So I have two tower speakers with seperate unpowered woofers, Yamaha model NS-A1738. They have 15" woofers, so I am going to use them as my front right and left surround speakers, and also together as my subwoofer. The speakers have two sets of connectors on the back, one for the upper portion, and one for the subs.
Connecting them as right and left surround speakers to my Yamaha HTR-5835 reciever is simple enough, but how do I connect them both as subs (or I guess, more accurately, as one big sub) to the single subwoofer connection on my reciever?
I'm a newbie, so forgive me if I'm using incorrect terms, etc.- I hope you get the gist of my question...
Connecting them as right and left surround speakers to my Yamaha HTR-5835 reciever is simple enough, but how do I connect them both as subs (or I guess, more accurately, as one big sub) to the single subwoofer connection on my reciever?
I'm a newbie, so forgive me if I'm using incorrect terms, etc.- I hope you get the gist of my question...
Hi maguire,
First thoughts would be to connect them in parallel. However, there are conditions.
Firstly, are these 8 ohm speakers? With both connected to one amp, each in the normal way, the amp should be capable of driving 4 ohms.
Are these speakers crossed over? If your mids are not producing bass, the performance of the new 'fronts' may lack a little. Considering the woofer is side mounted, the crossover frequency is probably low anyway.
Are you certain that the mids/tweet are isolated from the woofer by way of these separate connections?
Do you have the capability to adjust the level of the bass independently to suit your setup?
First thoughts would be to connect them in parallel. However, there are conditions.
Firstly, are these 8 ohm speakers? With both connected to one amp, each in the normal way, the amp should be capable of driving 4 ohms.
Are these speakers crossed over? If your mids are not producing bass, the performance of the new 'fronts' may lack a little. Considering the woofer is side mounted, the crossover frequency is probably low anyway.
Are you certain that the mids/tweet are isolated from the woofer by way of these separate connections?
Do you have the capability to adjust the level of the bass independently to suit your setup?
INDM:
Thanks for the response! Little embarrassing, but I don't know what "connect them in parallel" means... how exactly does one do this?
The speakers are 6 OHM's... but again, I have no idea what an OHM is. As for if they are crossed over... way over my head.
Here's a link to the Yamaha description page- you can click on "specifications" and it gives you even more detail...
http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/Features/?gSPK00010NS-A1738
Also, here is a link to the specifications for my reciever (although this appears to be one of those theater-in-a-box setups, the reciever in that package is identical to mine)
http://www.ugotadeal.com/product_info.php?products_id=1794
I'm a real newbie... any advice phrased in a more tech way than "you should take the speaker wire from one sub and connect it to..." is going to be out of my league for right now... it's not that the tech itself is beyond my grasp, I'm pretty good at this kind of stuff, and much of it seems to be designed fairly intuitively, it's just that I know like zero of the technical terms and lingo... thanks again!
Thanks for the response! Little embarrassing, but I don't know what "connect them in parallel" means... how exactly does one do this?
The speakers are 6 OHM's... but again, I have no idea what an OHM is. As for if they are crossed over... way over my head.
Here's a link to the Yamaha description page- you can click on "specifications" and it gives you even more detail...
http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/Features/?gSPK00010NS-A1738
Also, here is a link to the specifications for my reciever (although this appears to be one of those theater-in-a-box setups, the reciever in that package is identical to mine)
http://www.ugotadeal.com/product_info.php?products_id=1794
I'm a real newbie... any advice phrased in a more tech way than "you should take the speaker wire from one sub and connect it to..." is going to be out of my league for right now... it's not that the tech itself is beyond my grasp, I'm pretty good at this kind of stuff, and much of it seems to be designed fairly intuitively, it's just that I know like zero of the technical terms and lingo... thanks again!
OK, um where to start.
Paralleling is where you connect two speakers to one amp, just as if the other wasn't there. ie, they are both connected to the same terminals on the back of the amp, each speaker's + to the amp +, each - to the amp's -. The amp would drive both of them, but this is harder for it to do. I was concerned that this may harm the amp.
