LFE vs. Line In?

[Cheerdude]

Hi all...

With the installation of a Reference RF-52 II 5 speaker system, I decided to keep my RW-10 subwoofer (at least, for the time being). However, in wiring up the system, the installer had Line In cables put in instead of a LFE (which is what I had previously). Part of this is my fault for a) not having the subwoofer in place when the install took place & not telling the installer what I had/wanted.

I still need to get the subwoofer setup and to have the speakers "tuned" through the receiver... but my question is this? Is there a difference between LFE & Line In? If I keep the Line In, do I need to do anything "differently" with the subwoofer or with tuning?

Thanks,

Jeff

[StephenM]

From what I gather from the manual, there is not an important distinction between the two. So long as everything is calibrated properly, I'd expect you're good to go.

[mustang guy]

LFE is only an acronym for Low Frequency Effects. Surround systems use this to send the low frequency stuff to the subwoofer. Line in can mean a lot of things. What you want to make sure of is that your AVR or Receiver RCA gets to the subwoofer RCA in. I assume you have a wall plate that says line in. Then at some other location you have a subwoofer location with another wall plate with the other end of that with another RCA connection. Just connect your Receiver or AVR from the LFE RCA to the wall plate, then connect the other wall plate RCA to the subwoofer RCA in.

[CECAA850]

Jeff, is this a 2 channel setup, HT, or combo?

[Quiet_Hollow]

Is there a difference between LFE & Line In?

The difference between the "LFE" and "Line In" regarding the RW-10 is this: Signals routed through the "LFE" input by-pass the subwoofer amplifier's low-pass filter. Any filtering will have to be handled exclusively by the receiver when that input is used.

[pite]

Hi all...

With the installation of a Reference RF-52 II 5 speaker system, I decided to keep my RW-10 subwoofer (at least, for the time being). However, in wiring up the system, the installer had Line In cables put in instead of a LFE (which is what I had previously). Part of this is my fault for a) not having the subwoofer in place when the install took place & not telling the installer what I had/wanted.

I still need to get the subwoofer setup and to have the speakers "tuned" through the receiver... but my question is this? Is there a difference between LFE & Line In? If I keep the Line In, do I need to do anything "differently" with the subwoofer or with tuning?

Thanks,

Jeff

@ Jeff,

LFE - Low Frequency Effects: Most of today's movies have LFE soundtrack separately for 'low frequency effects' and for example big explosions or thunders or other low frequency sounds are recorded on it.

Line In - While, RF-52 II are tower speakers, they could be still considered as 'small' speaker as they can't handle low frequency as good as a subwoofer (between 10Hz to 120Hz range). Let's assume that you want to play120Hz and lower frequency through subwoofer, where this connection comes handy.

LFE + Main: Some AVRs e.g. Denon has a option of LFE or LFE+Main. When you select LFE+Main, you can play dedicated LFE track as well as divert all frequency below crossover frequency from mains/center/surrounds to subwoofer and take advantage of subwoofer both in the case of LFE and mains (Line-In).

Hope this helps!

[mustang guy]

LFE + Main: Some AVRs e.g. Denon has a option of LFE or LFE+Main. When you select LFE+Main, you can play dedicated LFE track as well as divert all frequency below crossover frequency from mains/center/surrounds to subwoofer and take advantage of subwoofer both in the case of LFE and mains (Line-In).

Onkyo/Integra doesn't ask you for that. They simply do it for you. You are right on. In Onkyo/Integra, when you say you have full range speakers, or large speakers, the sub only gets LFE, which only exists in 5.1 or higher signals. If you want sub stuff sent to all channel stereo or plain stereo, you better have at least some of the speakers as small.