# Passive subwoofer into front satellite outputs



## O.G. loko (Mar 24, 2013)

I have a Pioneer vsx-305 hooked up to an old pair of cambridge soundworks ensemble ii's that the subwoofer is broken, my friend gave me a passive subwoofer that has only one driver and uses speaker wire terminals instead of an rca jack. In theory it should be possible to plug the one driver into the second set of front left and right satellites by hooking them in parallel, and the receiver puts out 60 watts per channel at max and the sub can handle 160 watts at max, but it seem a 50/50 chance that it will either work or fry the main power supply, are there any other factors that could effect if it works or not? (keep in mind i'm a little low on money right now)


----------



## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Welcome!

First, just to make sure, you need to find out what the ohms are on the passive subwoofer, it has to be a load your receiver can handle. 

Assuming the load is correct, it will work IF the sub has 4 speaker wire terminals, a L + R input and a L + R output. The L + R speaker outputs on the receiver go to the L + R input on the subwoofer, L + R output on the subwoofer goes to a set of speakers that you have.


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

First, welcome and thanks for joining us! Please visit us often.

The satellites likely have already passed thru a crossover network to roll off the bass to send it to the sub. If so, you won't get much output from the sub by hooking it to the satellite outputs.

I think what you need is another powered sub. Check around and you can find some really good buys that won't break your wallet.


----------