Ohms (for all intents and purposes here), refers to how hard the amp needs to work driving the speakers, or to put it another way, how much of a drain they'll be to the amp. If your speakers are truly 6 ohms like the specs say, then putting two together would likely be too much for your amp.
(Technical alert
...I suspect the 6 ohms is only due to the 1 1/2 way midrange action. Does anyone know these woofers?)
Do your woofers have a label on the magnet that might say 8 ohms or say 8 and then the greek letter omega?
On the other hand, if you just leave these speakers entirely intact and use them as fronts with the sub action turned off (if your amp has that function), then you'll get full bass for the fronts anyway. Maybe this would be OK.
One disadvantage is that with the centre and surrounds, the total sound would be louder and you might be wanting for a little greater bass volume to compensate for the smaller centre and surround speakers. The surrounds will be relatively quiet however, so no real problem there. Maybe you could play with the centre volume setting. Many centre speakers seem a little loud to me.
One other issue is that the speakers would naturally have electronics within that separate the bass and treble to the proper speakers within the box. We'd want to make sure this doesn't interfere with the amp splitting the bass off before amplifying the signal for the sub.
Before going in to this, would you mind letting us know what you expect to actually achieve here? I'm not entirely sure where to go with this
Paralleling is where you connect two speakers to one amp, just as if the other wasn't there. ie, they are both connected to the same terminals on the back of the amp, each speaker's + to the amp +, each - to the amp's -. The amp would drive both of them, but this is harder for it to do. I was concerned that this may harm the amp.
Ohms (for all intents and purposes here), refers to how hard the amp needs to work driving the speakers, or to put it another way, how much of a drain they'll be to the amp. If your speakers are truly 6 ohms like the specs say, then putting two together would likely be too much for your amp.
(Technical alert
...I suspect the 6 ohms is only due to the 1 1/2 way midrange action. Does anyone know these woofers?)Do your woofers have a label on the magnet that might say 8 ohms or say 8 and then the greek letter omega?
On the other hand, if you just leave these speakers entirely intact and use them as fronts with the sub action turned off (if your amp has that function), then you'll get full bass for the fronts anyway. Maybe this would be OK.
One disadvantage is that with the centre and surrounds, the total sound would be louder and you might be wanting for a little greater bass volume to compensate for the smaller centre and surround speakers. The surrounds will be relatively quiet however, so no real problem there. Maybe you could play with the centre volume setting. Many centre speakers seem a little loud to me.
One other issue is that the speakers would naturally have electronics within that separate the bass and treble to the proper speakers within the box. We'd want to make sure this doesn't interfere with the amp splitting the bass off before amplifying the signal for the sub.
Before going in to this, would you mind letting us know what you expect to actually achieve here? I'm not entirely sure where to go with this
Thanks again for the info indm...
Basically, I'm trying to make a surround-sound setup- I have those two Yamaha towers as my front right and left, and since they have 15" side-mounted woofers, was hoping to use them as my sub too (in a mirror configuration on either side of my TV), since I want to keep my space as minimal as possible... it would be great not to have a seperate subwoofer hanging around. I figure a center channel mounted on my plasma stand and two rear satellites will round out my setup...
My space is fairly compact, so a little bass will go a long way...
Basically, I'm trying to make a surround-sound setup- I have those two Yamaha towers as my front right and left, and since they have 15" side-mounted woofers, was hoping to use them as my sub too (in a mirror configuration on either side of my TV), since I want to keep my space as minimal as possible... it would be great not to have a seperate subwoofer hanging around. I figure a center channel mounted on my plasma stand and two rear satellites will round out my setup...
My space is fairly compact, so a little bass will go a long way...
There are many opinions out there and mine is only one, but I have always felt that a subwoofer in a home theatre setup is an option not a necessity
One benefit of the separate sub is that you can use little cube speakers around your room, and make up for the loss of bass with a sub. IMO it's better to use a substantial speaker to start with, like you have there.
