# Onkyo HT-R380 receiver w/two subwoofers



## Yardley (Mar 8, 2014)

Hi all, I was wondering if I'd be able to hook up two subs to my Onkyo HT-R380 receiver? I have two speakers connected to the "front speakers B" outputs in a separate floor in the house in serious need of some bass  Below is a picture of the back of the receiver.


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

As you already have two sets of speakers connected to the front speaker outputs it is going to be really hard on the amps. Connecting another sub to the receivers powered sub out will not be a good idea. Your already going to have issues with how it's hooked up now.


----------



## Yardley (Mar 8, 2014)

tonyvdb said:


> As you already have two sets of speakers connected to the front speaker outputs it is going to be really hard on the amps. Connecting another sub to the receivers powered sub out will not be a good idea. Your already going to have issues with how it's hooked up now.


Sorry, I guess the way I worded that is confusing. I don't have two sets of speakers connected to the front speaker outputs. Well I guess I do but I have the speakers that came with the receiver connected and an additional two speakers connected to the speakers B outputs. Why would I have trouble with this setup? Isn't that what the speaker B outputs are for? I've been using this setup for a while with no issues.


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yardley said:


> Sorry, I guess the way I worded that is confusing. I don't have two sets of speakers connected to the front speaker outputs. Well I guess I do but I have the speakers that came with the receiver connected and an additional two speakers connected to the speakers B outputs. Why would I have trouble with this setup? Isn't that what the speaker B outputs are for? I've been using this setup for a while with no issues.


The "B speaker outputs" essentially drops the output of the main two channels by half for each set so you will then only have half the available power for each speaker. I'm surprised you are not running into distortion issues but if it sounds good that's all the matters.
Like I said adding a second sub to the powered sup out on the receiver will drop the Ohms down way to low and essentially a short and will damage it.


----------



## Yardley (Mar 8, 2014)

tonyvdb said:


> The "B speaker outputs" essentially drops the output of the main two channels by half for each set so you will then only have half the available power for each speaker. I'm surprised you are not running into distortion issues but if it sounds good that's all the matters.
> Like I said adding a second sub to the powered sup out on the receiver will drop the Ohms down way to low and essentially a short and will damage it.


Hmm, well when I enable both A and B speakers the center speaker and surround spears are automatically disabled so I guess that compensates for the power used by the additional B speakers.


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yardley said:


> Hmm, well when I enable both A and B speakers the center speaker and surround spears are automatically disabled so I guess that compensates for the power used by the additional B speakers.


Yes, that's very likely. The receiver you have is very low end and I would not expect it to Handel much so go easy on it and it will do just fine.


----------



## eyespy39 (Aug 23, 2013)

Yardley said:


> Hmm, well when I enable both A and B speakers the center speaker and surround spears are automatically disabled so I guess that compensates for the power used by the additional B speakers.


Many active subwoofers offer high level input and output. You might run your front speaker lines from your AVR into the high level input posts of such a SW and then connect the speakers to its high level output posts.
The SW filters out the low frequencies, augments them and plays them, leaving the mids and highs to the connected speakers.


----------



## Yardley (Mar 8, 2014)

eyespy39 said:


> Many active subwoofers offer high level input and output. You might run your front speaker lines from your AVR into the high level input posts of such a SW and then connect the speakers to its high level output posts.
> The SW filters out the low frequencies, augments them and plays them, leaving the mids and highs to the connected speakers.


That sounds like a good option for me. So I would go from my AVR front speaker B L/R out into the sub and then connect the speakers directly to the sub?


----------



## Yardley (Mar 8, 2014)

I found a powered sub on craigslist the back has speaker level input/output, is that the same as high level?


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yardley said:


> I found a powered sub on craigslist the back has speaker level input/output, is that the same as high level?


Yes, that will do the job


----------



## eyespy39 (Aug 23, 2013)

Yardley said:


> That sounds like a good option for me. So I would go from my AVR front speaker B L/R out into the sub and then connect the speakers directly to the sub?


Yes, you got it. Good luck!


----------

