Ways to connect subwoofer?


I have a Velodyne Minivee powered subwoofer I'd like to add to my stereo. It consists of a Benchmark DAC2 and a pair of Nuforce Ref 9 V2 SE amplifiers powering Focal Micro Utopia Be speakers.

The subwoofer has RCA inputs with high pass RCA outputs. The Nuforce amplifiers have both RCA and XLR inputs. The DAC2 has RCA and XLR outputs.

My question is whether I should use the high pass outputs of the subwoofer or wire the subwoofer in parallel with the amps? The Focal speakers are good to 50Hz, but the sub only has 80Hz high pass. Will running the speakers full range with the sub muddy the sound?

There are three ways to wire it up:

1. XLR to amps and RCA to sub from DAC2.
2. RCA to sub, high pass RCA to amps.

I'm not sure if this way will work but...
3. XLR to amplfiers, RCA out of amp (parallel with Pin 2 on XLR) to subwoofer.

Option three just makes it easier to manage the wiring, but I'm not sure if adding another load to the hot side of the XLR signal will cause issues with the DAC2 output driver.
gherrera1

Showing 3 responses by gherrera1

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning towards option one, however, an 80Hz high pass seems a tad bit high.

I've read quite a few posts about running the sub in parallel with the main speakers full range, but the NuForce amps are balanced; i.e. the negative terminal isn't at ground potential. This eliminates using the high level inputs.

The Benchmark DAC2 has both XLR and RCA outputs that can be used simultaneously.
Al, never occurred to me to wire it up this way. It should work just fine, but I think I'll try the easy way first and use RCA's all around.

Bob, funny you mention Vandersteen because I'd been looking at their passive crossovers due to the length of RCA cables I have available. I think I may be able to move the sub closer to the preamp and amps to use the built in crossover.
Thanks for the links Bob.

I think this weekend I'll be able to get everything connected. I'll try it with and without the sub and try different configurations as well...