If it was me, I think I'd use the fronts as is. I'd turn the surrounds up just enough to give ambience. I'd turn the centre channel up just enough to begin to fill the hole, if you can take my meaning. I feel if it is standing out, its too loud.
BTW, if you do go for a centre channel, it might be worth considering one that resembles your fronts, perhaps there is a companion unit or one using the same tweeters you could find.
One benefit of the separate sub is that you can use little cube speakers around your room
, and make up for the loss of bass with a sub. IMO it's better to use a substantial speaker to start with, like you have there.If it was me, I think I'd use the fronts as is. I'd turn the surrounds up just enough to give ambience. I'd turn the centre channel up just enough to begin to fill the hole, if you can take my meaning. I feel if it is standing out, its too loud.
BTW, if you do go for a centre channel, it might be worth considering one that resembles your fronts, perhaps there is a companion unit or one using the same tweeters you could find.
Hi,
You do not use your recievers sub output, you turn it off if you can.
Instead you route the sub-channel signal to the left and right main
speakers. Left and right should be set to large, the centre and rear
small.
The L + R speakers inputs are parralled, like normal bi-wire speakers.
It seems your reciever has a discrete powered subwoofer channel,
(and probably also has a line level sub-out for powered subwoofers)
However this is not suitable for use with your speakers as they have
a crossover and things will likely simply mess up.
/sreten.
You do not use your recievers sub output, you turn it off if you can.
Instead you route the sub-channel signal to the left and right main
speakers. Left and right should be set to large, the centre and rear
small.
The L + R speakers inputs are parralled, like normal bi-wire speakers.
It seems your reciever has a discrete powered subwoofer channel,
(and probably also has a line level sub-out for powered subwoofers)
However this is not suitable for use with your speakers as they have
a crossover and things will likely simply mess up.
/sreten.Hi,
You do not use your recievers sub output, you turn it off if you can.
Instead you route the sub-channel to left and right main speakers.
Left and right should be set to large, the centre and rear small.
The L + R speakers inputs are parralled, like normal bi-wire speakers.
It seems your reciever has a discrete powered subwoofer channel,
(and probably also has a line level sub-out for powered subwoofers)
However this is not suitable for use with your speakers as they have
a crossover and things will likely simply mess up.
/sreten.
You do not use your recievers sub output, you turn it off if you can.
Instead you route the sub-channel to left and right main speakers.
Left and right should be set to large, the centre and rear small.
The L + R speakers inputs are parralled, like normal bi-wire speakers.
It seems your reciever has a discrete powered subwoofer channel,
(and probably also has a line level sub-out for powered subwoofers)
However this is not suitable for use with your speakers as they have
a crossover and things will likely simply mess up.
/sreten.Also in the owners manual (from the link you posted) it shows you how to set these speakers up for bi-amping, there are jumper bars that needs to be removed from the binding post area.
If I am reading the manual right the woofer is crossed at 850hz, this sounds too high, in addition this means that the 6.5" is high passed at 850hz which means if you use the recievers internal xover(bi-amping) which is probably around 100hz you will lose 100hz-850hz from the mid. Unless removing the jumper bars also bypasses the highpass portion of the mid's bandpass filter, enabling it to play all low frequencies.
Like was mentioned leave it alone, you'll get just as much bass from the way it is setup, and it is stereo bass.
If I am reading the manual right the woofer is crossed at 850hz, this sounds too high, in addition this means that the 6.5" is high passed at 850hz which means if you use the recievers internal xover(bi-amping) which is probably around 100hz you will lose 100hz-850hz from the mid. Unless removing the jumper bars also bypasses the highpass portion of the mid's bandpass filter, enabling it to play all low frequencies.
Like was mentioned leave it alone, you'll get just as much bass from the way it is setup, and it is stereo bass.
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