Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Can I use an rca audio cable for a subwoofer..

...instead of a "subwoofer cable"? Not that I would do it permanently, but I've got a fairly long rca audio cable that I'd like to use to hook up the sub and determine best location. I don't want to have to buy a long sub cable if I'm not going to end up needing the length.

Thanks

Works with no problem...no need for a specific "subwoofer" cable...just a relabeled RCA cable anyway...

If you got it, use it and don't think twice about it.

WhatFurrer

Absolutely! All a "subwoofer cable" is an RCA cable. As long as the RCA cable is of decent quality and in good shape, it will work fine.

It'll be fine. The "subwoofer" cable is just another interconnect. Line level out to an amp in the sub box.

Bren R.

i will back everyone up.. i just bought a 20ft rca cable from radioshack for $8 bucks, and the Y-splitter to put on the end. hooked it to my sub over in the corner, and it works fine. all its doing is carrying a signal, so there is no need for any special equip or high dollar sub cable.

bigjohn

JT, as the previous replies indicated, there would almost certainly be no problem with using that cable(even permanently). Actually "RCA" strictly speaking refers to just the plug, not the wire cable itself, but the term is commonly used to refer to a lightly shielded non-coaxial type cable with RCAs at each end. Speaker cables and interconnects are in general a trivial matter for audio engineers and the connect to a powered sub is the simplest of all since it only has to carry about 20-100Hz. The one problem that could arise on some occasions would be if unusually heavy interference was present and caused a hum or other noise in the sub. Then the use of a coaxial cable, which is more heavily shielded than the usual "RCA" is suggested, but in most cases this isn't necessary.

I have a question about noise susceptability of sub signals. I bought an existing home which had surround sound wiring in place. It appears to be standard Home Depot 16-4 in-wall speaker wire. Fortunately, they ran enought runs to the back wall for me to bi-wire the speakers to compensate for the fact that it's only 16 gauge wire. On to the question - I'm going to use one of these runs for my sub so I'll have an RCA cable from the receiver to the wall-plate and another RCA cable from the other wall-plate to the sub. How likely is it that the fact that the in-wall wiring isn't coax will cause noise issues? The run is probably 40 ft. and it was installed when the place was built so it was inspected. I'm assuming that there are spacing requirements between high voltage and low voltage wiring. Has anyone run into any problems with a setup like this? Thanks.

Pete

Pete, I don't think that it's possible to precisely answer your "How likely" question. If you've examined the "RCA cable"(I assume that you're not talking about the 16-4) and verified that it isn't coaxial(maybe a bit unusual that they wouldn't have used coaxial for a long run possibly near power lines), the shielding may or may not be adequate. Hopefully the distance that it runs close to and parallel to lines carrying power isn't a cause of audible interference. Since it's already there, try it and analyse the results.

In fact Hsu Subwoofers states to use a standard mono RCA interconnect, nothing special is needed.

You can use coaxial cable if you want, just get coaxial to rca adapter and cable splitters. My sub rocks, now some people tell you use a mono inpute amd go in sub through the right. That is suppose to bridge the amp, but in testing I use a y-adapter 1 female to 2 males and I get more power, go figure.