Looking to add a subwoofer to my setup

[AutonomousRedux]

Greetings y'all. Been looking in a few places for answers but can't really seem to get one.

 

I'm daily driving a pair of GigaWorks T40 SIIs as my speakers. And I'm actually quite pleased with them. The only thing is the other day I found a Altec Lansing 521 speaker system that had a subwoofer and the bass on that thing made me feel a little tingly.

 

So I'm looking to use my T40s as tweeters and a subwoofer for bass. How would I go about accomplishing this, and what subwoofer would be recommended?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[GuiltySpark_]

For powered desktop speakers like that you want something with line level input and output, so you can connect the subwoofer "inline" between your PC and speakers. 

 

For example, the Monoprice 9723 has this. (edit, seems its out of stock)

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9723

 

[GuiltySpark_]

I suppose if your motherboard has a subwoofer analog out you could use that with any small 8-12" sub, then it would just come down to configuring your sound settings to make use of it.

[AutonomousRedux]

17 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

For powered desktop speakers like that you want something with line level input and output, so you can connect the subwoofer "inline" between your PC and speakers. 

 

For example, the Monoprice 9723 has this. (edit, seems its out of stock)

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9723

 

How would I connect my speakers to that sub? Left speaker connects to right speaker, which connects to the motherboard (Asus Strix B550-A) with a single aux cable.

[GuiltySpark_]

5 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

How would I connect my speakers to that sub? They only have one aux cable going from the right speaker to the motherboard (Asus Strix B550-A).

Well, you can't as its out of stock. If it wasn't, you do what I suggested and run your motherboard 3.5mm to RCA to the sub, then RCA to 3.5mm to the input on the speakers. The sub sits "inline". 

[AutonomousRedux]

7 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Well, you can't as its out of stock. If it wasn't, you do what I suggested and run your motherboard 3.5mm to RCA to the sub, then RCA to 3.5mm to the input on the speakers. The sub sits "inline". 

What I mean is I'm seeing a left and right in and out. Does it matter which one I use?

[cmndr]

not sure what your budget is. I've bought things like a SVS PB1000 (non pro) off CL/FB Market for around $300. Also bought SVS sales subs (SB1000) for around $350ish. 

You shouldn't need line level inputs, worst case scenario, $2-5ish splitter RCA Y cable and you play with the crossover on the sub. 

[AutonomousRedux]

4 hours ago, cmndr said:

not sure what your budget is. I've bought things like a SVS PB1000 (non pro) off CL/FB Market for around $300. Also bought SVS sales subs (SB1000) for around $350ish. 

You shouldn't need line level inputs, worst case scenario, $2-5ish splitter RCA Y cable and you play with the crossover on the sub. 

Would you just y-split, one to the speakers, one to the trigger input? Or would you need to do both the L and R inputs?

[cmndr]

23 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

Would you just y-split, one to the speakers, one to the trigger input? Or would you need to do both the L and R inputs?

You'd y split the aux cable and then go from the second aux to the subwoofer with two RCA cables. Generally Aux = L+R RCA cables. These are all analog so no messy converters are needed. 
 

subwoofers usually play the combined low frequency sound signal from both the left and right channels. Often this is identical for the lowest of frequencies but sometimes the "higher" low frequency signals (think 100Hz) might be present on one channel but not the other. 

A pair of Y splitters would allow you to essentially send the same signal to all of the speakers. 

If you're using a computer with an appropriate sound processor (can include onboard sound) you can use subwoofer out and configure the signals going from each channel which obviates this (which is the "better" way to handle the issue). 
 

[AutonomousRedux]

17 minutes ago, cmndr said:

You'd y split the aux cable and then go from the second aux to the subwoofer with two RCA cables. Generally Aux = L+R RCA cables. These are all analog so no messy converters are needed. 
 

subwoofers usually play the combined low frequency sound signal from both the left and right channels. Often this is identical for the lowest of frequencies but sometimes the "higher" low frequency signals (think 100Hz) might be present on one channel but not the other. 

A pair of Y splitters would allow you to essentially send the same signal to all of the speakers. 

If you're using a computer with an appropriate sound processor (can include onboard sound) you can use subwoofer out and configure the signals going from each channel which obviates this (which is the "better" way to handle the issue). 
 

So the way it would work for me would be I would Y split from my motherboard. One branch goes to my speakers. The other I would split again and send to the L and R of the subwoofer, correct?

[cmndr]

3 hours ago, AutonomousRedux said:

So the way it would work for me would be I would Y split from my motherboard. One branch goes to my speakers. The other I would split again and send to the L and R of the subwoofer, correct?

