While home theater and AV receivers are hooked to the subwoofer with a single interconnection cable, stereo receivers and pre-amps do not have the same bass management options. AV receivers for example let you direct the bass frequencies to the speakers through a channel that tunes the frequency ranges before they reach the output. In a stereo amplifier setup, a more high level (or surface level) of connections are needed due to this lack of internal bass management. When connecting a stereo setup, due to the two channels, the connections will all need to be doubled up. Some subwoofers come with internal amplifiers already integrated but if yours does not have one or your internal amplifier is not as strong, you can opt to integrate a separate stereo amplifier into your sound system. If you have a two-channel integrated amplifier or a two-channel stereo receiver without an RCA subwoofer output to go to a powered subwoofer, this guide will show you how to integrate that with a two-channel integrated amplifier with only the B speaker’s output. The Speaker A output will be connected to front end speakers.
Hardware Requirements Before You Begin
Before you begin, you need to check the following on your two-channel stereo receiver or two-channel stereo integrated amplifier (such as these): you must have speakers A and B on this device. In this guide, your speaker A output will feed into your front speaker setup. Your speaker B output is what we will use to integrate it with the active amplifier built-in subwoofer. Head onto the back of your two-channel receiver amplifier and notice that there is no subwoofer output visible here. Instead, you will find the speaker A output (right and left) and the speaker B output (right and left). On your powered subwoofer, instead of just the RCA low-level inputs, you will need to have high-level inputs to connect the left and right speaker wires. Head onto the back of your powered subwoofer and find the left and right high-level input ports. Beyond this, the other equipment you will need for this setup is two sets of two cable speaker wires. Once you have ensured that your equipment meets the above two conditions and you’ve got your speaker wires ready to go, you can proceed with the connections outlined ahead.
Set-Up
Verdict
Once you have completed the initial setup, you will have to listen to a variety of songs with different bass levels to go back and adjust the cross over frequency and subwoofer volume. This will take a while to optimize just right for the majority of the music or sound you intend to listen to. The crossover frequencies specified in the setup procedure earlier are the common standard frequencies for subwoofer and stereo amplifier integration. For your particular taste, however, you may choose to tweak these a bit.
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