Subwoofer connection conundrum
Audiogon is a decent place to ask subwoofer questions. certainly plenty of subwoofer users here. but if you want to get deeper into choices and alternatives the AVS Subwoofer forum is a much more robust and serious forum about subwoofers. you will get much more attention and information there on this subject. https://www.avsforum.com/forums/subwoofers-bass-and-transducers.113/ |
You can run the subs unbalanced RCA no problem. You can also run the off the speaker outs on the power amps, but in this case you will need a Line Out Converter to drop the voltage down from speaker level to line level. Sub interconnects do not need to be high quality. Which way you do it will have as much to do with how much you want to spend and how you want it to look. In terms of performance there will be no difference. What will make a difference is where you put the subs. They do not need to go between the speakers. In fact they will work a lot better with one in each corner, but each one a different distance from the corner. This alone will be far greater a difference than anything you can do in hooking them up. Do a search for Distributed Bass Array. |
Here's what's got me nervous about using the speaker outputs: The C 298 manual says the following:
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Perhaps Miller Carbon is not familiar with some of the new class D technologies. For the edification of someone who might run across this thread at some point down the line, here's a post from our friends at REL: Here’s where Class D amps get weird (not all, but about 90% exhibit the anomaly I will describe next). The Black speaker terminals on the rear of your amp traditionally, and by electrical convention, mean Earth Ground. Zero ohms, zero Hz. Ground. But with most Class D amps, that Black-colored speaker terminal* is no longer ground. Worse, it actually references to a positive voltage that is significant. We consistently measure 10-15 volts ABOVE ground. In practical terms, if your REL were mistakenly connected to a Class D amp or receiver the input of the REL would eventually be burned out because it would be pulling 15 volts through a circuit designed to see zero voltage. Over some period of time—months or a few years, this unwelcome voltage will burn out the front end of your REL. The Solution: Fortunately, the solution turns out to be both easy and inexpensive—potentially no cost difference at all if your system is theater-based.
*One final call out, NAD recently introduced two new integrated amplifiers. We would like to commend them for specifically choosing Blue for their “Non-Hot” speaker terminal. Rather than Red/Black, the Red/Blue scheme gets people wondering why the color is different. Along with our friends at Peachtree Audio, the NAD folks also added an old-fashioned knurled chassis ground bolt which makes it even easier than we described to obtain true ground on this style of amp. We salute these customer-centric companies. In the case of a chassis ground bolt like this, please DO connect the Black wire to this bolt. There ya go, MC. Run that up your flagpole and salute it! -- Howard |
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You already answered your own question. It is fine to use a single-ended connection, as several of us have said. (IMO: Speaker-level inputs on subs are a gimmick.) Finally, could I run single-ended from the pre to the subs, or would that be a problem because I'm running balanced to the power amp? I understand that there'd be the possibility of noise, but I'm not certain if there's some other reason why it would not be wise to run balanced to the power amp and single-ended to the subs. If that would be OK, it would obviously open up many, many more possibilities for subs, as my searching so far has found few with XLR inputs that aren't giants. |
Thanks for all of these responses, gents. I'll get a pair of SVS 1000 Pros, will endeavor to position them asymmetrically (as much as is possible given the limitations of my room, obviously), hooking them up with single-ended runs. That said, I'm still not entirely certain how one pronounces the word "Eigentakt"! -- Howard |
