# Quick question about bass override subwoofer and speakers



## jcbe (Aug 28, 2013)

Hey guys, I have set up a receiver and two old bookshelf speakers and am waiting on a subwoofer to arrive, the problem is my bookshelf speakers have a blown bass so it sounds real bad and crackly when you turn the bass up on the receiver. I was wondering when the subwoofer comes, (I am going to wire the sub to the receiver and the speakers to the sub), if I turn the bass up then will only the sub play bass or will I still hear that crackly sound from my bookshelf as well as the heavy bass from the sub? thanks!


----------



## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

We typically wire the speakers and the sub to the receiver. Then use the receivers menu to send the LFE to the sub only. These are low frequencies, but the signal above your cutoff will still go to the bookshelves (& possiblystill cause some rattle). Some recievers have an adjustable crossover, you can play with it to see what sounds best.


----------



## jcbe (Aug 28, 2013)

i do not think my reciever has that capability, it is a technics SA-250 (super old) and why do you reccomend everything hooked up to the receiver?


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

What subwoofer did you order?


----------



## PlanoDano (Aug 30, 2013)

I would guess you are still going to hear the crackling noise. Could be wrong but if speakers are really old and electrolytic capacitors were used in crossover, electrolytic caps will lose capacitance over time. If this is it, it is pretty inexpensive to remedy but I bet you do not find any marking on the installed caps to know which values to replace with.


----------



## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

jcbe said:


> i do not think my reciever has that capability, it is a technics SA-250 (super old) and why do you reccomend everything hooked up to the receiver?


I'm pretty sure he was assuming you had a recent digital multi-channel surround-sound receiver with separate speaker and subwoofer outputs. Since your Technics receiver only supports analog stereo, the suggestions don't apply. 

At any rate, knowing exactly what model of subwoofer you're getting would help people to provide appropriate help. Different subs provide different features. Some, as you surmised, include their own crossover networks so you could divert the low frequencies from your main sepakers to the sub and thus put less stress on their woofers. Others include only a low-pass filter, which is intended to be used to match the sub's upper frequency limit to the main speakers' natural low frequency limit. The latter design wouldn't help with your woofer problem.


----------



## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

Yep, that sums it up.


----------

