amplifier - probably even trade) but as a solution compared to attenuating.

Do you guys know how to connect a Receiver to an amplifier so that the Receiver can be the amplifier for the subwoofer ? That would give me volume control and a remote.

I would still have the main speakers running from my other amp and preamp.

I thought that if I ran interconnects from the line out of the preamp to the tape input of the reciver, then connect the Receiver to the subwoofer with speaker cables that I would be good.  Did not work. The Receiver is so complicated so I do not know if my idea was faulty or if the Receiver was not set up right .