11-03-2008, 09:53 AM

I just got a new speaker set for my home theater system; when I tried to connect the subwoofer to the existing receiver/DVD player there is no where to plug it in. The new subwoofer has a regular composite jack (standard A/V RCA wire), and the receiver has a subwoofer jack except it's for speaker wire, not composite cable.

What do I do?

11-03-2008, 12:09 PM

That's odd. I would have thought every home theater receiver made in the last 10 years would have a RCA subwoofer line level input.

Most of the jacks on the back of the receiver are in pairs, but this input would be by itself since the sub is only a single channel.

What is the make and model of the receiver?

11-03-2008, 04:36 PM

It's a Pioneer XV HTD540, about 5 years old, home theater in a box.

I moved and now I want to mount the speakers on the wall, but the speakers that shipped with this DVD/Receiver are too big. I bought a Sony 5.1 speaker set (I forget the model) that has smaller wall-mountable speakers; and a powered sub.

11-03-2008, 05:15 PM

If it was a box set that came with speakers originally, then you may be somewhat limited in what you can do.

Does the powered subwoofer have speaker level inputs?

11-03-2008, 07:00 PM

The back of the sub has a level knob, a bass boost switch, a phase switch (normal/reverse), power save switch, line in jack (composite), and a power button.

Now that I'm home from work I can give some more details.

11-03-2008, 07:10 PM

Check your receiver again. Normally all of your regular speaker will use standard speakers, whereas your bass/woofer will use an rca plug. Check the back and see you see a monitor input, that takes an rca plug.

11-03-2008, 07:27 PM

No Dice.

I have the red & black speaker wire inputs for the surround speakers, and they're all labeled from the factory: Front Right, Front Left, Center, Subwoofer, Surround Right, Surround Left.

I also have a component out, rca video out, 2 rca audio in's, rca audio out (it's for only one aux setting, so it wouldn't work for the sub) and one coaxial audio in (it's an rca jack not coax jack though it's labeled coaxial in). Then there's a digital audio jack, and an fm & am antenna jacks.

11-03-2008, 11:24 PM

You may be 'up the creek'.

Almost all receivers have a line level output jack for a sub.

Almost all powered subs have a speaker level input option. (This isn't the most desired option as sound quality is slightly lower, but it works.)

If the design of either one of these items was a little more flexible, you'd be okay. But these two are polar opposites.

Can you return the speaker set for something with speaker level inputs?

One final idea... This is a common problem in car audio systems. Factory radios rarely have RCA line out jacks for subs. They sell converters that convert speaker level signal to line level signal. They are designed for vehicle applications, but I would bet you could figure something out.

Here's an example of what might work...

Amazon.com: speaker level line converter

11-08-2008, 01:00 PM

Okay,
I cut the head off of the composite cable that came with the sub, inside was two copper wires, one for the prong part (the positive?), and one for the other part (negative?). I put the positive one into the red speaker jack, the negative in the black, and the sub works. However, the sub is very strong even at the lowest level setting. Is there a power difference between the composite wire and speaker wire outputs that I should be concerned about?

11-08-2008, 01:52 PM

This is fairly easy to fix. Go to Radio Shack and buy the RCA Y Cable that has 2 speaker wires on one end and the RCA Jack on the other. Plug the two speaker wires into the receiver and then run RCA cable to the sub. Problem solved.

6-Ft. Shielded Cable, RCA Plug to Tinned Wires - RadioShack.com