Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Pre-amp Out to Sub: Receiver Adjustments

Okie doke... I'm going to need some help to clarify in my mind, what's been discussed here, and add a few new queries while I'm at it!

1. JohnK... One thing I do NOT intend to do, if possible, is to lose any bass signal in either left or right channels from getting to the subwoofer. If i need to use high/speaker-level inputs for that, than so be it. But please confirm for me, if by doing so, the subwoofer will receive ALL the info it needs to perform at it's peak (and perhaps more than needed, in the higher frequencies), and that there will be NO loss in volume output, as it will still run off of it's own amp with no handicap from using high/speaker-level inputs... correct?

2. Also, please verify, by using high/speaker-level in the manner that has been suggested (speakers branch from receiver, subwoofer branches from receiver - speakers do NOT branch from subwoofer)... that the speakers run off of the receiver's amp, and the subwoofer runs off of its own amp, correct?

3. Additionally... my receiver has main left/right speaker outputs and 'remote' left/right speaker outputs, with a front panel 'remote' on/off button. I should be able to connect the subwoofer to these 'remote' speaker outputs, and avoid 'sharing/crossing' speaker and subwoofer speaker-wire wires in the same slots, correct? Would give me a nice 'off' mechanism too!

4. Everyone always talks about getting sheilded coaxial subwoofer cable. If I use speaker wire, there won't be any shielding. Is shielding, for some reason, suddenly a non-issue with speaker wire?

5. ClubNeon, earlier you responded to the what-if I connected my receiver's stereo-headphone-jack output to the subwoofer's 1/4" phone (stereo-headphone-jack, essentially, no?) input. You suggested that would be a worrisome strategy. But... isn't the subwoofer itself able to convert stereo signal to mono, internally? After all, isn't that what it does when you use separate high/speaker-level inputs on the subwoofer? And it would give me the chance to feel I didn't totally waste my money on that nice RCA cable (and y-adapter) i ordered (assuming I buy a 2nd 'phone-adapter' for the receiver end). Hmmm... i guess what you were suggesting is that it's converted to mono IMMEDIATELY upon entering the single RCA cable, rather than when it gets to the subwoofer... but can the current/short jump backwards into the receiver's phone jack - without a 2nd cable available to physically loop back, as in the case with the RCA Y-adapter attached to the 2 Pre-amp outputs on the receiver? Hmmm... do my questions even make any sense at this point? I'm so out of my element here, lol.

6. JB, your setup is the kind that I got a bad impression from, hearing tidbits discussed here and there online. In your setup, is there a point to having a main amp? I might be wrong, but if your subwoofer has its own internal amp, won't it ignore any power coming from your main amp? And since your speakers are attached to your subwoofer, won't they draw their power from the subwoofer (and not your main amp), hence draining some energy from the subwoofer that the subwoofer possibly could have used for itself? In all of that... the main amp would be useless, except for sending the audio signal itself. Again, I'm a naive noob, so what do I know! lol

Great discussion, very informative!