There's several ways and that's one of them. 

 

If your computer has the ability to do an active crossover, that's ideal. I mostly use an AVR but I think the idea would be:


1. Open up realtek sound config (or whatever you have), tell it there's a subwoofer (might be 2.1 as an option), set the cross over to around 100Hz, then try to level set the subwoofer and the speakers so that they have similar loudness where you sit. You might have to reassign the line out/sound out aux ports on the motherboard. Think 1 going to your speakers and then another going to your subwoofer (potentially via an aux to RCA connector, if you're going from the motherboard directly like this you don't need dual RCA to aux just one)

There's also the option of using an AVR or a receiver, this has its own pros and cons. 

 

Sending the same signal and then fiddling with the crossover knob on the subwoofer is "good enough" in many cases though. It'll "always" work. 
 

 

some gotchas - make sure your L+R speakers aren't set as "large" or "full range", sometimes the "center" out is shared with the subwoofer. 

As an FYI I've never used onboard sound for a multi-channel set up, I went straight to a $$$ AVR. 

[Omon_Ra]

3 hours ago, AutonomousRedux said:

So the way it would work for me would be I would Y split from my motherboard. One branch goes to my speakers. The other I would split again and send to the L and R of the subwoofer, correct?

3.5mm to RCA cable goes from headphone out on PC to 'Line In' RCA inputs on subwoofer. RCA to RCA (if you still have the RCA to 3.5mm adapter from the speakers) or another 3.5mm to RCA cable, but this one you go from the 'Line Out' RCA jacks on subwoofer to the 3.5mm aux in on your speakers. You could alternatively use an RCA to 3.5mm female cord and connect the 3.5mm cable from your speakers that usually goes to your PC to that one. The 3.5mm plug/jack carries both left and right channels on a single connection, where RCA has a dedicated connection for right and left.

 

Most home theater subs will have in/out RCA jacks, however many budget ones have only have mono RCA input, so just make sure you check photos of the input/output board before you buy. Also depends on your budget for the subwoofer.

[AutonomousRedux]

15 hours ago, Omon_Ra said:

3.5mm to RCA cable goes from headphone out on PC to 'Line In' RCA inputs on subwoofer. RCA to RCA (if you still have the RCA to 3.5mm adapter from the speakers) or another 3.5mm to RCA cable, but this one you go from the 'Line Out' RCA jacks on subwoofer to the 3.5mm aux in on your speakers. You could alternatively use an RCA to 3.5mm female cord and connect the 3.5mm cable from your speakers that usually goes to your PC to that one. The 3.5mm plug/jack carries both left and right channels on a single connection, where RCA has a dedicated connection for right and left.

 

Most home theater subs will have in/out RCA jacks, however many budget ones have only have mono RCA input, so just make sure you check photos of the input/output board before you buy. Also depends on your budget for the subwoofer.

So, if I were to use this subwoofer as an example, I would use the green port on my mother and run this splitter to the input on the subwoofer. I would then use a second splitter of the same type to run from the output of the subwoofer to the input of my speakers, correct? Something along the lines of this image?

 

[AutonomousRedux]

16 hours ago, cmndr said:

There's several ways and that's one of them. 

 

If your computer has the ability to do an active crossover, that's ideal. I mostly use an AVR but I think the idea would be:


1. Open up realtek sound config (or whatever you have), tell it there's a subwoofer (might be 2.1 as an option), set the cross over to around 100Hz, then try to level set the subwoofer and the speakers so that they have similar loudness where you sit. You might have to reassign the line out/sound out aux ports on the motherboard. Think 1 going to your speakers and then another going to your subwoofer (potentially via an aux to RCA connector, if you're going from the motherboard directly like this you don't need dual RCA to aux just one)

There's also the option of using an AVR or a receiver, this has its own pros and cons. 

 

Sending the same signal and then fiddling with the crossover knob on the subwoofer is "good enough" in many cases though. It'll "always" work. 
 

 

some gotchas - make sure your L+R speakers aren't set as "large" or "full range", sometimes the "center" out is shared with the subwoofer. 

As an FYI I've never used onboard sound for a multi-channel set up, I went straight to a $$$ AVR. 

Would something along the lines of this work just fine?

[cmndr]

Something like that would pretty much work. Be vaguely aware than a standard 2 channel aux cable carries two audio channels (usually matching to L+R). By convention Red = Right channel. 

 

The RCA cable would go to line-in. If it's from a subwoofer out port then you only need one. If it's split off from the L+R then you want both the L+R RCA connectors. Tweak the gain appropriately for either. 

