Subwoofer cable

Factual Questions
1

In a 5.1 digital setup do I need to use one of those expensive subwoofer cables or can I just use regular speaker wire? My sub has the terminals, but the manual says they are only for prologic setups. It be a lot easier and cheaper that way, but I don’t want to sacrifice quality if it makes a big difference.

2

If your surround sound receiver has an output for a passive subwoofer, and your subwoofer has the requisite inputs, then you can use regular speaker wire to make the connection. The connection for a powered sub require a shielded audio cable, but do to the nature of subwoofers in general, you’re probably not going to notice much of a difference between the two, except perhaps in terms of volume, if one is significantly more powerful than the other. Which one actually sounds “better” depends on a rather large number of factors.

3

If you’re using a powered subwoofer and your receiver has a dedicated sub output rca jack, then this is the way to go.
Your receiver has better control then of sending just the .1 channel to the subwoofer. (the .1 in a 5.1 system being the sub).
And no, you don’t have to but an expensive cable. A single rca line will work just fine.

4

Thanks fellas. You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find 35’ of white mono RCA audio cable would you?

5

A couple of ideas you may consider. If you’re handy with a soldering iron buy a 35’ length of shielded cable and solder RCA jacks on the ends. The other possibility, if you can’t find a 35’ cable is to buy 3 12’ RCA cables, which you can pick up at any Radio Shack or lots of other places, and get a couple of inline “barrel” (RCA F-F) couplers.

6

Try here: http://www.partsexpress.com Chances are, you’ll STILL get your item WITH shipping to your place cheaper than going to RadioShack. (They will rip you off)

7

I think what you need to look for is a cheap subwoofer cable. I would avoid name brands like AR and Monster, as they’re much more expensive than equally-well-made stuff from less-well-known brands.

tubbytreats’ suggestion of partsexpress.com is one I would also have made a few years ago. They used to have great prices on their very well-made “Dayton Audio” brand cables, but it seems to me that their prices have jumped with the popularity of home theater. Radio Shack may even be cheaper now. Still, it’s easy to take a look.

You might check around on E-bay. There always seem to be a few vendors selling accessories like these relatively cheap.

This is the sort of item that really shouldn’t cost more that US$10 or $15, but is, for some reason, easier to find at $50.

8

I’ll second the recommendation for a inexpensive cable. I’ve got a powered subwoofer and I bought the non-monster cable and it sounds just fine.

Do get shielded cable and I like gold connectors but that’s a personal thing.

I got mine at Best Buy.

9

Lagged2Death,

I don’t think you even looked around on PartsExpress.com for these cables before writing your post.

You can get an excellent 12’ Dayton Audio RCA sub cable for $11.99 and a 25’ Dayton Audio RCA sub cable for $14.40. Here is the link: http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?webpage_id=3&SO=2&&DID=7&CATID=55&ObjectGroup_ID=148&sm=0&so=0

I know you specified a longer length of 35’ or something in your post, cainxith.

You will want to probably make your own cable at that point. I would suggest getting a 50’ spool of RCA white cable and getting (2) RCA ends that can crimp easily onto the wire you buy. It will be hard for you to go to either RadioShack or any other online store and find something 35’ in length. Most likely you will have to make your own wire for this kind of application.

10

Here is some good white speaker wiring (can be used for subwoofer, no prob) that you would just have to add (2) RCA ends onto. Should work just fine!

http://www.aboveroute.com/cgi-bin/s/s1_jump_to.pl?m_id=13&to_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hifi.com%2Fstore%2Fcategory.cgi%3Fitem%3Da11850wh

11

Well, sure I looked.

And when I bought cables from PartsExpress several years ago, they were a lot cheaper, if I’m remembering correctly.

12

No offense, I just found it funny that you said prices for those cables should be between $10-15 US and that you found Dayton Audio to be expensive cables compared to prices a few years ago.

Then I go to the website and type in “Dayton Audio RCA” and find (2) cables that are BOTH in the $10-15 dollar range. I just thought that to be odd, that’s all.

13

None taken. I could have been clearer. It looks like they don’t have 30+ feet of interconnect for less than $30, that’s what I was getting at.