A new system, and a few basic subwoofer questions...

[maguire]

Hi... I just bought a new system- basic, but I hope good for the money... opinions? My setup consists of a Yamaha 5930 reciever ($179) a Polk rm6005 five-piece speaker set ($149) and a 100 watt Ifinity PS8 Subwoofer (unused display model, it was high up on a living room mock-up display suspended from the store ceiling and never powered on... $75!) Total system cost: 405 before taxes... good deal? Bad deal? Okay deal?

I paired this sub with the speakers because the review at Cnet I read said that they were great speakers, but could benifit from a more powerful sub than the 50 watt one they usually come bundled with... and this one fit the bill in terms of power and cost.

I've connected my high-def cable/dvr box and my xbox 360 to my reciever using only optical audio cables. Thoughts on this?

Finally, I have two questions about subwoofers... which is the best placement for a sub, facing the couch near the front speakers, or behind the couch, so the boom from movie explosions shakes your feet?

This second question is kind of weird- I got the sub home last night, and realized I had forgotten to buy a subwoofer cable... my reciever doesn't have clips for speaker wire to a sub, just the single connection that looks like where component cable goes... so I used a cable I had lying around from my old cable box before I got a dvr box... it was an Acoustic Research cable, and printed on the side of the cable it read "High Definition Video Cable".... but it worked sending sound to the sub just fine... my question is, can using that cable hurt either my subwoofer or reciever? What are the differences in these cables- just the color coded stripes near the gold tips?

Thanks...

 

[Lothar34]

Total system cost: 405 before taxes... good deal? Bad deal? Okay deal?

Well this is a DIY forum... But that sounds like a reasonable price for all that kit.

I've connected my high-def cable/dvr box and my xbox 360 to my reciever using only optical audio cables. Thoughts on this?

Fine.

Finally, I have two questions about subwoofers... which is the best placement for a sub, facing the couch near the front speakers, or behind the couch, so the boom from movie explosions shakes your feet?

It's a matter of personal preference. Try it both ways and see how you like it.

This second question is kind of weird- I got the sub home last night, and realized I had forgotten to buy a subwoofer cable... my reciever doesn't have clips for speaker wire to a sub, just the single connection that looks like where component cable goes... so I used a cable I had lying around from my old cable box before I got a dvr box... it was an Acoustic Research cable, and printed on the side of the cable it read "High Definition Video Cable".... but it worked sending sound to the sub just fine... my question is, can using that cable hurt either my subwoofer or reciever? What are the differences in these cables- just the color coded stripes near the gold tips?

From Crutchfield.com:

Line-level Inputs: The subwoofer has a gold-plated LFE input and gold-plated stereo RCA inputs. If you have a Dolby Digital/DTS receiver or processor with a low-frequency-effects (LFE) output, you should use the LFE input on the subwoofer. If your receiver/processor does not contain a Dolby Digital or DTS processor but has a subwoofer output, you must use the stereo RCA inputs. If the receiver/processor has a mono subwoofer output, a "Y" adapter is recommended to maximize performance.

If you have an LFE output on the back of your receiver, then use one cable to plug into the LFE input on the back of the sub. If the single output on the back of the receiver is NOT an LFE output, then you'll want a Y adapter to split it into the left and right inputs on the back of the sub. The fact that the cable says it's a video cable doesn't matter. Any component (RCA) cable will work.