 

As an FYI there's a BUNCH of different valid ways to set this up. The only real "extra credit" thing is tweaking the crossover on the desktop L+R speakers so it's a bit higher so the L+R have a reduced load since tiny speakers tend to struggle when pumping out bass (or tweaking it to help counter room modes)

 

Using splitters from the source (computer) is fine. If the sub has an RCA out you can also do RCA to aux - https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Compatible-Smartphones-Tablets-Speakers/dp/B000I23TTE

For the most part with RCA and aux if it fits it works, just know that "merging" channels can make things a bit mucky and a mono RCA splitter can "merge" a pair of L+R channels which you generally don't want to do (not an issue if you're just going into the subwoofer and it handles that all)

[AutonomousRedux]

11 minutes ago, cmndr said:

The RCA cable would go to line-in. If it's from a subwoofer out port then you only need one. If it's split off from the L+R then you want both the L+R RCA connectors. Tweak the gain appropriately for either. 

 

As an FYI there's a BUNCH of different valid ways to set this up. The only real "extra credit" thing is tweaking the crossover on the desktop L+R speakers so it's a bit higher so the L+R have a reduced load since tiny speakers tend to struggle when pumping out bass (or tweaking it to help counter room modes)

When you say "If it's from a subwoofer out port then you only need one", what do you mean by that? The subwoofer in the example (and most from what I could find) have the RCA split in to L + R on both the input and output. In this case, I would have to go from aux to split RCA, then split RCA back to aux to the primary speaker. Or so I'm assuming.

[cmndr]

13 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

When you say "If it's from a subwoofer out port then you only need one", what do you mean by that? The subwoofer in the example (and most from what I could find) have the RCA split in to L + R on both the input and output. In this case, I would have to go from aux to split RCA, then split RCA back to aux to the primary speaker. Or so I'm assuming.

I'm at work so I won't be going MS paint extraordinate here but... 

 

Computer with multiple outs and a configuration for a subwoofer in software (e.g. crossover set to 60-120Hz in software, crossover knob on sub set to its highest setting e.g. 200Hz)
  L+R out <- aux cable -> L+R speakers
  center/sub out <- aux to RCA cable -> subwoofer [OK to NOT plug into both the L+R on the sub]
  
Computer with only one out [send full signal to L+R and then truncate the high frequencies to the subwoofer with its crossover knob]
  L+R out <- aux splitter cable ->
    L+R speakers via an aux cable
    subwoofer via aux to L+R RCA [only plugging in one channel can at times make things weird]

[AutonomousRedux]

2 minutes ago, cmndr said:

I'm at work so I won't be going MS paint extraordinate here but... 

 

Computer with multiple outs and a configuration for a subwoofer in software (e.g. crossover set to 60-120Hz in software, crossover knob on sub set to its highest setting e.g. 200Hz)
  L+R out <- aux cable -> L+R speakers
  center/sub out <- aux to RCA cable -> subwoofer [OK to NOT plug into both the L+R on the sub]
  
Computer with only one out [send full signal to L+R and then truncate the high frequencies to the subwoofer with its crossover knob]
  L+R out <- aux splitter cable ->
    L+R speakers via an aux cable
    subwoofer via aux to L+R RCA [only plugging in one channel can at times make things weird]

Aight. Grazzi.

[Omon_Ra]

1 hour ago, AutonomousRedux said:

Would something along the lines of this work just fine?

-SNIP-

 

Bingo, that's it.

 

43 minutes ago, cmndr said:

I'm at work so I won't be going MS paint extraordinate here but... 

 

Computer with multiple outs and a configuration for a subwoofer in software (e.g. crossover set to 60-120Hz in software, crossover knob on sub set to its highest setting e.g. 200Hz)
  L+R out <- aux cable -> L+R speakers
  center/sub out <- aux to RCA cable -> subwoofer [OK to NOT plug into both the L+R on the sub]

I would avoid this setup honestly. On board multi-channel is generally not a great experience, and then the software on top of that is not great either Most subwoofers that have RCA ins and outs will have a built in crossover. Use THAT for your crossover, not software. But you are indeed correct that a proper crossover when mixing a sub and 'mains' is always a good idea. I just prefer hardware crossovers over software. Not to mention the signal chain makes more sense. Full spectrum signal from PC to subwoofer, lows stay at subwoofer, mids/highs go through to main speakers. It can take some fiddling to get the crossover right, but generally 100-150hz is a good spot to start. You want the bottom end of your speakers to just cover the top end of the subwoofer. So say your subwoofer frequency range is 40hz to 250hz, and your main speakers are 100hz to 20khz. Set your subwoofer crossover at ~150hz and you won't have a gap in between the sub and mains.

