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Subwoofer advice


soulpianoman

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Hi. I have decided that I would like to supplement my Heresy II's with a subwoofer. I am running a very simple CD only system with a homebrew SET amp which is integrated and only has inputs for the CD player and left and right speaker outs. My cd player is a Marantz SA8260. Can anyone suggest the best way (or just a good way) to connect/integrate a subwoofer into this system. Thanks for any help.

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On 1/25/2005 2:21:39 AM soulpianoman wrote:

Hi. I have decided that I would like to supplement my Heresy II's with a subwoofer. I am running a very simple CD only system with a homebrew SET amp which is integrated and only has inputs for the CD player and left and right speaker outs.

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From personal experience, Heresys need a subwoofer to come alive. If I understand correctly, your SET integrated is being used to control the system's volume.

Your greatest performance gain would be using an active crossover... that is if you'd filter out the bass frequencies (high-pass) before you send the signal to the tube amplifier. This way your SET amp's load will be reduced... and you'll gain quite a bit in system dynamics.

The problem I see is in the fact you are using an integrate, probably without a preamp out... and therefore you don't readily have access to a volume controlled line level signal?

If your CD player has an adjustable output (volume control) you could basically use it as a preamp... feed the signal to the sub for crossing-over, and then to your SET. You'd then adjust the volume using your CD player.

Another option is modifying your SET Integrated (it is homebrew after all.. right?) ... and simply adding a pair of output jacks after the volume controller and input jacks before the amplifier section. It would be an easy mod (replacing two wires) and be reversible.

Some people may recommend simply using the speaker level signal into the sub (it'll work) but you wouldn't benefit from reducing the load to you SET.

The extra work will be worth the effort.

Rob

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