The best way to connect a subwoofer

I thought I'd start today's video out here in the production area we've got a whole bunch of B hk's running through these these great amplifiers and here's what is this a BHK 300 I think it's a 250 lovely amplifier here's another oh this is a 300 for sure yeah and that's a 300 so here's a pair of monoblock ant and and this is the BHK preamp and the reason I'm here is because our question today is from Dean in London England and he writes hey Paul I love your YouTube videos thank you I love that you're watching I noticed you often mention the advantages of subwoofers and I'm curious to know how you connect these to a standard - setup which does not have a dedicated sub output my system comprises a musical fidelity a 3 CR pre and power amp and rocks and arias stand mount speakers I'm really interested in experimenting with using ass up good good job Dean to see what it might add to the sound but how would I connect one and should it be passive or active thanks Dean in London well as many of you know my favorite way of connecting a subwoofer is through the power amp outputs here ok so not all subs are able to take those so let's let's understand what's going on and why why I like to do that the output of the amplifier is a power up but it's a very large signal and it's as it's where the watts come out to power speakers right and if I can jump ahead to the second part of this question I don't like passive subs subs should be actively amplified with their own amplifier their own crossover that somebody's taken the time to design and and you all know my favorite is rel subs they are well they used to be a British and now they're American and run by a brilliant fellow named John Hunter and but there are plenty of other good subs SVS is a good son anyway there's a number of good subs out and those have been designed by good people who know what they're doing and so yeah don't use passive sub that's just a big wolf or in a box you don't want to do that so why then if we're using an amplified sub woofer that's already got the amplifier why do we want to use the output of a power amp do we need those watts no what we want is the sound quality signature of the amplifier now every piece of electronics I know calm down electronics have a sound to them this amplifier sounds different than the amplifier you have at home it just does and you got to just take my word for it I'm happy by the way I've made this offer a hundred times do you want to come visit us in Boulder we are delighted to have you I know a lot of companies you have to set it up with your dealer you go to arrange it sometimes the doors are locked and you can't come in we have big big secrets around here well we don't have any secrets you are always welcome the only time that it doesn't work is on weekends because we get everybody the weekend off though we have had large groups arranged for a tour on on weekends and and if we have the people to handle it we're more than happy to do it so we're in Boulder Colorado please do come by we'll show you all this we'll explain it to you you can hear it for yourself but trust me for the moment amps and preamps sound different and because of that and because the job of a subwoofer is to disappear and to augment the sound of our main speakers as if the sub were not there as if our main speakers actually had bass which they don't unless you have a built-in subwoofer trust me on that deep low based anyway I'm not gonna get going on that because you've get me off on a tangent not that that ever happens right anyway the idea is to not hear the sub as something separate so to do that we want to take whatever sound the amplifier is offering to the system and keep that sound into the subwoofer and that's why we want to use the amplified output so no watts are actually used it's just the actual signal the voltage signal that goes out that's fairly large now your subwoofer has to have a high level input and many of them don't of course the ones I recommend do so let's imagine that your subwoofer only has the the RCA jacks or the XLR jacks on the input as many subwoofers do then you want to be able to use the output so here appears on the BHK here's our RCA outputs and here's our XLR outputs okay you can use if your sub can accommodate it you can use these or these and a lot of people will choose one now I prefer XLR for everything I can do so if we were setting up a BHK system then I would recommend using XLR cables good quality ones between the output of the preamp and the input of the powering that leaves the RCA connectors then you can take these and run those over to your sub so let's attend to the last part of his question which is what if my equipment doesn't have a dedicated sub output thank God it doesn't here's why the only products that really have dedicated sub outputs are usually home theater based products integrated surround sound process serious and all that and that's because they run a there running five channel when the 5.1 course the point one in a five point one twelve point one whatever point one you got that point one is that subwoofer output and that's already going through a filter that's run in the surround processor when you get into high-end audio you want to rely on the subwoofer itself to provide that filtering and you don't want it in this and that's a good thing that your system doesn't have a separate subwoofer output so wrap it up real quick my preference if your subwoofer has a high level input use the output connectors of the power amplifier if it does not then use the RCA or XLR on the back of your preamp integrated or whatever you have hope that helps good luck and good job getting into a subwoofer yes bye [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Paul McGowan, PS Audio

Views: 654,845

Keywords: Ask Paul 9, Ask Paul 1

Id: 5AoiS_e8wBA

Length: 7min 21sec (441 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018