[cmndr]

29 minutes ago, Omon_Ra said:

I would avoid this setup honestly. On board multi-channel is generally not a great experience, and then the software on top of that is not great either Most subwoofers that have RCA ins and outs will have a built in crossover. Use THAT for your crossover, not software. But you are indeed correct that a proper crossover when mixing a sub and 'mains' is always a good idea. I just prefer hardware crossovers over software. Not to mention the signal chain makes more sense. Full spectrum signal from PC to subwoofer, lows stay at subwoofer, mids/highs go through to main speakers. It can take some fiddling to get the crossover right, but generally 100-150hz is a good spot to start. You want the bottom end of your speakers to just cover the top end of the subwoofer. So say your subwoofer frequency range is 40hz to 250hz, and your main speakers are 100hz to 20khz. Set your subwoofer crossover at ~150hz and you won't have a gap in between the sub and mains.

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right. 

As stated earlier, I skipped straight to an AVR. I have 10 speakers, 4 subwoofers and 3 bass shakers that I'm fiddling with
In theory doing a crossover in software should be pretty "basic" though. 

 

I had always assumed that the L+R would get the full range doing what you mentioned though a chatGPT check says it does a high pass to the speakers. 

[AutonomousRedux]

5 hours ago, Omon_Ra said:

Snip

 

5 hours ago, cmndr said:

Snip

What would you two recommend for a subwoofer that's around $200 or less? Would this be an alright idea? 

[Omon_Ra]

43 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

 

What would you two recommend for a subwoofer that's around $200 or less? Would this be an alright idea? 

I was going to post, 'pretty much any of the Monoprice subs' XD. I haven't heard them personally, but from everything else I've gotten from them, and generally speaking all subs in that price range are more or less better than nothing and will get you close to where you want. You could maybe get a bit more value with searching for a used subwoofer, but that one is a good entry level sub.

[AutonomousRedux]

21 hours ago, Omon_Ra said:

I was going to post, 'pretty much any of the Monoprice subs' XD. I haven't heard them personally, but from everything else I've gotten from them, and generally speaking all subs in that price range are more or less better than nothing and will get you close to where you want. You could maybe get a bit more value with searching for a used subwoofer, but that one is a good entry level sub.

Hey, uh, let's say, hypothetically: I didn't know how big these subs were gonna be and when I got home with it I considered replacing my printer table with the subwoofer. Would that be a bad idea?

 

Hypothetically of course.

[cmndr]

17 hours ago, AutonomousRedux said:

Hey, uh, let's say, hypothetically: I didn't know how big these subs were gonna be and when I got home with it I considered replacing my printer table with the subwoofer. Would that be a bad idea?

 

Hypothetically of course.

Works well enough. 
Just be aware that anything sensitive to vibration should be a little bit away from a subwoofer. 

These things include: AVRs, computers and probably printers. 

 

And yeah, monoprice has a reputation for "not bad, at lowish prices" Used tends to win though. If you don't need DEEP bass for movies (music seldom goes ultra low) then the monoprice units are likely fine. I'd need to do research for specific units. The default recommendations got messed up during covid. 

 

The subwoofer you linked to looks like it's is rated down to 30Hz which is probably fine. Ported units are bigger and do more bass per $$$ spent. 

 

Here's a review which touches on the sub. It seems "not terrible" - https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=41289#:~:text=The Monolith™ THX®,frequency response from 30Hz ~ 20kHz.

[AutonomousRedux]

45 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Works well enough. 
Just be aware that anything sensitive to vibration should be a little bit away from a subwoofer. 

These things include: AVRs, computers and probably printers. 

 

And yeah, monoprice has a reputation for "not bad, at lowish prices" Used tends to win though. If you don't need DEEP bass for movies (music seldom goes ultra low) then the monoprice units are likely fine. I'd need to do research for specific units. The default recommendations got messed up during covid. 

 

The subwoofer you linked to looks like it's is rated down to 30Hz which is probably fine. Ported units are bigger and do more bass per $$$ spent. 

 

Here's a review which touches on the sub. It seems "not terrible" - https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=41289#:~:text=The Monolith™ THX®,frequency response from 30Hz ~ 20kHz.

Grazzi. Managed to pick up a #9723 for $90 used last night.

 

Really is much larger than I was expecting. ("Subwoofer" I tried for comparison)

 

Anyway, thanks for your and Omon's help. Really do appreciate it.