Arcade

I scanned through a few post and found no mention of my situation.
I have a Sony STR-DE545 receiver and an Infinity BU-1 Sub.
The output on my sony is a single RCA jack.
The low level input on my Sub is Stereo L & R RCA jacks.
I had an old splitter that I used to turn the Sub's end of the cable into two male plugs.
This seems to be working fine, but the connection is not the best it could be, as I am able to stop the sound to the Sub by barely touching the connection.

Is there a connector that is made just for the type of connection I need?

And while I'm thinking about it my frequency knob goes from 20 to 150. What is the normal range setting for this?
and should I use the subs vol. controlls or the receivers?

I just went from Pro Logic to 5.1/DTS and man what a difference. I am re-watching everything just to hear how it was supposed to sound.

ANDREMIKE

You do not need a splitter. One of those inputs should be highlighted in a way to say MONO. Just plug the cable in there.

DigIt

No, what you're doing is typical. Although, if your sub only has one driver, then you do not need to connect both the R and L -- you can just connect the Sub Out to either R or L In and it should be the same. THere may be a small loss of volume, but this can easily be compensated for my turning the sub up a bit. Throw out the y-adaptor.

Quote:

And while I'm thinking about it my frequency knob goes from 20 to 150. What is the normal range setting for this?

I'd say 80-100, but you should set this for your specific home theater. You will need an audio test disc that helps you identify where your main speakers stop working and the sub needs to start picking up their slack, so to speak.

Quote:

and should I use the subs vol. controlls or the receivers?

Either or. Most people would tell you to set the receiver to a middle volume and then make the fine adjustments on the sub itself.

Sorry if I don't make sense, I'm tired right now.

Arcade

Thanks Guys.
I went ahead and put it in the left input and that seems to work fine.

I checked my front surround speakers (Infinity 2002's) and they go from 65Hz to 20KHz. So does this mean the sub should be set around the 65Hz mark?

DigIt

Yes. Well, maybe -- I would try to get some overlap and set it at 70, but again, I'm no expert and I recommend that if you want to do it right you'll use a calibration disc. But yeah, 65-70 should be okay for starters.

Arcade

Thanks DigIt.
I will try to find a disk soon.

bfrank

NO, just turn the freq knob all the way up to 150. The receiver will handle the crossover freq. You will only make a hole between the sub and the spekers if you go lower then the receiver is set. Remember the reciever is sending only lows to the sub and the rest to the fronts. This contol is there for a stereo system and not for 5.1.

As for the RCA the L and R are connected on the pcb so you can use either one.

Arcade

BFrank.
I appreciate the info.
No matter how much I think I know about this stuff I find something new every time I read this group.
Thanks.

Master J

Arcade another aspect to take into account when determining your sub frequency is the frequency range of your front speakers as well. If they cannot run low, I would tend to turn the crosover to the sub up some to compensate for what they cannot deliver. Either way, test various configuartions and find out what sounds the best to you.

J

JLB

But you may in fact have a hole if I read your first post correctly and make some accurate assumptions based on that.

If you have your Mains set to "Large", and your bass management is set to "SW only" and not "both" then you will be missing a good deal of bass information on many movies, as I assume your mains are not truly "full range" speakers. Not many speakers are really capable of handling the full spectrum of sound that the main channels pump out.

In the situation that I describe just above, you will lose a lot of bass on any movie that does not have a .1 LFE track. For example, take Disney's Tarzan, a 5.0 track. Plenty of bass mixed into the main channels, but if you are set to large, and your speakers are not capable enough, they will not be able to handle the bass, and you may not be routing the bass to the subwoofer (i.e., the bass management setting).

I know this is a bit confusing, and I may not have accurately described the situation but I think most people will agree that unless you have full range Mains (i.e., a tower speaker with built in subs, or even just big capable woofers), the typical configuration will be:

Mains (and surrounds and center) - "Small"
Bass Management (whatever your receiver calls it) - "SW"
Subwoofer - I bypass my sub's crossover so it just handles everything sent to it by the receiver. If you don't have a crossover bypass on the sub, you can always set it to something just over what your receiver's crossover is to ensure you output all information sent to it.

Please, other people help me flesh out what I am trying to say......

[Edited by JLB on 05-02-01 at 06:07 AM]

Arcade

JLB.
I do have my mains and surrounds set to small.
And my Sub is set to yes on the reciever.
I am not sure what the crossover is on the receiver.
I read through the manual but found no exlanation of this.

bfrank

You got it right then, It is most likely 80Hz (thx standard) but could be 100.

JLB

Usually you cannot find it in the narrative portion of your manual. It's often buried in the specs at the back. You could always call the manufacturer to find.

However, if you have a crossover bypass on your sub, and it is engaged, then you're all set. The only reason you need to know it now, given your response to me, is if you do not have a bypass on the sub....you'll want to make sure the sub crossover setting is high enough to get everything sent to it (or I guess you could max it).

I question your response on "SW set to yes". Does this mean for your receiver just that you have a sub present?

For bass management, these are the typical options:

SW only
Mains only
Both

I suppose you may mean that you have it set to SW only. But check your system to be sure that there isn't a setting you are missing......

Arcade

You guys are great.
I have it really sounding nice now. I am playing with it between 80 and 100.
I really love to turn up those intro's on the Universal disks like Meet the Parents and Bring it on and have the sound fill up the whole house.
Kind of brings a tear to your eye.
Thanks again for all the help.
Leon.