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Help hooking up surround sound speakers
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I got a system fro real cheap from a astore since it didnt have a box and was missing a power cable for the sub. I cant seem to find a website for the company (dual) and am a little stuck hooking it up. here si what i have. and older but powerful reciver that only has 4 speaker hook up not surround sound. an older tv with no rca hookup. i do have a dvd and stereo vcr. i am upgrading the tv soon. the problem is hooking up the speakers. there are four satilite speakers and a center channel speaker with the normal speaker hook up. the sub i dont get. it has an rca hookup, and 8 screw terminals for wires. there are two sets of positive and neg with "from receiver" under them and two more sets next to them with "to speakers." ther eis only two speaker outputs from the sub so what goes there?
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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I'm confused. If you don't have a surround sound receiver, how do you expect to take advantage of the surround sound speakers? Did the system come with a suround souind decoder box, or was it just the speaker set?


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Steve Perkins
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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Please take a spelling and grammar class and re-post your question.

I would be happy to help you, but I cannot understand what the hell you wrote.



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Striving to have sex more than 66 times per year
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [Erik Clark] [ In reply to ]
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Im tired and i have been swimming so i type jacked up

i know i cant take advantage of the speakers all the way until i get the right reciever but i want to use what i can.

The main problem is even if i had the right receiver i dont get the back of the sub. the sub has 1 set of rca holes. it also has 8 screw type wire connections. 4 of those are positive and 4 are negitive. they are grouped into 2 sets. under the first set is written "from receiver" and under the second set is written "to speaker." what goes where?
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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That would be the power output of the front right / left speakers. There is a highpass filter that would pass the high frequency through to the speakers, and use the lows for the subs. Not my prefered way of hooking things up but it is an option. Particularly with your set up

Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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What you are missing is the line level "Main in/ Main out" on your pre/pro or receiver. You need to go speaker level that should have an in and out to the speakers (fronts). 4 Channel? That is NOT even Dolby ProLogic...I wonder what you got.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [Record10Carbon] [ In reply to ]
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the reciever is not surround sound capable. it is an older but powerful unit. i started playing with it last night. the 4 inputs powered the sub. there was a big dif when i hooked both of them up as opposed to just one. there is output on the output terminals but there is only a place to hook up two speakers. which ones are supposed togo there?

and what are the rca terminals for? thanks
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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So...you have four speaker connections on the sub or eight (Speaker level) - this is two rights, two lefts - then OUT to the speakers right and left. I would assume that you cant go line level (RCA) to the sub as the sub does not have the ability to peel off the lower Hz and provide only the highs back to the receiver to amplify.



This is what you should see if you were able to peel the bass and go back to your receiver.



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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [Record10Carbon] [ In reply to ]
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that is pretty close to what i have. There is a crossover and a gain level for the sub but hat is it. Also there is only one set of rca hookups. there speakers look like that. i am planning on getting the right reciever soon but still not sure what goes to the speaker outputs off the sub and what goes in the rca hookups. thanks
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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It is an either or...

If you use RCA, your sub will only work if you have a "low level" output on your pre/pro. I doubt you do.

So, you hook it up with speaker cable going to the sub from your pre/pro - then to your speakers (another speaker cable) from the sub.



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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [nos306stang] [ In reply to ]
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1) "The main problem is even if i had the right receiver i dont get the back of the sub. the sub has 1 set of rca holes."

As pointed out there are hi level connections ie via speaker wires and there are lo-level RCA interconnects. The fact that your sub has interconnect inputs means it is an active sub. This means that within that sub enclosure there is an amp which powers the subwoofer so you don't need the power but only the signal from the reciever.

2) "the reciever is not surround sound capable."

So you can only play left-right stereo and sub for bass support.

3) "i started playing with it last night. the 4 inputs powered the sub."

there are no 4 hi level inputs ie screw connections for speaker wires. One pair L&R are inputs and one pair L&R channels are outputs most likely. Don't short the speaker wires or that will be the end of the reciever or the sub in-built amp.

Since your reciever is made only to power speakers and has no RCA output to pass on the signal to another amp you will have to find a way to hook up the reciever via hi-out speaker wires L&R to the amp in the active sub via the ready hi-level inputs there for you. If that reciever does indeed have an RCA output it would be preferable to hook that into the active subs RCA input for a stronger signal.

4) there was a big dif when i hooked both of them up as opposed to just one. there is output on the output terminals but there is only a place to hook up two speakers. which ones are supposed togo there?and what are the rca terminals for?

No comprehendo what you're saying but I hope the above already explains it.

5) "under the first set is written "from receiver" and under the second set is written "to speaker." what goes where?"

from the reciever is the hi-level input for signal to the sub amp from the reciever. If you don't have any hi-level outputs specifically for sub (which is unlikely) from reciever the best is to bridge the speaker hi-level from the reciever to go into your sub.

ie reciever speaker output looks like this ... left channel +/-, right channel +/-. What you do is is connect a wire from the left channel + and hook it to the input of the sub + and take the right channel (-) output from the reciever to the subs (-) input. If you have an RCA out from the reciever there is no need to use the speaker outs which can then be used for direct connections to your satellite speakers L&R. If you don't then via the first method for the sub and look for another set of speaker outs from the reciever to hook up satellites. If there aren't any then hook up the satellites to the sub amp output. That's what they are there for.

6) Your active sub should have a LP ie low pass filter which filters the music out of the sub to allow it to perform properly only playing bass. This needs to be set at between 50hz to 100hz. You can play with it to get best bass response for your particular room. Also there will be a level knob to set the level of power to the sub from the in-built amp and this needs to be adjusted to blend the bass in with the music (use music with some bass for best tuning and not movies) Hotel California from the Eagles Hell Freezes Album is excellent as it distinguishes all the frequencies from bass, mid bass, mids, hi mids and hi's very clearly.

7) If you've hooked up the satellite speakers to the sub amp output, you may see that there is a HP or high pass filter which will be used to cut away low bass frequencies from the pair of speakers. Around 80hz depending on the speakers. If your speakers vibrate too much with bass response then set the HP frequency higher toward the 120hz mark. If they don't you can set as low as 60hz for better blending with the sub. If there is a level adjustment for the HP, without going into the details of tuning just set it slightly less than 1/2 turn. Too much level gain introduces 'noise' or distortion sometimes not audible but making the sound reproduction less smooth or pure. Too little and not enough power to the speakers to make them sing properly.

Since I don't have the opportunity to look at your gear first hand this is the best I can do. I hope it helps and if you need any more questions answered feel free, fire away!
Last edited by: kangaroo: Jan 5, 06 13:19
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Re: Help hooking up surround sound speakers [Record10Carbon] [ In reply to ]
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RC,

Yes the photo of the MK sound looks like the back of an active sub. Velodyne are most noted for them supa-expensive subs?
Last edited by: kangaroo: Jan 5, 06 13:34
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